This tool allows you to modify two face settings which are the Actual orientation of the design and the Viewed orientation of the design. It also offers you options for how to mirror the design based on the Actual Face and/or Visible Face combination you select should this be needed.
All designs, regardless of material, have two sides. The operator has the choice to change the terminology of the face settings to whichever they are most comfortable with. The choices for this are Outside-face/Inside-face or Print-face/Die-face. These face settings give you multiple ways of looking at both the Actual and Visible face.
The Actual Face
The Actual Face essentially represents the orientation from which a design was drawn. Another way to think of this is the physical position a piece of material is laying on a virtual table in front of you. For example, if the actual face is set to “Inside-face” then the material is placed so the inside of the material is facing up from that virtual table. By changing this Actual View to the "Outside-face", the operator is virtually picking up that material and flipping it on this virtual table so now the Outside of the material is facing up. Typically, the actual face
The Visible (or Viewed) Face
The Visible Face is independent from the actual face since this is the side that you’re currently looking at. Continuing the analogy from above, think of the Impact interface as having two cameras, one facing down from the top of the piece of material and the other below it looking up. By changing the Visible (or Viewed) Face you are basically switching between those two cameras. The material stays physically set in the same place but the designer can choose to activate and switch between viewing the material from either the top (inside) or bottom (outside) camera thus changing which side is being viewed at that moment, as illustrated below.
The tool displays the Orientation Settings form, which allows you to preview the effects of the changes on the current layer.
TIP: You can also change the actual orientation in the Design Options form (via the Options - Project tool) and change the viewed orientation in the Visibility form (via the View - Visibility tool)
NOTE: Changing either setting may affect how the drawing geometry is nudged, printed, plotted and exported, depending on your settings.