Hiding a part of an object in the Object Mode

Question

How can I hide parts of an object in the Object Mode? I need to model different parts (each part has to be a single object) in a big box surrounding them (external object). My task is to model a room and the things contained in it; therefore I need the positions of the different objects in reference to the room's walls and ceiling...

To clarify: this is the room from outside (a simple box)

whereas this is the same room from inside

I want to add some features to the room in the inner part but do not know how to hide just some parts (walls and ceiling) of the first object modeled.

E.g. If I want to add the stairs going from the ground floor to the first floor (visible in the 2nd picture) I need to hide walls and ceiling to be able to use right/left/top view. Though being these modeled as part of a single object, making invisible the whole object would hide also the ground and first floor which I definitely need...

Answer 1

you can use the mask modifier for this task :

• create a vertex group of the vertices that you want to hide
• add a mask modifier and assign the vertex group
• you can click beside the vertex group to switch the effect
• the mask will also has effect in the render you have to uncheck 'show in render'

Answer 2

Changing the box to wireframe will work for you best:

You can also quickly toggle the whole scene to wireframe and back with Z

You can also make your objects semi-transparent:

But note that blender doesn't do alpha depth sorting for the viewport like maya does so you might get unusable result.

Answer 3

In your case, just flip faces inside and toggle backface culling. This scene eventually needs walls facing inside not outside.