topic Re: Easy Selection Tip in Project data & BIM

Easy Selection Tip

Link — Tue, 30 May 2023 11:06:49 GMT

It seems to me that users are taking way too much time and consideration in selecting items for modification, and I would like to demonstrate a method that may seem obvious to some of us, but not so obvious to a lot of others, especially newbies.

Let say for example, you want to alter ALL the walls on your current story, to be on a new layer, have a new height, a new material, etc. There is no need to do a find and select, or a timely layer controlled selection, simply select *EVERYTHING* on the floor plan (preferably using ctrl+A while in the arrow tool) and double click your wall tool.

At the top right of your Wall Tool Settings dialog, you will see how many are selected and how many are available for editing, which is in actuality how many you will be modifying. Of course this is applicable to any element/tool and is compulsory in PlotMaker.

Hope this helps people work faster!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Dave Jochum — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 02:17:05 GMT

Link wrote:
Let say for example, you want to alter ALL the walls on your current story, to be on a new layer, have a new height, a new material, etc. There is no need to do a find and select, or a timely layer controlled selection, simply select *EVERYTHING* on the floor plan (preferably using ctrl+A while in the arrow tool) and double click your wall tool.

At the top right of your Wall Tool Settings dialog, you will see how many are selected and how many are available for editing, which is in actuality how many you will be modifying.

That's a good tip, and when combined with a layer combination or view set, can become quite powerful. For example, I have a layer combo for exterior only. In plan, only the exterior walls show (plus everything outside the walls). Ctrl+A in this situation allows changing ext. wall composites, model materials, etc. It's also a good way to select all windows or doors to make global changes, which I tend to do more often than I'd like.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Djordje — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 05:43:57 GMT

Link wrote:
Let say for example, you want to alter ALL the walls on your current story, to be on a new layer, have a new height, a new material, etc. There is no need to do a find and select, or a timely layer controlled selection, simply select *EVERYTHING* on the floor plan (preferably using ctrl+A while in the arrow tool) and double click your wall tool.

Quite handy if you want to edit multiple types in succession.

For one type editing, I still prefer to click on the tool, CTRL A, CTRL T ... or if what I want to change is visible in the Info box I change there.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Aussie John — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 22:32:45 GMT

Also if you have a particular object type you wish to modify select all then deselet an example of that object then reselect (holding shift key) Double click the object tool and only that object will come up int the window. except for the global parameters (A,B and zzyzx) only that objects parameters are editable.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 13:09:27 GMT

Useful tip this Link.
How about this...i use it sooo often:

does anyone find undo/redo a wonderful (re)selection tool?you've just edited(say drag) a group of unrelated items,dropped and deselected only to realise the drag was inaccurate by some mm.How to get back the unrelated elements so you correct the drag?Well undo/redo does the trick!

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Link — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 15:33:44 GMT

An oldie, but a goodie!

Here's another one, specific to AC8.x:

How many times have you dragged/mirrored/rotated without a copy, when you really meant to copy?! No one's perfect - sometimes we forget to hold the ctrl key down, or just end up toggling it off! When this happens, here's a quick way to accomplish the copy without redoing the whole procedure:

The accidentally 'uncopied' element will still be highlighted, so hit ctrl+c, ctrl+z, ctrl+v (all without releasing the ctrl key), then click outside the marquee and you have copied your element to the correct location.

Can be really fast when you get the hang on of it!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 15:41:38 GMT

Link,

The copy/undo/paste trick isn't specific to 8.x. I've been confusing myself between drag vs drag a copy and right clicking to place a copy of what I started dragging for years now and been glad to have the quick fix.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Link — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:11:00 GMT

True.

It just seems to happen more often in 8.x - for me anyway

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Easy Selection Tip

Dwight — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 18:09:30 GMT

A corrollary to Link's copy tip:

This is also a way to do non-linear undo's.

In the case where you've placed or transformed complex elements and realize that you need to fix something from before, copying the elements and then doing your undo step preserves their current state once pasted back into the project.