Select, hide, and transform one part of an imported USD object
Double-click a part inside an imported USD object to select it, then hide, move, rotate, or resize it
Feature · Web · Released 2026-10-12An imported USD object is often made of many parts, such as a character, a prop it holds, or one mesh of a vehicle. You can select one part and hide, move, rotate, or resize it without changing the rest of the object.You can also select several parts and change them together. See select and change several parts at once.
Click the object in the 3D canvas. A hint at the bottom of the canvas shows the object’s name and reads Double-click a part to select it.
Move the pointer over the object. The part under the pointer fills light orange shortly after the pointer stops.
Double-click the part. The part fills orange, and a path appears at the bottom of the canvas, such as dinofight ▸ root ▸ Game_engine. The path shows the object first and the part you selected last. In this example the object is dinofight and the part is the knight, which the file names Game_engine.
To reach a smaller piece, double-click again on the selected part. This selects the exact mesh under the pointer, such as the knight’s sword.
Before the double-click, the part under the pointer is filled light orange (marked 1):After the double-click, the part fills orange. The path at the bottom of the canvas has an eye that hides the part, and two key hints: Shift-click add part, and Esc deselect. In the Outliner, the part gets a row under Parts.
The selected part, filled orange.
The path to the part, with the eye that hides it and the two key hints.
Find a part, the one button on the Parts row.
The selected part’s row under Parts.
The first double-click on a rigged character selects the whole character, not one piece of it.
In the Outliner, each imported object has a Parts row. The number on the row is how many parts the object contains. The row starts with nothing under it. A part gets its own row there once you select it.The Parts row has one button, Find a part (the magnifier). It opens a search box that lists every part in the object. Type to filter the list, then click a result to select that part.
The search box. Its placeholder shows how many parts the object contains.
The parts in the object. A part marked moves has its own movement in the file.
The rows under Parts show what you changed:
A dim row with a crossed-out eye is a part that is hidden in the active setup.
A row marked moved is a part that is moved, rotated, or resized in the active setup.
Click the eye beside the path at the bottom of the canvas. Its tooltip is Hide this mesh.
The part disappears from the canvas, and its row under Parts turns dim. To show it again, click the same eye, which now reads Show this mesh, or press Ctrl+Z.The part’s row under Parts has an eye too. It does the same thing, and it is the way to show a hidden part that you can no longer click in the canvas.
The eye beside the path, now crossed out. Click it to show the part again.
You can move, rotate, and resize a part with the same transform gizmo you use for a whole object.
Select the part.
Choose Move, Rotate, or Scale with the buttons at the upper right of the 3D canvas. See arranging objects for the shortcuts.
Drag the gizmo.
The gizmo is the only way to transform a part. While a part is selected, the properties panel still shows the Position, Rotation, and Scale of the whole object, not of the part.Only that part changes. A message names the part and says it moved, and its row under Parts shows moved. The message and the row say moved for a rotation or a resize too. To put the part back, click Reset transform on its row.
The part in its new place, with the gizmo on it. The rest of the object has not moved.
The part’s row, marked moved.
One mesh of a rigged character cannot be transformed by itself, because a skeleton drives its shape. The gizmo does not appear. The path at the bottom of the canvas reads Follows a skeleton — can’t be moved, with a Select button that names the nearest level you can transform, such as Select Game_engine. Click that button, then transform that level.
To undo every change to a part at once, click the red trash button on its row under Parts. The button shows when the part is selected and the pointer is on its row. A window named Remove Overrides asks you to confirm. Click Remove.The part stays in the object. It returns to the position and visibility it has in the file, and its row leaves the Parts list. Press Ctrl+Z to bring the changes back.
Remove Overrides clears the part’s changes in every setup, not only in the active one. To change one setup only, use the eye or Reset transform in that setup.
Hiding or transforming a part applies to the active setup. A part hidden in Setup A is still visible in Base Setup. See setups and cameras for how the active setup works.A change you make in Base Setup also shows in the other setups, as long as a setup has no change of its own for that part. A part moved in Base Setup is marked moved in Setup A too.Clone this setup copies part changes. A part that is hidden in the setup you clone is also hidden in the new setup.Part changes are saved with the scene. Your teammates see them, and so does the Spark iOS app, within a few seconds. This is different from hiding a whole object with the eye on its Outliner row, which is saved only in your web browser. See hiding an object in one setup.Download USDZ keeps a move you made to a part that has its own movement in the file. The part keeps its animation and plays it from the new place.
A camera can follow one moving part instead of the whole object. You set this in the camera’s Parent list, where each object’s moving parts are listed under it. See parent a camera to one part of an object.
Parts of an imported object that you hide or move in the Spark web app look the same in the app. Each setup shows its own part changes, so switching setups in the Setups panel switches them too. A change made on the web reaches a scene that is open in the app within a few seconds.
