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Crossing window selection: groups


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If you do an alt-window entirely within an unfilled rectangle or polygon, the rectangle or polygon (or circle, etc.) is not selected. This makes sense.

If you do an alt-window somewhere within the boundaries of a group, regardless of whether or not you cross any member entities, the group is selected. Let's say your gridlines are grouped. You do a crossing window to select some items on the floor plan, perhaps to delete them. You can't do a normal window, since many other objects would be included, and there are enough objects such that it would take some time to click them one by one. Anyway, your grid group becomes selected. But you don't know this. Why? The OI palette says 'edit selection', but you're picking ten walls and one line. Okay. The grid group shows its handles, but you'd have to zoom out quite a way to see them.

The group's boundaries are used to determine whether or not the group is selected. You're not looking at a chunk of extra math if the member objects are tested as individuals; it'd be the same as though they were ungrouped. The only difference is that if you cross a member object, the entire group gets selected.

PLEASE??!!!

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Yes, I'm talking about holding down the Alt key while making a window to select all items the window crosses.

As I suspected, the behavior is by design, but please refer to my first note as to why it's inconsistent and inconvenient. Is there a particular reason -- or two or three -- other than ease of programming, why the group _boundaries_ are used?

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Ok, your gonna have to clarify this a bit. I have never even heard of an Alt-Window.

If your talking about holding down the alt key while using the 2D selection tool, yes this is the correct behavior. You are crossing the bounding box of the group so it selects the entire group.

I'll put in a wish list item for this, but since it's working as designed I don't know if they will do it or not.

Matthew GiampapaNNA Technical Support

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

quote:

Originally posted by TiTaNiuM sAMuRai:
Yes, I'm talking about holding down the Alt key while making a window to select all items the window crosses.

Generally this is referred to as a marquee. (As in the flashing lights around a movie title on movie marquees.)

Is there a particular reason -- or two or three -- other than ease of programming, why the group _boundaries_ are used?

I can't think of any, I suspect it's just something that people haven't generally complained about.

[ 05-24-2002: Message edited by: Andrew Bell@NNA ]

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I'd like to add my voice of complaint.

I have noticed this too and complained to our former computer whiz who said he would post it as a complaint... he never did...he no longer works here but that's a different story for better sunnier days.

When you select that group by mistake as described by titanium, and then you perform some edit function such as move or scale which you believe to be applied only to those objects you think you have selected (remember you can't see the group and you can't see the selection handles of the group because you are zoomed in reall close, the group is edited as well. You then carry on blithely ignorant of what hass happened and exactly 101 moves down the road you realize you have scaled your group up by 1.01 and nothing is the right size anymore or it has moved some fraction of an inch and there are no reference points to get it back to where it was.

you can see where this might be a problem.

I think it is cause for complaint . The marquee may perform as designed, therefore the design is flawed.

Regards

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I'd like to add my voice of complaint.

I have noticed this too and complained to our former computer whiz who said he would post it as a complaint... he never did...he no longer works here but that's a different story for better sunnier days.

When you select that group by mistake as described by titanium, and then you perform some edit function such as move or scale which you believe to be applied only to those objects you think you have selected (remember you can't see the group and you can't see the selection handles of the group because you are zoomed in reall close, the group is edited as well. You then carry on blithely ignorant of what hass happened and exactly 101 moves down the road you realize you have scaled your group up by 1.01 and nothing is the right size anymore or it has moved some fraction of an inch and there are no reference points to get it back to where it was.

you can see where this might be a problem.

I think it is cause for complaint . The marquee may perform as designed, therefore the design is flawed.

Regards

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