getting face highlighted when hovering, have to use Ctrl-key or tab to highlight the solid

Eric Ratliff

Hi, I am getting highlight of solid faces when hovering over a solid. I see the solid when pressing Ctrl-key. I want it the other way around. Better if Ctrl-key brings the special selections such as face or edge. Running Platinum 19.1.11 x64 on a new PC, Win 10 Home.

I think there must be some Quad related setting I am missing or getting wrong. I have QUADDISPLAY 4. SELECTIONPREVIEW 0.

Any suggestions?

Roy Klein Gebbinck

Change your SELECTIONMODES setting to 0 (zero).
Note: with this setting it is not possible to select occluded faces and edges by repeatedly hitting Tab (I think...).

Eric Ratliff

Thanks Roy,
I had SELECTIONMODES at 2. That was 'Select Faces'. With 0, I can select the solid with just hovering. Ctrl-key lets me get edges and faces. I can highlight and select hidden (occluded) edges with Ctrl-key.

Tom Foster

Open the Selectionmodes toolbar, then you can click between icon-illustrated modes at will, as needed.

Knut Hohenberg

As Roy pointed out, setting SELECTIONMODES to 0 (my preferred setting) effectively disables sub-element cycling - Ctrl+Tab will take you to another drawing, not to another face or edge. So I need to constantly switch selection modes, which somewhat disrupts my workflow (yes, I can open a toolbar, or use lisp to cycle through the options, but it still feels clumsy).
I would prefer to cycle through selection modes just by hitting Ctrl, just like you have to do after object selection to cycle through options in many of the DM commands. I think this would not necessarily break existing functionality, keeping Ctrl pressed while clicking on an object should still work.

Eric Ratliff

Thanks Tom, I found the SELECTIONMODES tool bar. It shows the modes graphically. Intuitive, except I did not notice it before.

On finding toolbars... I wish there was a way to look up a toolbar by name, or hover over one and find its name. By dragging a toolbar into an open space, you can see a (sometimes truncated) name. To find SELECTIONMODES toolbar, I right clicked in any tool bar area, and chose Customize. Then, the toolbar tab. I scrolled down in the left pane (not sure why there is a right pane). There was "SELECTIONMODES". Looking for the icon images on the user interface, I found them already there.

Ctrl-key finds hidden edges when the pointer is already hovering over them. Easier if in Wireframe visualization mode.

Tom Foster

The easy way to open toolbars, start as you said, right click in any tool bar area, then click BRICSCAD at top of the dialog - gets you the complete list of available toolbars (scroll down with bottom arrow - cumbersome). Click on the one you want. Customise is for when you want to change the look of a default toolbar, or create a new one.

Michael Mayer

@Knut Hohenberg said:
As Roy pointed out, setting SELECTIONMODES to 0 (my preferred setting) So I need to constantly switch selection modes, which somewhat disrupts my workflow

I would prefer to cycle through selection modes just by hitting Ctrl, just like you have to do after object selection to cycle through options in many of the DM commands. I think this would not necessarily break existing functionality, keeping Ctrl pressed while clicking on an object should still work.

Execactly my probleme here.
I couldn't live without the Toolbar and also prefer Solid only Mode.

But with Solid Mode - no Tools like BIMDRAG.
(AI could recognice that it needs a Face and offer BIMDRAG in QUAD anyway ?)

Tabbing through Modes is also tedious und unreliable if you accidentaly
move your cursor.

CTRL+TABBING for occluded Faces also very unreliably and tedious
finger qymnastics, as choosing a Command in QUAD may select a new
most in front Face instead.

It gets more complicated when you use ADDPICK OFF and need +SHIFT
to select further objects.
It does not work by the CMD Mode Switch, as CMD+SHIFT does a Live Zoom
or similar View Navigation Command instead.
In this case the Selection Modes Palette is even mandatory.

.

And for GUI and those kind of Tool Boxes
(Beside terminal users that may prefer a clean screen and a single big
Command Line for all input)
I see the GUI as a Frame around Tool's Boxes.
Each user opens his Tool's Palette Collections for his special needs,
while hiding what he doesn't need.
But there are secondary Features that ANY User needs which should
be Always and Directly available form that GUI Frame.

I think about things like View Navigation and Render Modes,
or Snaps Settings (at least as a button to expand from Status Bar)
and such,
and of course the Selection Modes should be all time available.

Michael Mayer

BTW
This is why Shape or new BIM GUI doesn't work for me.
Which leads to pull out my Custom Toolboxes,
including some other not-so-important stuff
and clutter my GUI again.
It is often easier to click on a Zoom Extended Button than
a 3-Key Combination in Command Line. Or just switch
Selection Modes with the mouse (Pen Input here).

Eric Ratliff

Tom,
Oh yes. Clicking the 'Bricscad' at the top of the dialog gets a nice and alphabetical list of tool bars.
Thanks.

Louis_Verdonck

If you want to select either solids or faces and don't want to change the value of SELECTIONMODES all the time, set its value to 2 (select faces) and hold down the Ctrl key to select solids. Faces highlight on hovering and hitting the TAB key cycles both faces (including obscured faces) and solids.

Michael Mayer

Hello Louis,
my problem with the Face setting + CTRL was that when
I try to select smaller objects,
it will always prefer to select and edge instead of the whole Solid.
It will only work if you really hover over a Face that is large enough
that no edge enters the cursor's selection tolerance area.

That is why I usually am in Solid Selection Mode only,
without any Subselection activated.
So I will always get my Solids,
and only have to zoom in when I need a Face.

(Consequently, when I need lots of Faces, like for BIMDRAG,
I have to switch Selection Modes again)

Another argument for explicitly switch between and to use a single Selection
Mode only, is when you have PICKADD OFF.
You can't Select more Elements by holding SHIFT, as long as using also
+CMD on Mac = a view navigation, +CTRL on Windows = opens Start Menu (?)

Eric Ratliff

I see that SELECTIONMODES setting did not carry over from my V19 installation when installing V20. Perhaps because there is now another checkbox, for selecting verticies (the 8 bit).

Tom Foster

Hey I didn't see that new mode in Release Notes - but it's not in the default Selectionmodes Toolbar