Like a background image, but an object

I was wondering if it were possible to create an object that is always viewed as a solid in the 3D view, regardless of what viewing mode the rest of the model is in. I want to use this in a similar way that I’d use a background image (I’d put it in the scene underneath the objects I’m editing, disable selection, and put it in its own layer so I can easily turn it on and off), but there’s a couple reasons I’d prefer an object.

  1. Sometimes I’d want to see it from oblique viewpoints
  2. I’d want to edit the background map periodically
  3. The last time I used a background image it made Blender into a slow unresponsive mess, though in fairness that was a long time ago, on Linux, with an NVidia card during a period when their Linux drivers were not so good

Here’s my use case: I am working on a large landscape with different “countries”, and I want to know what country I’m in. I created a “map” object, with different material representing different countries, in a layer that I can turn on and off, but I can’t see what country I’m in (or even the borders) when I’m in wireframe mode. And when I’m in solid mode I can’t see the map because the landscape covers it. So I have to flip the map on and off, which is kind of a pain. Also, the borders are flexible at this point, so I’d want to edit the borders as I add rivers and stuff. My scripts use the map to divvy up the large scene into smaller regions, so the borders have to be accurate.

Anyway, thanks for any help.

@aerojockey: In the properties in the object tab, there’s an option called “maximum draw type”. There, set your landscape to “wireframe” but use the the textured display method for the whole view.

add an empty and add image to it

happy bl