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If your mesh is large and complex, you might want to work on it a bit at a time. One way to do this is by hiding everything except the bit you're interested in. The draw back to this method is that any further hiding and then unhiding of faces will bring back the entire mesh and not just the small bit you're interested in.

The answer is to hide everything except the interesting bit, then save this section into its own PLY file, then load just that PLY file. You then have all the freedom you want to hide and unhide while creating slices or networks for that section of the whole mesh. To continue working on the rest of the complex mesh, just reload the original complete PLY file.

To save all visible faces to their own PLY file, hit the Vis button. You can then load that mesh from the Mesh selection window.

Or you could use the <g> key to box or paint select areas of the large polymesh, then save just those with the Sel button.

And to save the entire polymesh, something you would do after reducing or multiplying faces, click on the All button.

Any existing slices or networks are not saved with the PLY file. If you want to keep them, then save the slices and networks into a SLICE file before loading a new mesh; see the Saving Slices and Networks: Save and Load chapters for details.

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