Selecting entities

Manipulation commands, such as MOVE, COPY and MIRROR prompt you to select one or more entities. If the PICKFIRST variable is ON, you can also compose the selection set before launching the command.

BricsCAD provides several selection methods. You can combine selection methods to compose a selection set.

Selecting entities one by one

  1. Move the cursor over the entity.

    The entity highlights.

    The Quad appears and displays the most recently used command and a selection of the entity properties.

  2. Do one of the following:
    • Click to select the entity.
    • Repeatedly press the Tab key to highlight obscured entities and click when the desired entity highlights.
  3. Repeat the previous steps to select more entities or launch a command.

Selecting multiple entities

BricsCAD uses window selection methods to select multiple entities:
  1. Click to define the corner of the selection rectangle.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Move the cursor to the right. A blue rectangle is displayed. The circle inside the rectangle icon indicates that all entities completely inside the selection rectangle will be selected.
    • Move the cursor to the left. A green rectangle is displayed. The circle overlapping the rectangle icon indicates that all entities that are either inside or that overlap the selection rectangle will be selected.
  3. Click to define the opposite corner of the selection rectangle.

Removing entities from a selection set

Hold down the Shift key when executing a selection method to remove entities from the current selection set.

Press the Esc key to clear the current selection set.

Selection modes

The selection modes allow you to control which sub-entities (faces, edges and boundaries) of a 3D solid are highlighted in the selection preview and can be selected.

To access the Selection modes options, do one of the following:

  • Open Settings > Program options > Selection > Selection Preview > Selection Modes to access the SELECTIONMODES system variable options.
  • Launch the SELECTIONMODES system variable in the Command line to set its value.
  • Status bar: turn On the Selection Modes options.
  • Ribbon: Go to Modeling tab > Controls > Selection modes.
    Note: To display the Ribbon, right-click on a toolbar and choose Panels > Ribbon in the context menu.
  • Toolbar: To display the Selection Modes, right-click on a toolbar and choose Toolbars > Selection Modes in the context menu.

The available selection modes are:

  • Select edges (): controls whether 3D solid edges are highlighted by selection preview and can be selected. Click on a 3D solid edge to select it.
  • Select faces (): controls whether 3D solid faces are highlighted by selection preview and can be selected. Click on a 3D solid face to select it.
  • Select detected boundaries (): controls whether closed boundaries in XY-plane of the current coordinate system or on the face of 3D solids are detected. Click on the closed boundary from a face of the 3D solid to select it.
  • Select vertices (): controls whether 3D solid vertices are highlighted by selection preview and can be selected. Click on the vertices of the 3D solid to select them.
  • Disable selection modes: disables all selection mode options. Also, toggles the activation of the Selection Modes in the Status bar.