toggle selection methods

[Gus]

I'm guessing you can't do the left right, right left selection method for patent reasons with Autocad or something. Anyway, the alternative could be just as good. Just have a toggle button or keystroke to do the same thing. I'm sure you have heard this one before. It just seems so simple and useful. Is there another reason why this does not exist?

[Barry Kelly]

Gus wrote:
I'm guessing you can't do the left right, right left selection method for patent reasons with Autocad or something. Anyway, the alternative could be just as good. Just have a toggle button or keystroke to do the same thing. I'm sure you have heard this one before. It just seems so simple and useful. Is there another reason why this does not exist?

The arrow tool already has an option to select entirely within the selection area or everything crossing the selection area - since V8.1 at least.
You have to set it to one or the other option before you select.
It would be nice to have a keyboard toggle but one extra click for the times you need it isn't much.

You can also do the same with the marquee tool so long as you use it in conjunction with Find & Select.
Place marquee then with arrow tool active select all (CTRL-A on Windows).
The open Find & Select and subtract the selection of everything outside the marquee to be left with everyting totally within the marquee only.
Of course you can also filter by element type, colours, etc. as well.

It would be nice to have an option to select all crossing the marquee or all within the marquee.
Maybe CTRL-A and SHIFT-CTRL-A for Windows and what ever the equivalent would be for a Mac.

I'm voting not needed though as the arrow tool already has the option - unless I missunderstood the problem.

Barry.

[Barry Kelly]

Barry wrote:
It would be nice to have an option to select all crossing the marquee or all within the marquee.
Maybe CTRL-A and SHIFT-CTRL-A for Windows and what ever the equivalent would be for a Mac.
Barry.

No need as the setting for the arrow tool already changes how CTRL-A selects with the marquee.

Barry.

[Gus]

I'm completely surprised that you think having to click on an icon every time you want to select something in a different way is fast. It is incredibly slow compared to the way Autocad does it. There is no question about it. Have you ever used this feature in Autocad? In about 10 minutes of intense drafting this toggle I'm talking about could easily be used 25 times or more. That is instant selection of exactly what you want using a keystroke or left right/right left tool vs. Keeping it the way it is: having to target the tiny selection method button, move to it, click it then move back to the sheet you are working on and selecting what you want.

I don't get your response at all
I can't be the only one bringing up this topic, as everyone I know who makes the switch to archicad is irritated by this missing feature.

[Barry Kelly]

Gus wrote:
I don't get your response at all
I can't be the only one bringing up this topic, as everyone I know who makes the switch to archicad is irritated by this missing feature.

I guess that is the problem.
You made the switch to Archicad so you are use to other methods and of course you miss those.
I did train in Autocad but never really used it and I have been using Archicad for so long now (7+ years) that I am completely used to the way it works.
Just as you would be familiar with Autocad and what it can and can't do.

And I never said it was quick - just that there was an option for it already.
As I said it would be nice to have a keybaord toggle.

Personally I don't find many situations where I need to select item by dragging an area over them.
Careful use of Autogrouping, manual grouping, SHIFT-Selecting to add/remove to/from a selection group and the Find & Select dialogue work for me.
But that is just my opinion and the way I work.

Barry.

[Dwight]

Barry wrote:
t one extra click for the times you need it isn't much.
Barry.

Saving one click may seem like nothing, but it is everything! It's not just a random twitchy mouse click like what might happen when you go to www.hotgirlfriend.com, however, it is a mental flow disrupting pause, eye shift, refocus, redirection and re-aiming of the mouse, THEN it is a click. But you are not restored because you need to recover to where you were before you went mousie galavanting over to the in/out switch icon. Time and motion engineers know that making a dialog or radio button do what the keyboard or simple mouse gesture should be doing is idiotic. The division of two-hand labor in usability practice is simple: mouse for position and direction, keyboard for commands.

Every time a user makes a suggestion that saves a mouse movement or a mouse click or replaces a multi-key command with a gesture or another click/movement saving trick it is worth millions of hours saved and helps the user maintain focus so he has more time later to waste productively while web surfing. There are numerous places where Archicad's usability could be subtly improved if not for guys like you who vote "not needed" when a stupid program like AutoCAD has owned this fabulous feature for years. Simple, gestural and intuitive, this one move saves countless "Find and Select" steps. Sheesh! And Autocad isn't the only CAD app to have this trick so it mustn't be "owned."

My wish is that everyone vote "Essential" for this wish since employing mouse gestures like AutoCAD is a sure-fire boost to Archicad productivity.

[Barry Kelly]

Dwight wrote:
There are numerous places where Archicad's usability could be subtly improved if not for guys like you who vote "not needed" when a stupid program like AutoCAD has owned this fabulous feature for years.

Isn't the whole idea of a poll to get users opinions

As I said before a keyboard toggle would be nice but for me it is not needed.
I work in a manner that makes it quite easy for me select what I want when I want.
But every one works on different types of projects and in different ways, so what suits me won't suit every one.

Dwight wrote:
My wish is that everyone vote "Essential" for this wish since employing mouse gestures like AutoCAD is a sure-fire boost to Archicad productivity.

My wish is that every one votes as they see fit.
Then let Graphisoft decide if is to be implemented if indeed they pay any attention to these polls.

Barry.

[Rob]

My wish is that everyone vote "Essential" for this wish since employing mouse gestures like AutoCAD is a sure-fire boost to Archicad productivity.

yes, my fuhrer...
however I somehow voted not important, as I do not miss this feature at all... besides we have mumbled through this discussion already:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=15573&start

[Anonymous]

In configuring keyboard shortcuts, I tried to find a command to switch the method of choice (part or whole element). But it's not. Sad.
If Button Tab to switch the method of choice (part or whole element), it would be perfect.

[TomWaltz]

this is about the 27th time someone started a new thread on this same topic.

I think the idea that came up last time was that 2 things were needed
1) a third option added to the current partially in and fully in options, one that was direction sensitive
2) the ability to assign a single-key keyboard shortcut that allowed used to toggle quickly between the three

Personally I think the hold up on this issue could be that there are other selection methods besides rectangular, namely rotated rectangle and polygon, which could be a little harder to determine "right" from "left" windows.

Now if only GS would use the wishes here instead of pulling their own new feature lists out of.... well, somewhere 😉