topic Re: Tips for selection? in Modeling

Tips for selection?

pejotu — Tue, 23 May 2023 14:36:38 GMT

Hi

I like to think I'm a fairly seasoned Archicad user, but every now and then I find myself suspecting I'm missing something obvious, namely:
Is there a way to lock a selection?

By this I mean for example a situation where I've laboriously selected (Shift-clicked one by one) a bunch of objects to do an operation on all of them, and I would then like to make sure I will not lose the selection if I happen to make a mistake and for example click somewhere that will cause me to lose the selection.

Another example is when I've got a bunch of overlapping objects, and I've carefully Tab'ed to select the correct one, and then I try and click a point on said object to start an operation, only to erraneously click on one of the other overlapping objects -> selection lost.

So I'd like a way to hold the objects selected for however long until I expressly choose to clear the selection.
This should be possible, right? Kind of like a temporary saved selection?

Or do I just have bad habits, and there's some perfect way to accomplish fool proof selections, Shift+clicks, etc. without dropping the selection?
[n.b. - some of my problems may stem from the fact that for ergonomic reasons I use a Wacom pen pad, which isn't quite as precise as using a mouse]

Re: Tips for selection?

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:47:29 GMT

Use the palette "Selections" to save your selected elements!....Windows > Palettes > Selections

Re: Tips for selection?

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:48:48 GMT

One thing I do is use the undo/redo queue for this. After I'm done selecting the objects I'll change a parameter or delete the selected objects and then undue that action. You should notice all of the objects that were acted upon are highlighted. This sets the selected group in the undo/redo queue. Like you, I've dropped the selection by "accidentally" selecting the wrong object but all you have to do is clear your wrong selection by hitting escape, hit ctrl-shift-z to redo the action and then undo it and what you have selected is again highlighted.

Re: Tips for selection?

Stress Co_ — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:47:24 GMT

I'll sometimes "group" (command - G) the objects.... That is,....as long as they are not already in a "group".

Re: Tips for selection?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:12:26 GMT

Well, I learned a way of doing this that is cleaner.

After selecting a group of objects, press ctrl-D before you click on them to move them. That's the keyboard shortcut for the drag command. It will only allow you to grab those items and you won't accidentally grab something else wrecking your selection.