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Suppress and Unsuppress Objects

Suppression lets you temporarily exclude a preserve, obstacle, or preserve pair from the solver without deleting it. Suppressed objects stay in the scene tree and retain all their settings, but the solver skips them entirely.

Which objects support suppression​

Suppression is available for:

  • Preserves -- all preserve types (input preserves, output preserves, fixed preserves, I/O preserves, and all subtypes)
  • Obstacles -- keep-out zone objects
  • Preserve pairs -- input/output pair linkages

Parts and paths on their own do not support suppression. To suppress a part, suppress its parent preserve or obstacle.

How to suppress an object​

You can suppress objects in two ways:

  1. Keyboard shortcut -- Select one or more objects in the sidebar tree or viewport, then press S. This toggles suppression on all suppressible objects in the selection. (Make sure not to press Cmd/Ctrl + S, which triggers browser save instead.)

  2. Context menu -- Right-click an object in the sidebar tree and select Suppress (or Unsuppress if already suppressed). When multiple objects are selected, the menu shows "Suppress N Objects" or "Unsuppress N Objects".

Both methods are undoable with Cmd/Ctrl + Z.

What suppression does​

When you suppress an object:

  • The object is marked as suppressed.
  • The object and all its children (linked parts, paths, and child objects) are hidden from the viewport.
  • The solver ignores the object during analysis. The run validation logic checks for unsuppressed objects when determining whether all required preserves are present.

When you unsuppress an object:

  • The suppressed state is cleared.
  • The object and its children become visible again.

Suppression warning banner​

When you select a suppressed object and view it in the Properties panel, a yellow warning banner appears at the top of the panel. The banner reads:

This preserve is suppressed and will be excluded from solver runs.

The label adjusts based on the object type -- it reads "obstacle" for obstacles, "pair" for preserve pairs, and "preserve" for all preserve types.

Suppression and solver validation​

The solver run validation explicitly filters out suppressed objects. For example, when checking whether a compliant analysis has the required input and output preserves, only unsuppressed preserves with valid geometry are counted. If all preserves of a required type are suppressed, the validation will report them as missing.

This means you can suppress individual preserves to test how the solver behaves with a reduced set of constraints, without permanently modifying the scene.

Common uses​

  • A/B testing constraints -- Suppress one output preserve to see how the solver optimizes with only the remaining outputs, then unsuppress it and suppress a different one.
  • Iterating on obstacle placement -- Suppress an obstacle to check whether it was over-constraining the design, without losing its position and geometry.
  • Simplifying complex scenes -- Temporarily suppress secondary preserves to speed up solver runs during early exploration.