topic Re: Selecting thru a Fill in Project data & BIM

Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2023 11:14:53 GMT

Question from a lamenting individual...
Loved Archicad 6.5 - can't seem to get use to 9.0...

So hear's the question. In 6.5 one use to be able to select lines by swiping thru a fill with the selection arrow. Now in 9.0 it doesn't allow one to select the line without also selecting the fill by swiping, and 9 times out of 10 - point selecting will select the fills first. Is there a preference for restoring the selecting method of 6.5 for the swipe or do I have to manage everything with layers?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 02:13:53 GMT

Not sure what you mean by 'swiping' but there are a number of ways you can select things that hopefully might answer your question.

If you have a line and I assume a fill with its boundary along line also.

1. With the selection arrow ON, keep clicking on the line until it is selected, it will cycle through every element that shares that point.

2. Select the line tool and shift click on the line. Lines will be selected in preference to every other element sharing the point.

3. Select the fill and draw a selection rectangle over the line. Fill will be deselected, line will be selected. This is more useful when you have to select a lot of elements except one.

Hope that helps.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 02:21:50 GMT

also, check the options on the tool pallette for the arrow tool. see the little magnet? turn that off, and the arrow functions like it always has (that i can remember) - turn it on and you can pick any object with a fill just by clicking inside it. makes it easy to grab text!

hth
wes

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

__archiben — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 06:09:15 GMT

Weston wrote:
also, check the options on the tool pallette for the arrow tool. see the little magnet? turn that off, and the arrow functions like it always has (that i can remember) - turn it on and you can pick any object with a fill just by clicking inside it. makes it easy to grab text!

the little 'magnet' is the quick-select toggle - and it's worth reading the various new selection methods in the manual if you are making the big jump from 6.5 to 9.

rather than simply turn the toggle 'off' as weston suggests, i would get used to leaving it on - (far better for general selection) - and get into the habit of holding down the spacebar whilst you do your shift-click-swiping holding down the spacebar temporarily disables quickselect (and with it being able to click anywhere within an element to grab it - such as a fill) and returns you to the arrow tool you know and love.

there are a few more improvements and new techniques to selection methods, so the manual is still well worth a read for new and experienced users alike . . .

HTH
~/archiben

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 10:45:01 GMT

I think what Pdeppe is saying is that when he tries to select a line using a box or rectangle with the arrow tool the fill is selected also.

This did not happen in 6.5. In 6.5 when you clicked directly on a line (or wall) with a fill bounding it you had to go through the cycle of clicking to select either the line or the fill, but if you selected the line by drawing a box with the arrow tool, you were certain of only selecting the line and not the fill.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 12:12:30 GMT

Check the selection methods in the info box. You can either select with the entire line enclosed by the selection box or select the line if only one node is within the bounding box.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:03:11 GMT

Thanks everyone for the responses - However, it is Simy who understood my bad explanation and unfortunately, there isn't the solution to the question.

What I mean by swipe is using the arrow selection tool and drawing a selection box around a region to select multiple lines.

As Simy indicated, when there is a fill next to the line, in 6.5 when selecting with a box selection (not a marquee) only the lines would be selected - NOT the fill. This made sense because typically one first edits lines and then follows up correcting the fill.

I understand the multiple click and select, the shift select, and I have tried out the magnet tool selection tool Archiben suggested. Magnet is great for selecting fills. But I still can't find the solution to selecting multiple lines without a fill via a selection box from the arrow tool.

I've attached a picture showing step one - box selection, and step two showing that not only where the two lines selected, but so was the fill.

So as it stands now, I have to de-select the fills or turn them off on a separate layer.

Is that correct?

I will also look through the manuals. The March of Progress necessitates the constant waste of time to find solutions for things that worked perfectly.

Thanks Everyone. If anything comes up - let me know.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

James Murray — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:15:27 GMT

Marquee the area.

Line tool.

Select all.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 17:50:11 GMT

Do as Mark stated in "way" number 3

Mark wrote:
Not sure what you mean by 'swiping' but there are a number of ways you can select things that hopefully might answer your question.

.....

3. Select the fill and draw a selection rectangle over the line. Fill will be deselected, line will be selected. This is more useful when you have to select a lot of elements except one.

Hope that helps.

It is easiest to select the fill with the "Magnet" on (Depressed)

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:07:13 GMT

Good news:

By accident today, I was changing the ridiculous default selection dots (who thought of that one? go-figure) and I came across in the Preferences - and check box for:

"Use Archicad 7.0 Arrow Selection Area Options" This solved it. Now swiping through a line and fill will ONLY select the line and not the Fill.

Amazing grace.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 04:04:38 GMT

James has the foolproof method for this exact scenario.

But, Ben and Millard have IMHO the general method. (Well, OK, James' method is general too - switch the tool or use F&S with the marquee.)

It is an archifundamental (TM Duane Valencia or John Stebbins) to understand the space bar toggle of the magnet option of the select tool and another archifundamental to understand the arrow selection options of 'object must be fully contained in selection box' or 'partially contained'.

With the magnet suspended, and the fully-contained selection method ... the lines will select properly.

Karl

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Link — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 04:36:21 GMT

"Use Archicad 7.0 Arrow Selection Area Options" This solved it. Now swiping through a line and fill will ONLY select the line and not the Fill.

Wow that is such an old technique I had almost forgotten it was there!

BTW if you simply want to modify one the line's settings, you can simply swipe (I use that word all the time too!) over everything and double click the line tool in your toolbox. Then it doesn't matter if you swipe over a node or not.

Also, you can shift select each line (while the Line tool is active in the toolbox) and you will definitely get the lines over the fill, or anything else for that matter.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Selecting thru a Fill

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 08:51:11 GMT

Pdeppe, I think you may be a genius.

Most of the other methods suggested have a high 'click count', now its just two clicks and then i'm free to split, adjust, delete etc.

Well spotted...