- [Instructor] Let's go a little deeper
into selection options.
Up on the main toolbar,
we have the Select Object tool you're already familiar with
and it's got a rectangular selection region by default.
That means when we click and drag with the mouse
we're going to create a rectangle.
And anything that that rectangle touches,
is going to be selected by default.
We have other selection regions from which to choose.
That's a flyout.
We can click and hold on that button,
and we see, we have a bunch of other options
such as a circle,
so I can click and drag to create a circle.
And anything that circle touches will be selected.
Or there's a lasso,
We can drag a lasso selection region.
And then any think that that lasso touches
or encloses will be selected.
We can switch between the various selection region modes
using the keyboard shortcut,
which is the same as the keyboard shortcut
for the select object tool itself.
It's Q.
So the Q button will activate the Select Object tool
if it's not already active.
To illustrate can go over and choose select and move,
and then press the Q key,
that will activate select object.
If I press Q again,
then I will move to the next selection region type.
Just keep pressing Q and we can cycle through all of those,
and I'm back at the rectangular selection region.
Selection work differently in wire frame or shaded modes.
In a wire frame view, the selection tools work on wires.
To select something you need to click
or click and drag on a wire.
So for example, if I go over here
and click in an empty space, nothing happens.
Even if I drag a rectangle there,
I don't select anything because no wire was under my cursor.
But if I go over to a shade of view
such as this perspective view and do the same thing,
click on that table group,
then that table group is selected.
Okay, so we're going to select literally
what is under the cursor.
Whether that's wire or a shaded surface.
And again, if I try to click on an area that has no wires
then I will not select anything.
Now regardless of the view port display mode
or the current selection region type,
by default if the selection region touches
any part of an object or its wire,
then that object is selected.
And that is called crossing the mode.
That means if the selection region crosses or touches
a wire or a surface, that object is selected.
So just illustrate, if I click and drag here
and just try to select the corner of that table
in Crossing mode, that table was crossed
by my selection region and that made the object selected.
We can change that behavior up here on the main toolbar.
We can switch out of Crossing mode
and go into something called Window mode.
And in Window mode,
we have to enclose the entire object for it to be selected.
So to illustrate, I'll click out here to select nothing,
drag a rectangle around the corner of that little table
and nothing happened.
In order to select an object,
I need to completely enclose within the window.
And that's most obvious with single objects and not groups.
So I've got these magazines here.
I can drag a rectangle around that magazine
and it is selected.
If I drag a rectangle
and slightly enclose the table here,
that table may or may not be selected.
It won't be selected if it's an object.
If it's the group, the rules are a little bit weird.
We'll talk about that in a moment.
But if we go over to our perspective view
which is a shade of view and do the same thing
I can click and drag to create a rectangle.
Notice that when I first clicked
it looked like that table was selected.
Then when I drag and released the mouse
now only the object that was completely enclosed
by that window is selected.
Okay, that can be useful sometimes
if you're trying to select something in a complex scene.
I want to make sure I'm only selecting one object.
Then I can drag a rectangle around that object
and it will be selected
but anything that my selection region touched
but didn't enclose, will not be selected.
Now just to complicate matters
the rules are different for groups.
If we're in Window mode,
and we do a selection of let's say this table
we may or may not select that table.
So that kind of breaks the rules a little bit.
I didn't completely enclose the table within my selection
but it got selected anyway.
In window mode,
the selection region needs to touch at least two
of the group nodes brackets.
But the brackets are invisible unless you open up the group.
And when you do that, the rules change yet again.
So it's kind of messy.
Window mode really works best
for single objects and sub objects or component.
Don't be surprised if you get unexpected results
when trying to select groups in Window mode.
The best way to select a group
is actually just to single click on it or it's wire
rather than using the selection region,
if you can help it.
All right, so that's how to use different selection regions
and use Window and Crossing modes.