The view volume (sometimes called the display volume) is the volume of the design cube that is displayed in a 3D view. In most cases, only a part of the design cube is displayed in a view.

Any elements, or parts of elements, not contained in the view volume are not displayed in the view. Unless a clip volume has been applied to a view, the view volume is bounded by the window area, and its Display Depth.

You can set the clipping volume of a 3D view such that only the region of interest is displayed and you can snap to only those elements that are located within the defined clip volume of the view. Similarly, you can apply a clip mask to a view, where only those elements located outside the clip mask are displayed. When a clip mask is used inside a clip volume, the only elements that will display in the view are those that are located within the clip volume, and outside the clip mask. Additionally, if you use the Fit View tool, only those elements within the clip volume are considered. This simplifies working on discrete portions of large and/or complicated 3D objects.

At any time, in a view, you can toggle on/off the view display restrictions of the front and/or back clipping planes. Similarly, you can toggle the clip volume, if one has been applied. Three settings in the View Attributes dialog let you do this:

• Clip Back — if on, a back clipping plane is active in a view.
• Clip Front — if on, a front clipping plane is active in a view.
• Clip Volume — if on, and a clip volume has been applied to the view, the view volume is restricted to the defined clip volume.