Setup > Selection

Use Setup > Selection to control how entities are selected.

This topic describes the controls in the Selection panel as well as entity selection in general.

Selection Mode

Specify the selection mode by selecting Volume, Surface, or Edge.

Note: Edge is not available for all tasks when working with 3D models.

Associative Selection

To select multiple entities that are related to another (easily selected) item, select from the Direct menu.

Entities of the selected type highlight as you move the mouse over them. To select all items that are associated with the selection type, click on any highlighted item.

For example, if ten parts are assigned the same material, select Material from this list. As you move your mouse over the model, you will see that all ten parts highlight together because they have the same material. To select all ten, click on one of them.

The selection methods for each selectable entity are:

Entity Selection Method
Volume Direct -- Volumes are highlighted and are selected
  Material -- All volumes that have the same material are highlighted and selected together.
Surface Direct -- Surfaces are highlighted and are selected
  Volume -- Volumes are highlighted, and all surfaces touching a picked volume are selected.
Edge Direct -- Edges are highlighted and are selected
  Surface -- Surfaces are highlighted, and all edges touching a picked surface are selected.
  Volume -- Volumes are highlighted, and all edges touching a picked volume are selected.

Selection Controls

Curser Types

The curser indicates the current selection mode:

Volume Mode Surface Mode Edge Mode

To change the selection mode, do one of the following:

Selection Colors

Specific colors are used to indicate the selection status of entities:

When an item is selected, its label appears on the Selection List. To select entities from the Design Study Bar, simply left click on their label in the appropriate branch.

Note: To be selectable, an entity must not be occluded by another entity. If another entity blocks the line of sight to the desired entity, hide the blocking entity.