Entity Selection - Setting behavior
For many commands, especially the commands for modifying and detailing entities, you need to select drawing entities. To select entities, you do not enter a separate command. Instead, you use selection tools.
Selected entities are highlighted by default. You can customize entity selection previewing and highlighting (see Topic "Previewing and Highlighting of Entity Selections" in the ARES Commander Help Files).
To select entities:
1- Enter a command that requires you to select entities. The following prompt appears:
Specify entities»
2- To view all options for entity selection, specify the ? option:
Specify entities» ?
Specify a point or Window, Last, Crossing, Box, All, Fence, WPolygon, CPolygon, EGroup, Add, Remove, Multiple, Previous, Undo, Auto, Single
Specify entities»
(For a description of each of the entity selection options, see Topic "Applying Entity Selection Methods" in the ARES Commander Help Files").
3- In the graphics area, select entities.
Selections are highlighted by default.
All entities you select are added to a selection set.
4- Continue adding entities to the selection set or removing entities from it.
To remove previously selected entities from the selection set, press Shift and select entities.
5- After selecting all desired entities, finish the selection by pressing Enter. The current command resumes.
Customizing Entity Selection
Until this point, it's safe to say that the concept is pretty simple, but on occasion, there are specific scenarios or needs from different users, that may want to change the selection workflow in order to speed up their work: The most common request is how to change how to software handles subsequent selections.
This can be addressed via the System Variable PICKADD.
The System Variable PICKADD determines whether subsequent entity selections add the entities to the current selection or replace them.
The variable can have the following values:
0
Adding entities is turned off. The most recently selected entities replace the previous selection and become the selection set.
1
Adding entities is turned on. The most recently selected entities are added to the selection set.
2
Adding entities is turned on. The most recently selected entities are added to the selection set. If you used the SELECT command, entities remain selected after the command ends.
Note: When the replace mode is active (0), press Shift during selection to add entities to the selection. When the add mode is active (1), press Shift during selection to remove entities from the selection.
Note: To invoke/change the value of any system variable, just type the variable name in the ARES Commander command line, and press Enter.
For more information concerning System Variables, please refer to the topic "System Variables", in the Contents tab of the ARES Commander Help Files.