Logos, Labels & Cut-out Transparency

A logo, label or sticker is usually an image with transparent areas (a PNG) on its own flat part, placed just in front of the surface. When something else is visible behind it — an image the shopper uploaded, a pattern, another see-through layer — give the logo a Cut-out material. Its clear pixels are removed completely, so everything behind them stays visible.

Why not Transparent? A Transparent material shows what is behind its clear pixels, but it still covers its whole part for anything drawn after it. Uploaded images are drawn after the other layers, so a Transparent logo plane hides the shopper's image inside its outline: you see the surface underneath instead, in the shape of the logo's rectangle. A Cut-out logo never does.

The Three Transparency Modes

Mode	What is drawn	Edges	Use it for
Opaque	The whole part, solid. The image's transparent areas are ignored.	—	Almost every material: wood, metal, fabric, plastic.
Transparent	The whole part, see-through by its opacity and the image's transparency. It still hides layers drawn after it.	Soft	Glass, acrylic, tinted shells — one see-through layer.
Cut-out	Only the pixels that are opaque enough. The rest is removed and hides nothing.	Crisp	Logos, labels, stickers, lettering and decals on PNGs — especially over another layer.

Set Up a Logo

1In your 3D tool, give the logo its own flat part (a plane) sitting just in front of the surface it belongs to, with the PNG mapped across it. Keep it a separate part from the faceplate and from any part a shopper uploads an image onto.
2Upload the PNG in Dashboard > Assets > Textures.
3In Dashboard > Materials, create a material named, for example, "Logo (gold)" and choose the PNG as its Base Color texture.
4Open the Advanced tab and set Transparency Mode to Cut-out. Leave Cut-out Threshold at 50%. The preview sphere shows the clear areas cut away.
5Save, then apply it to the logo part: with a Fixed Material block for a logo that is always there, or as an option of a Select Material or Dropdown block when the logo is a choice.
6Open Preview, upload an image on the part behind the logo and check that the image shows all around the logo.

Cut-out Threshold

Pixels less opaque than the threshold are cut away; the rest are drawn solid. 50% suits most images. Raise it if a faint outline or halo remains around the logo; lower it if thin strokes or fine lettering disappear. The Opacity slider still applies: below 100% the remaining pixels are drawn slightly see-through.

Crisp edges: a cut-out has no soft edge, so a glow or a soft drop shadow in the PNG is either kept as solid or removed. Use a high-resolution image with clean edges for the best result.

Already using the material in an option? Options and Fixed Material entries keep their own copy of a material. After you switch a material they use to Cut-out, open the option in the editor and expand its Appearance section — the copy is refreshed and saved — or apply the material to the Fixed Material entry again. If the logo still does not change, check that the option still targets a 3D object in the project: after you replace a model, select the target object again.

Let Shoppers Remove the Logo

For a "No logo" option, hide the logo part instead of painting it with an invisible material: in the option's Visibility settings, hide the logo part. A Transparent material at 0% opacity is invisible but still hides the layers behind it — the same rectangle problem with nothing visible in front.

If you prefer to use a material for "No logo", make it a Cut-out with its opacity below the threshold: the part then disappears completely and hides nothing.

Materials From Your 3D File

A part that no option and no Fixed Material changes keeps the material from your GLB. Its transparency setting is used as exported: Blender's Alpha Clip works like Cut-out, Alpha Blend like Transparent. Applying a Simplio3D material replaces the part's material completely — its transparency then comes from the Simplio3D material, so set Cut-out there.

Where It Works

The editor, Preview, your published Share view and embeds.
AR: at 100% opacity the exported model keeps the cut-out for AR Quick Look and Scene Viewer.
The Simplio3D app for Shopify's storefront blocks and the WordPress plugin (version 2.2.1 and later). Older WordPress plugin versions show the material as Transparent.
The AI Assistant and AI connections can create or change a cut-out for you — for example "make the Logo material a cut-out".

A gemstone or glass material (light transmission on) cannot be a cut-out. Choosing Cut-out in the Material Editor turns light transmission off.

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