Bruce Kieffer Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I'm not able to select an object behind another object even though my smart cues can latch on to that object. Force select doesn't work either. I'm in top/plan and all the objects are 2D. How do I select the object behind? Quote Link to comment
Dieter @ DWorks Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Holding shift and drag a rectangle around it? Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Thanks DWorks. That is a fair solution, but I also then get other objects selected as well. Option/shift can narrow it down a bit, and then I can shift clcik to deselect the other objects. OK, so how does force select work? I can't get it to do anything, and frustratingly, searching the VW help for "force select" results in nothing. Quote Link to comment
bc Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I believe force select is for selecting objects on other layers. After selection you are now on the layer the object is on. Remember when we couldn't even snap to objects on other layers? Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Bruce Force selecting an object (especially one who's layer and/or class is set to grey) will cause that object's layer and class to be come the active layer and class and the object to be selected. And you're right... searching for it in help returns nothing useful. mk Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 I must have some setting wrong. I cannot get force select to work. Not for classes or layers or anything. Is there a movie somewhere that shows how it works? Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Sometimes carefully reaching behind the monitor gets it! Quote Link to comment
grant_PD Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I seem to be able to get this to work. I hold down the "j" key to enable x ray mode (so glad that VW12 didn't ship with glasses for that) and then right click to bring up context menu and force select. My only beef is that I wish "j" was a toggle and not a hold down. If it was that...SuperCool. Quote Link to comment
bc Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Have you tried looking under "coincident object selection" in the not-so-helpful help? Quote Link to comment
Bret Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Have you tried looking under "coincident object selection" in the not-so-helpful help? This is the VW2012 tool you're looking for. "Force Select" will select the topmost object under your cursor, adjusting the active layer/class settings as necessary to make it possible. Quote Link to comment
Jonathan Pickup Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 on my vectorworks 2012 the J key is used for coincident selection and the b is used for the X-ray mode Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) I'm using 2011. Got no x-ray mode that I know of. I do have a force select command that does nothing in 2D. I did get it to work kind of in right iso view. I searched for coincident object selection in the VW help. Nothing. Edited October 14, 2011 by Bruce Kieffer Quote Link to comment
atari2600 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 In the "top/plan" 2d world, I will typically send the objects that are on top the bottom, in order to successfully grab the object below it. My shortcut for that is "ctrl B". in the menu it's under Modify/Send/Send to back. When I am done editing the object, I may either send it to the back again, or send the other stuff forward. hope this helps. Matt Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Matt, As I read the menu command tip (hover for a moment and it appears), force select should eliminate the need to change the stacking order of objects. Quote Link to comment
atari2600 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I know it might be misleading, but I believe "force select" is primarily intended to select objects which are either visible or grey, but on an inactive layer or outside of a current group. Just playing around with stacked objects, it seems that force select doesn't work with items underneath of eachother, since the moment I right click over an object, it will automatically select whatever object is on top. Perhaps 2012's "x-ray mode" will make this less cumbersome. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) I think I have it figured out. Force Select only works when classes are not set to snap/modify others. It sure would be nice if the VW help program was actually helpful. I just spoke with tech support, and they too (the person I spoke to) was unaware of how Force Select is suppose to work. I was told to send the front object to the back. Not what I want to do. Edited October 14, 2011 by Bruce Kieffer Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 I am a bit miffed that tech support doesn't know how Force Select works. Darn if the screen hint doesn't say how it suppose to work (see the screen shot attached). Too bad it's half baked, or possibly one of the numerous VW 2011 bugs that never got fixed. Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Hi Bruce, Funny I've never been able to make it work until now after reading the tooltip in your image. Its a bit odd, but here's what you do - Click on the object that you want to select. It won't select (in my case it was on a greyed layer). Now right click and choose force select from the contextual menu. Magically the object was selected..... Odd workflow, but it seemed to work.... Kevin Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Kevin, What are your View/Class Options set to? Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Layers are set to Grey/Snap Others Classes are set to Show/Snap/Modify Others KM Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Yea. To make it work Jupiter and Mars have to be aligned! I see it works on greyed layer objects. That makes sense. I have my layers and classes set to show/snap/modify others. Force select does not work with those settings. Tech support should know this stuff. Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 It works with those settings on for me. But if you have objects on a non-active layer that's not greyed out you can select them with or without Force Select. Also - you don't need to click on the object before Right Click>Force Select. Just hover over the object and Right Click>Force Select. I don't believe there is a way yet to directly select objects beneath the top object in a stack. I remember a plugin in somewhere for cycling through a selection of stacked objects. Likewise if you select several objects you can cycle through them in the OIP. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 Noper! Can't make the sucker work. See the attatched file. Can you get force select to select the little box under the big box? Quote Link to comment
Jonathan Pickup Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 this will become easier in Vectorworks 2012, using the x-ray mode... Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 Yes, but shouldn't it work in 2011? Quote Link to comment
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