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Select objects

Pick objects one by one, with a window or a crossing, before or during a command, and take objects back out of a selection.

Written for CadCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.

What you will learn

How to choose the objects a command works on. CadCraft has two ways to work, and both are fine:

  • Select first, then the command (noun-verb). Select objects, then type M for Move. The command takes your selection and goes straight on to its next question.
  • Command first, then select (verb-noun). Type M; the command asks Select objects:; you select, then press ReturnEnter.

Pick one object at a time

  1. With no command running, click a line. It is highlighted and its grips (small squares) appear. The right panel shows its properties.
  2. Click another object. It is added to the selection.
  3. Hold ⇧Shift and click a selected object. It is taken out of the selection.
  4. Press EscEsc. Nothing is selected.

Window and crossing

Drag a rectangle on an empty part of the drawing, or click once on empty space, move, and click again. Which objects you get depends on the direction:

You dragBoxSelects
Left to rightWindowOnly objects fully inside the box
Right to leftCrossingObjects inside the box and objects it touches
  1. Draw a few overlapping lines and circles.
  2. Click empty space to the left of some objects, move right, and click again. Only the objects completely inside are selected.
  3. Press EscEsc.
  4. Click empty space to the right, move left across some objects, and click again. Everything the box touches is selected.
  5. Hold ⇧Shift and drag a box over some selected objects. They come out of the selection.

Select, then run a command

  1. Select two circles.
  2. Type M and press ReturnEnter.

The history says 2 found, and the prompt goes straight to Specify base point. Finish the move (see Move, copy, rotate, scale and mirror).

When a command ends, the selection is cleared, so the next command starts fresh.

Commands that take a selection this way: ERASE, MOVE, COPY, ROTATE, SCALE, MIRROR, EXPLODE, BLOCK and LIST. OFFSET, TRIM, EXTEND and FILLET always ask you to pick objects one at a time instead.

Run a command, then select

  1. Make sure nothing is selected (EscEsc).
  2. Type E and press ReturnEnter. The prompt reads Select objects:.
  3. Click objects, or drag windows and crossings. The history counts each pick (1 found, 3 found).
  4. Press ReturnEnter, press SpaceSpace or right-click to finish selecting.

The objects are erased and the history says how many.

At a Select objects: prompt you can also type:

  • ALL, then ReturnEnter: every object you can edit in the open tab.
  • L (or LAST), then ReturnEnter: the most recently drawn object.

Select everything

With no command running, press ⌘ACtrl+A, or choose Select all in the toolbar's Edit › More menu, to select every object you can edit on the open tab. If you have typed something at the command line, ⌘ACtrl+A selects that text instead: press EscEsc to clear it first. At a Select objects: prompt, type ALL. Select none in the same menu, or EscEsc, clears the selection.

What cannot be selected

  • Objects on a layer that is off, frozen or locked. Locked objects stay visible, and you can still snap to them, but you cannot select or change them.
  • On a sheet tab, the model shown inside a viewport. You select the sheet's own objects (the title block, notes, the viewport frames). To edit the model, go to the Model tab.

Erase quickly

Select objects, then press fn DeleteDelete (or DeleteBackspace when the command line does not have the cursor). On a Mac keyboard, the key labeled delete works once you have clicked in the drawing; while the command line has the cursor, press fn and delete together. This runs ERASE on the selection. If nothing happens, you have typed something at the command line: press EscEsc, or type E and press ReturnEnter instead.

Common mistakes

  • The window took too little. You dragged left to right, which only takes what is fully inside. Drag right to left for a crossing.
  • A click on empty space started a box. One click on empty space starts a window; the second click finishes it. Press EscEsc or right-click to drop it.
  • The command used objects you did not mean. Something was still selected when you started it. Press EscEsc before a command to start with nothing selected.
  • Nothing is selected after a command. That is on purpose: a finished command clears the selection.