Selection Lock?

ScottS

Is it possible in Bricscad to replicate the selection lock toggle that is was the spacebar in 3dsmax? So very useful.

Ideally it would preserve the locked selection set for multiple commands.

More basically what I want is to avoid the following frequent frustration: after no little effort of selecting entities, faces, edges, vertices, whatever, I go to start a command by quad or keyboard, but in the process my cursor inadvertently hovers over a nearby face, which gets highlighted automatically and—even without my clicking on it—becomes incorporated into the command I've just started. So then I have to cancel the command, if I notice immediately, or undo, if I notice later. Either way I end up having to start the whole selection process all over again... and hope more uninvited guests don't show up.

Michael Mayer

Or just keep a selection until a user drops it actively.
Like any CAD does.
And keep all steps while selecting part of the Undo Stack.
Like any 3D App does.

But Bricscad is Autocad compatible.
Including Faces where the cursor hovers over, to a Selection,
is a bit distracting too.
At least there is a command to get back your previous Selection.
Unintuitive for me so I am faster doing my Selection manually
again.

Anthony Apostolaros

Scott: If something gets into the selection set inadvertently, can't you just Shift-select it to remove it from the selection set?

Michael Mayer

Anthony,
it is just highlighted. It will be in Selection only after the Command started.

The only option is to avoid other selectable (Sub)Objects under your Cursor
while starting the Command.
That Execution of Commands while just Highlighting is part of Quad and
Direct Modeling, which tries to circumference that Autocad Selection
tediousness. (By adding an other new non-standard behavior on top)

You have to just care to keep your cursor over your current selection before
you fire a Quad Icon - or find a blank screen space in your drawing to
open Quad again, by right click, to restrict Tool Action to your Selection
solely.

James Maeding

I've been avoiding the quad, as I don't like things that pop up dialogs and block what I am looking at.
I read what it does in the help, and its basically an info/context menu tool, with basically all the things to slow down a production person.
Having done acad for years and watched its interface change through time, I am seeing the quad as a nice tool for beginners that just don't know what commands are available. I could make use of it too for some things as I just don't do certain things so am also a beginner for them.
Once you know your tools though, acad/bcad are key-in programs. You type your commands with one or two letters and hit space bar.
You must know some basic lisp to get that set up, here is an example as the pgp file only works on commands, not lisp functions or little macros.
Example:
(DEFUN C:DA () (PRINC "\nEdit Attributes")(COMMAND "DDATTE") (PRINC))
(DEFUN C:CRR () (PRINC "\nCopy rotate")(NLOAD "COPYROT8.lsp")(c:COPYROT8)(princ))

It sounds like the only reason you use the quad is to run a command, and that hover thing is a nasty method for daily use IMO.
So its like you cannot salvage a lousy command issuing method by somehow improving it, you go around it and save your poor mouse hand some punishment. Please explain if I missed something, I keep thinking there must be something it offers if people are avoiding just making key-ins and using them instead.
Note that I also have tools for getting info on an entity, and changing its layer props in same dialog. That props thing that pops up is a childs play thing compared to a real info tool, even the properties palette.

ScottS

@Michael Mayer, you correctly answered @Anthony Apostolaros question. However, I was mistaken in my original post, thinking the frustrating highlight=autoselect behavior was occurring with quad or keyboard. It does not occur with keyed-in commands, only when initiating commands with the quad.

That's another argument favoring the keyboard, and I already tend to agree with @James Maeding. For many years with acad prior to bricscad I used keyboard shortcuts almost exclusively. (I remember promptly disabling the distraction of right-click pop-up menus when that was first introduced.)

Now with BricsCAD BIM, though, I have been trying to give the quad a chance. Partly because the wizards at Bricsys seem to concoct useful new commands faster than I can edit the pgp [yet for that matter, also faster than I can figure out how to add them all to the quad...]

I guess I should commit to memorizing more shortcuts and brush up on lisp.

In any case, I still miss a selection lock.

Michael Mayer

I still miss a selection lock.

Well, I miss much more standard functionality for Selections,
but hey, better than having nothing

So I still second that wish.

ScottS

By "more standard functionality" you mean: > @Michael Mayer said:

Or just keep a selection until a user drops it actively.
Like any CAD does.
And keep all steps while selecting part of the Undo Stack.
Like any 3D App does.

I miss all those things I've never known in .dwg-land, too! Completely agree.

Anthony Apostolaros

@ScottS said:
By "more standard functionality" you mean: > @Michael Mayer said:

Or just keep a selection until a user drops it actively.
Like any CAD does.
And keep all steps while selecting part of the Undo Stack.
Like any 3D App does.

I miss all those things I've never known in .dwg-land, too! Completely agree.

You can have the keep-selection part of that in Bricscad. I've been working that way for years, and it's a real pleasure. Editing commands end with the selection set still selected, and entity-creating commands end with the new entities selected, as in VectorWorks (if I remember correctly). Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to remove navigation from the Undo stack as in Sketchup.

Michael Mayer

Yes, thanks Anthony I remember that.
Just for me it is a bit tedious and more error prone.
And I don't think it is good if all effected users should
edit all their tools again.

It would be nicer to have a Global Super Setting option variable :
AUTODESK OFF

For all things like :

• Selection
  (left green vs right blue Marquee can stay)

• Tools

• Layer behavior

James Maeding

Or at least a big warning:
The bricscad session has many defaults set to a FOREIGN DWG editor state.
Be very afraid, because B is the new A.
...something like that to strike fear for nothing.

Roy Klein Gebbinck

After undoing a command it is relatively easy to again pre-select the last (pre-)selection.
You can call the _Select command with the _Previous option.
Or if you prefer Lisp code:

(defun C:Test ( / ss)
  (if (setq ss (ssget "_P"))
    (sssetfirst nil ss)
  )
  (princ)
)