Introducing Object Selection

In the user interface, selection commands or functions appear in the following areas:

The buttons on the main toolbar are a direct means of selection. The Selection Floater, available from the Tools menu, is easy to use, while the Edit menu provides more general selection commands, plus methods of selecting objects by property. Track View and Schematic View let you select objects from a hierarchical list.

The quickest way to select an object is from the Transform quadrant of the quad menu, where you can easily switch among the Move, Rotate, Scale, and Select modes. Choose any of these and click on the object you want to select in the viewport.

Another quick way to select an object is to use keyboard shortcuts for the Select by Name command. Press H on the keyboard then select the object by name from the list. This is the most foolproof way to ensure you select the correct object when you have many overlapping objects in the scene.

Another way to select an object is to click one of these buttons, then click the object.

Select

Selection Objects

Select And Move Mode

Select And Rotate Mode

Select And Uniform Scale Mode

Select And Manipulate

The main toolbar has several selection-mode buttons. When any of the selection buttons is active, the program is in a state where you can select objects by clicking them.

Of the selection buttons, you use Select Object or Selection Floater when you want selection only. The remaining buttons let you both select and transform or manipulate your selection. Use transforms to move, rotate, and scale your selection. See Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Objects and Select and Manipulate.

The Selection toggle, available from the toolbar, switches between Window and Crossing modes when you select by region. In Window mode, you select only the objects within the selection. In Crossing mode, you select all objects within the region, plus any objects crossing the boundaries of the region.

The Edit menu contains selection commands that operate globally on your objects.

Edit menu selection commands include:

Select All

Select None

Select Invert

Select By Color

Select By Name (Edit Menu) (also a toolbar button)

Select by Rectangular Region

Select by Circular Region

Select by Fence Region

Select by Lasso Region

Region Window (also a toolbar button)

Region Crossing (also a toolbar button)

Edit Named Selections

The Tools menu contains two options for modeless selection dialogs or "floaters." You can place them anywhere on the screen, or minimize them by right-clicking the title bar and choosing Minimize.

The Tools menu contains an option for a modeless selection dialog called the Selection Floater. You can place it anywhere on the screen.

The Selection Floater has the same features as Select By Name. See Selection Floater.

Track View is primarily designed as an animation tool, but you can also use its Hierarchy List window as an alternative method of selecting objects by name and hierarchy. This works in both the Curve Editor and Dope Sheet modes of Track View.

Schematic View is specifically designed to let you navigate your scene efficiently, presenting a hierarchical view and letting you select objects and their properties by name.

The Display panel provides options for hiding and freezing objects. These techniques exclude objects from other selection methods, and are useful in simplifying complex scenes. Frozen objects are still visible, but hidden objects are not.