Sandbox:Selection Methods

FreeCAD provides many ways to select objects in the 3D space and also in the Model and Task panes using both mouse and keyboard.

Simple selection
Simple left mouse click selection and hover Preselection are described in previous section Selecting objects

3D view repeated clicks
FIND example ways to refer to dif FreeCAd versions....

v0.18 First click selects face/edge/vertex under the mouse. Second click selects the whole object.

v0.19 First click selects element (say, edge). Second click in the same spot extends to whole object, third - to its container (Part, Body, other). Further clicks expand selection up the containment chain.

Select All, Box and Box element selection
Advanced mouse drag selection features for bulk selection of vertexes or faces are available using Std SelectAll Box Selection and Box Element Selection.

The Box selection modes revert to the default Std SelectAll, after any selection.

Selection View Panel
The Selection View Panel shows more information about all currently selected objects and provides many additional selection features.

Object Selection Export
In report view pane, highlight any text, then using keyboard ctl+c opens the Object select dialog. Note right click, then selecting copy does not open the dialog.

This allows selection of desired objects (Features?) to export, ie paste somewhere else in your FreeCAD document.



Model and Task panes
Items can be selected, or deselected, one at a time, by holding keyboard control key clicking left mouse button.

A range of items can be selected by left clicking on first item, then press and hold shift key and click on last item.

Selection of single item will also show the properties in property pane.

Double clicking will open any associate Task view containing a subset of common properties. Make sure to close this Task before switching to any other Workbench.

These methods are not always available, for example Path Workbench, Job - Operations - Base Geometry Pane.

Scripting
TO BE FINISHED

Gui.addSelection

Gui.Selection.Filters

addSelectionGate - RESTRICTS GUI from letting user selecting obj - you get a red circle stop sign with diagional line when mouse over item NOT in the selectionGate.

Example code: Selection of edges based on position and parent object. ...needs some tidy up before attaching. GEt TEH CODE tags for attaching as file, NOT inline!!!!

Final update as:Category:User Documentation