3dsmax how to select only visible faces

[thomes]

hello,
anyone knows how to select only the faces that i see in default shading mode, no faces in the background.
if i check the "ignore backfacing" also faces in the background (that are not seen) are selected !

i?m lost, no idea.... read that there is such a feature in cinema4d

thanks for help

thomes

[Franx]

Perspective select, perhaps?

[arobbert]

Add mesh modifier, check ignore back facing, select faces, invert selection.

[thomes]

that does not work. i get also faces selected that are not seen.

please have a look at the pictures. one is unselected, one selected with checked "ignore" and the third (in the middle) is rotated to the backside where you can see the problem

[samuel_bubat]

You're confusing "back facing" with "background". Ignore backfacing does not mean it won't select faces that are not seen. It ignores faces with face normals that are pointing away from you no matter if they are visible or not. That is exactly what you show in your screenshots. I'm not aware of any possibility in max to select only faces that are seen.

But to make selection a bit easier. How do you import your file ? I guess it' s a STEP or IGES file. With newer Max version when you import the file and Convert to mesh is on it will import the file and weld all the elements. There is no option to turn this off. this means you can no longer select surfaces by element. This can be quite a pain if you need to assign different material IDs to parts of the model as you have to select all faces somehow by hand. When you import with convert to mesh off it will not weld and you can select individual surfaces by element. After import you'll get a body object wich you can safely convert to an editable mesh. Not editable poly. This will mess up your normals. Now when having an editable mesh you can select by element wich makes selection a lot easier.

[thomes]

everything right,
but i want to have a possibility to delete faces that are not seen from special "outside" positions. i can?t do this by hand because these quite many objects have too much of them.it is also not possible with elements.
so i read that cinema4d can do this. select ONLY the visible faces...
that is the question, how i can do this in 3dsmax.
script?-plugin?

thanks for help

a friend checked the feature "select only visible elements" in cinema4d and it works.
he made 2 screenshots. dont mind the blue unselected faces on the left side, cause there was a little movement for the screenshot, but it was ok. in the right picture it looks quite as i want it.