Step-By-Step: Disabling Stray Clipping Borders Blocking Your View In Blender

Understanding Clipping Planes in Blender

Clipping planes are objects in Blender that allow users to hide or reveal parts of a scene. They consist of an invisible plane that clips and cuts off anything behind it. This allows artists to get clean views of their models without unnecessary background clutter.

While useful, clipping planes can sometimes be enabled accidentally. This causes strange clipping borders to appear in the viewport, blocking parts of your models. Fortunately disabling stray clipping planes is easy.

Identifying Stray Clipping Planes

Visible clipping happens when a clipping object crosses in front of your view. This creates an odd straight line cutting across your visible geometry:

Table of Contents

Strange straight borders appearing in the viewport
Parts of your model being cut off
Areas blocked despite nothing appearing to be there

Move your camera around and look for flat transparent planes hovering in space. If the border moves with your view, it’s likely a clipping plane.

Disabling a Single Stray Clipping Plane

To disable a stray plane visible in your view:

Select the clipping plane object. It appears as a flat, transparent square.
In the Object Properties panel, uncheck the “Clip” checkbox.

This will disable clipping and restore full visibility of your scene. Repeat for any other stray planes.

Select the clipping plane object

Use your mouse to select the plane causing clipping issues. With default settings:

Right click on the plane to select it.
Or click on it in the Outliner panel.

The plane will become highlighted when selected. If you have trouble finding it, look for a faint wireframe square floating in 3D space.

Uncheck the “Clip” property

In the Object Properties panel:

Make sure your clipping plane is the active selected object.
Go down to the Viewport Display section.
Uncheck the box next to “Clip”.

This will disable the clipping behavior for that plane. Your scene should now render fully without clipping borders.

Disabling All Stray Clipping Planes

To quickly disable clipping on multiple stray planes at once:

Open the Outliner panel (top right by default).
Search for “Clip”.
Uncheck “Clip” for all unwanted clipping objects.

Open the Outliner

The Outliner panel lists all objects in your scene. To open it:

Go to the top right of Blender’s interface.
Click on the small “Up Arrow and Dot” icon.

This will open the Outliner panel. All objects in your scene will be listed here.

Search for “Clip”

With the Outliner open:

Click the magnifying glass icon to search.
Type in “Clip” and press Enter.

This will isolate all objects with clipping enabled. The list will include relevant clipping planes.

Uncheck “Clip” properties

Hover over each clipping plane and:

Click the box icon next to “Clip” to uncheck it.
Disable clipping on all unwanted planes.

This method lets you quickly find and disable all stray clipping objects at once. Use it to restore full visibility if needed.

Preventing Accidental Clipping Planes

It’s easy to enable clipping without realizing. Here are tips to avoid accidentally adding stray clipping planes:

Using clipping toggles carefully

Check your view after exiting Local View mode (/ key).
Review scene after turning layers on or off.
Confirm no clipping after exiting camera views.

Viewport clipping states do not always reset automatically. Review your view after toggles to prevent accidental planes.

Deleting unused planes

Remove old clipping helpers when done.
Search Outliner for “clip” to find planes.
Regularly clear unused objects to prevent issues.

Quickly deleting old clipping geometry makes it easier to spot stray planes causing problems.

Example Code for Disabling a Plane

Clipping planes can also be controlled via Python scripting. For example, to disable the clipping object named “Plane”:


import bpy

bpy.data.objects['Plane'].hide_render = True

This sets the plane’s hide_render property to True, disabling rendering of that object. The plane’s clipping behavior will now be disabled.

Conclusion

Accidental clipping planes can create frustrating viewport issues when modeling in Blender. Luckily, it’s straightforward to select and disable them. Simply uncheck “Clip” on problem planes.

For multiple stray planes, use the Outliner to swiftly find and toggle them off. Keep your scene organized, check clipping after view changes, and delete old planes to avoid issues.

With these simple methods, you can easily control clipping planes and prevent strange borders blocking your view in Blender.