Selecting Elements

This task shows you how to:

A sphere with two cuts has been created.
 

Using Selection Icons
  This kind of selection enables a filter mode to select only specified elements.
It is available using the Tools Palette, which appears when creating or modifying a surface for instance, and when one of the transformation icons (translation, rotation, affinity or attraction) is selected.
 

The following icons let you:
 

  • (All Type Selection): Select any kind of element (faces, edges and points).
 
  •  (Face Selection): Select faces only. The compass is aligned on the mean plane of the face.
 

 
  • (Edge Selection): Select edges only. The compass is aligned along the edge direction.
 

 
  • (Vertex Selection) select points only: the compass' origin is defined.
 

In case of a multi-selection, the compass is computed using the mean plane computation of the selected elements.
 

  • (All Elements Selection): Select all elements. For instance, if you first click then all the edges of the mesh are selected.
 
  If the View and Selection mode in the Operations toolbar is set to , only visible elements (not grayed out elements) will be selected even though the All Elements Selection icon is activated.
For more more information, refer to Selecting Visible Elements.
This capability is also available with Alignment, Link, and Compass Definition commands.
 

Using Option Keys
  This kind of selection lets you manage the selection and perform various operations.
 

 

  • Press Ctrl to add an element to the selection.

    • An unselected element is added to the selection

    • A selected element is removed from the selection

  • Press Shift to select using a trap:

  1. Press Shift.

  2. Draw the trap.

  3. Release Shift.

  • Use both Shift and Ctrl to add or remove a trap selection.
 

Using Two Edge Selection
  This kind of selection lets you select the optimum path between two edges.

Open the MultiSelectUsingShift.CATPart document.

  • Press Shift and select two edges:

  1. Select the first edge.

  2. Press Shift.

  3. Move the mouse over the mesh.
    A path of the connected edges between (and including) the first selected edge and the edge under the mouse is computed and all edges in this path are highlighted. As you keep moving the mouse, the path is always recomputed between the two edges.

  4. Click to select the second edge.
    All the edges selected in the path can be modified.
  • The path is computed based on the following criteria:
    • If you select a free edge as first edge, then preference is given to free side edges.
    • If you select a edge with weight, which is not sharp, then preference is given to weight edges.
    • If you select a sharp edge, then preference is given to sharp edges.
    • If the first edge selected does not meet the above said criteria, then the shortest cumulative length or smallest number of edges is defined.
  • When there is more than one path for the selected edges, the first found path is highlighted.
  • When using the Shift key, two types of selections are available:
    • Trap Selection: This mode is activated when the left mouse button is pressed with the Shift key and mouse is moved before releasing the Shift key.
    • Range Selection: This mode is activated when the left mouse button is pressed and released with the Shift key without moving the mouse before releasing the Shift key. This mode is available only for edge selection. For path computation, the range selection mode is used.

    The help text shows the selection mode.

Use of Specific Colors for Selected Elements
  You can select and set the color in which the selected elements should be displayed. To do so, select the Use specific color for all selected elements check box in Tools > Options > Shape > Imagine & Shape > Display tab. In the Specific color for selected element list, select the color.
You can see that the selected elements are displayed in the color specified:
 
Edge Selection Vertex Selection

If the Use specific color for all selected elements check box is cleared the selected elements are displayed in their default color (red color for edges and orange color for vertices) as given in Tools > Options > General > Display > Visualization tab, Selected elements and Selected edges list.