Preselecting and Selecting Using the Pointer

You can use basic selection techniques with the pointer to highlight and select objects in the specification tree and in the geometry area.

Before you begin:
  • Whenever you are not using an application command, the Select command is active. Using this command, you can select any object in your document. All the selection tools are available using this command.
  • Whenever you are using an application command, you can only select objects required as input for the command. For example, when creating a hole in a pad, you are prompted to select a face or a plane: no other elements can be selected.
  • When objects are selected through the Select command, a contextual menu named xxx object (when one object is selected) or Selected objects (when multiple objects are selected) is available. The commands available in this contextual menu are also available through Edit > xxx object or Edit > Selected objects. However, the contextual menu is not displayed if more than 500 objects are selected. To be able to display it, increase the value of the Limit display of manipulators to ... element(s) option accordingly.

  1. Click Select to enter selection mode, if it is not already activated.

  2. Point to the part of the object you want to select.

    As you point to objects, different parts of the objects are highlighted, in the geometry area, and the object name is highlighted in the specification tree:

    Important: Highlighting is active only if the Preselect in geometry view option is selected (it is selected by default). You can also set the preselected element linetype as well as other useful selection features in the Visualization tab.

  3. Optional: SelectView > Toolbars > Status Bar .

    The preselected element is identified in the status bar:



  4. When the element is highlighted, click the highlighted element.

    The element is selected:

  5. Hold down Ctrl and select another element (a face, in this scenario).

    The selected element is added to the initial selection:

    Tip:

    Holding down Ctrl while selecting can be done in:


    • The geometry area
    • The specification tree
    • Lists in dialog boxes.

    Holding down Shift while selecting can be done in:


    • The specification tree
    • Lists in dialog boxes.

  6. To deselect, click anywhere in the background.

    Edges are highlighted as you point them and arrows are displayed to indicate to which element the edge belongs to. This is especially useful in case of overlapped elements as shown in the picture below:

    Important: The display of highlighted edges has priority on the display of other elements of the geometry. But if you select a global element of the geometry such as the product or the part body, the highlighted hidden edges are not displayed.

  7. Optional: In the geometry area, you can select the constituent elements of objects (faces, vertices, edges, planes, axes).

    On certain objects, hidden faces and edges are also highlighted as you point at them and are displayed in a different color:

    See Selecting Using the Preselection Navigator for a more powerful method for selecting hidden or coincident elements.

  8. Press Esc.

    All selected elements are deselected.