Select by window, move, rotate, mirror, change many

Each of these is one undo step: one ⌘ZCtrl+Z takes it all back.

Select with a window

• In Plan and Elevation, drag with the left button from an empty spot. In 3D, hold ⇧Shift and drag (a plain drag turns the model).
• Drag to the right for a window: it takes what is wholly inside, drawn with a solid edge.
• Drag to the left for a crossing window: it takes everything it touches, drawn dashed.
• Hold ⇧Shift while you start the drag to add to the selection instead of replacing it.
• A plan or elevation only offers what it shows: parts cut away above the plan, or more than 1 m from the elevation's grid line, are not picked.
• EscEsc while dragging drops the window.

Lasso

Choose Lasso under Dragging to select in DetailCraft settings and the same drag draws a freehand line instead of a rectangle.

• Its first move sideways decides how it selects: to the right, what is wholly inside (solid line); to the left, what it touches (dashed).
• Press SpaceSpace while dragging to switch between inside, touching and fence: an open line that takes whatever it crosses (dotted, orange).
• ⇧Shift to add and EscEsc to drop it work as for the window.

In Plan and Elevation, pan with the right or middle button while the Select tool is on.

Drag parts to move them

1. Select the parts first (click, ⇧Shift+click or a window).
2. Press on one of the selected parts and drag. The whole selection moves; a dashed outline shows where it goes.
3. Let go to place it. EscEsc before you let go puts everything back.

• In 3D and Plan the parts move across the level. Hold ⌘Ctrl while you start the drag in 3D to move them up and down instead.
• In Elevation they move within the elevation: along the grid line and up and down.
• The part you hold snaps onto a grid intersection when its end comes within a few pixels of one (the intersection lights up and the status bar names it). Elsewhere the move goes in 10 mm steps.
• Pressing on a part that is not selected still turns or pans the view, so a drag never moves something by accident.
• The drag is one undo step, like Move. Connections follow their members.

Change a property on many members

Select several members. Under Change on all of them in the Properties panel:

• Profile, Position: for the beams, columns and braces among them.
• Plate thickness (mm) and Plate width (mm): for the plates.
• Material and Rotation (°): for all of them.

A field shows Varies when the members do not agree. Pick or type a value and every member it applies to takes it; the status bar says how many changed and how many kept their own.

Move, rotate or mirror

Select members and footings (a single one works too), then use Move, rotate, mirror in the Properties panel. Connections are not moved on their own: they follow their members. If you move a beam but not its column, the status bar says how many connections now join a moved member to one that stayed, and Problems says if they no longer fit.

• Move: type x, y and z in millimeters and choose Move. Or choose Pick two points (or press MM): click the grid intersection to move from, then the one to move to. A dashed outline follows the pointer.
• Rotate in plan: type the angle (counter-clockwise, seen from above) and choose what to turn about: the selection's middle, or a grid intersection. Columns turn with the frame.
• Mirror: choose a grid line. The mirror image is the same profile turned the other way: an I-shape keeps its flanges, a channel faces the other way (its top and bottom swap), and holes and copes go with the part.
• Tick Keep the original (make a copy) to leave the selection where it is and move, rotate or mirror a copy. Its connections come along when Copy end plates and base plates with their members is on in DetailCraft settings.

Rotating turns about a vertical line and mirroring is in a vertical plane, so levels stay level and footings stay upright.