Shading Mode:

The most commonly used display tools in Houdini are Toggle Wireframe/Shaded and Toggle Shaded/Wire-over-shaded. They are assigned to the W and Shift+W Houdini hotkeys, respectively. By default, these keys are disabled in Modeler so that when pressed, the Houdini keys work.

Displaying objects and template nodes:

• LockObj is a tool for locking shading mode (Wire, Smooth, etc) at the object level. In Houdini, shading mode can be changed for the geometry and object levels separately. Tools such as Wire (W) change both object modes at the same time. When you press W if the LockObj is active, then the object mode does not change, but remains the same as it was before the function was applied. LockObj button in Launcher also works as an indicator that shows whether the mode is enabled or not.
• XRayDsp is a switcher that activates the X-Ray mode for display node of the geometry containers
• HideTmp temporarily disables the display of template nodes
• GhostTmp activates semi-transparent mode for template nodes. This is convenient, for example, when working in the Topo mode, in which the high-poly model has the template flag turned on.
• ShadeTmp allows you to select shading mode of template nodes. The tool show dialog window where you can select one of three modes: Wire, SmoothWire, Smooth.

Hide, Ghost, ShowAll:

• Hide is a reference to Houdini's function Hide Other Objects, which hides everything except the current geometry container
• Ghost is a reference to Houdini's function Ghost Other Objects, which makes the display of objects in the scene other than the current one semi-transparent
• ShowAll is a reference to Houdini's function Show All Objects, which shows all objects in the scene the same way

Other Display Tools:

• The Options tool is a simple link for displaying the Display Options dialog window, in which you can fine-tune the shading modes and other parameters of Houdini's viewports
• The IsolateObj tool hides all objects by turning off their display flags. Unlike the Hide tool, this tool does not hide a special Backdrop object.
• Isolate works at the geometry level and is designed to hide all geometry except for selected faces. This is useful for hiding unnecessary parts that might get in the way. After finishing work on the desired piece, in order to show entire object’s geometry, you need to call this tool for an empty selection.