Entity Selection Techniques in RealCAD

Question

Different techniques on how to select entities in RealCAD, LANDWorksCAD and ArborCAD.

RealCAD Entities Sample

Answer

Single Click

A single entity can be selected by placing the cursor over it – a diamond will appear on the cursor indicating that RealCAD or LANDWorksCAD has ‘seen’ it – and clicking the left mouse button.

Note: Don’t click too close to the end of a line, arc or curve because RealCAD then assumes that an ‘end snap’ is required – a square will appear on the cursor – and the position at the end of the entity is selected rather than the entity itself.

Inside Window

Many entities can be seleceted at once using a ‘window’. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Position the cursor below and to the left of the entities to be selected
  2. Press and hold down the left mouse button
  3. While holding the mouse button down, move the cursor diagonally up and to the right
  4. The cursor will be temporarily replaced by an elastic rectangle
  5. Continue to move the cursor until the elastic rectangle encloses the entities to be selected
  6. Release the mouse button

All the entitites that are completely inside the rectangle will be selected.

On the example below, we are dragging a rectangle from top left to bottom right corner.

RealCAD Inside Window Selection Sample

Since we haven’t completely selected the black arc or the two green lines of the rectangle, these entities won’t be selected, as shown below:

RealCAD Entities Sample Selected Inside Window

Note: The rectangle can also be dragged from top left to bottom right. It doesn’t matter as long as it is dragged from left to right.

Outside Window

Many entities can also be selected at once using a ‘reverse window’. This is done the same way as an Inside Window, but the window is dragged from right to left.

All the entities that are completely outside the rectangle will be selected.

Additional Techniques

Deselecting Entities

Simply click one with the left button on a blank area of a 3D view windo or press the [ESC] key. All selected entities will be deselected.

Select all entities in a view

The Outside Window technique can be used to quickly select all entities in a view. Simply drag a very small reverse window over a blank area of the screen. All entities outside the rectangle will be selected. As there were no entitites within the window, all entities will be selected.

Dragging a tiny rectangle from top right to bottom left selecting an empty area will select all entities.

RealCAD Outside Window selection

RealCAD All Entities Selected

Adding and removing entities from the currently selected entities

When entities are selected with the [SHIFT] key held down, the current selection set is not deselected. If the newly selected entitites are not already in the selection set, they are selected and added to the selection set. If the newly selected entities are already in the selection set, they will be deselected.

Selected entities are displayed in a light-grey colour and may appear in a dashed line style.