Selection commands

Dedicated selection commands let you select by object properties.

Selection categories

All objects

Action order

Annotation

Blocks

Cages

Control Points

Curves

Duplicates

History

Invert

Layers and Groups

Lights

Meshes

Object type

Point

Polysurfaces

Properties

Surfaces

Select object basics

Note

• When you make a window selection, objects completely enclosed in the selection rectangle are selected.
• To make the mouse always use either a window or crossing selection, see Mouse Options, Mouse group select.

See: SelWindow

Note

• When you make a crossing selection, all objects inside or partially inside the selection rectangle are selected.
• To make the mouse always use either a window or crossing selection, see Mouse Options, Mouse group select.

Selection menu

If several objects appear to be stacked in the area of the cursor and Rhino is not able to tell which one you want to select, the Selection Menu appears.

When the Selection Menu pops up, the current object and its designation in the list highlight.

To configure the selection menu, see: Selection Menu Options, or right-click the Selection Menu title bar.

Select sub-parts of objects

For many commands, you can select sub-parts of objects or specified object types to allow you to restrict selection in a tight area.

Examples include:

• Curve and surface control points
• Polysurface and extrusion faces and edge curves
• Surface edge curves
• Mesh vertices, faces, boundaries, and edges
• Objects within a group

Selecting sub-objects with a mouse

You can select sub-objects with a mouse before a command starts (pre-select) or during a command (post-select).

Select sub-parts with a command-line filter

Command-line selection filters work on a more limited set of sub-objects for commands that ask you to select objects after the command starts (post-select). These commands let you use filters to pick a sub-part of an object or specific objects rather than the whole object.

Pre-select/Post-select

For commands requiring selected objects as input, the objects can be selected before starting the command or after starting the command. Normally pre-selecting objects saves steps; however, in some cases the prompts and options for the command may be slightly different depending on the order used. When objects are pre-selected the possibilities include:

• The command determines that the objects can be used and proceeds without further prompting.
• The command may proceed, but the result may be unexpected.
• The command cannot determine which objects are to be used and the pre-selected objects are unselected, and you are prompted to select specific objects again.
• Options may not appear at the command prompt.

The Select command selects objects.

The SelAll command selects all objects.

The SelNone command deselects all objects.

The SelNone command does not run inside a command to clear pre-selected objects.

The SelCrossing command selects with a crossing window.

The SelWindow command selects with an enclosing window.

The Invert command deselects all selected objects and selects all visible objects that were not previously selected.

The SelBadObjects command selects all objects that do not pass Check.

Delete or rebuild the object.

The SelVisible command selects all surfaces or meshes that are in front of other objects in the active viewport with a crossing selection.

The SelSmall command selects all objects smaller than the specified size.

The Lasso command selects objects by sketching an irregular shape around them.

The lasso uses the Tracking lines color set in Color Options.

Note

• Objects outside the viewport boundaries but within the boundaries of the selection object can be selected.
• The view can be panned during the selection to bring more objects into view.
• Use the CullControlPolygon command to hide control points and mesh vertices behind objects.

The SelBoundary command selects objects based on a boundary defined by an existing closed curve.

The SelBrush command selects objects based on painting a thick brush stroke.

The brush uses the tracking color.

The SelBrushPoints command selects points, control points, and points within a point cloud with a drag of the mouse to simulate a brush stroke.

To unselect, press Ctrl while brushing selected points.

The SelCircular command draws a circle to select objects.

The SelBox commands selects objects with point samples inside/outside/crossing a box-shaped volume.

It will not select objects that should not be included, but may miss an object if the point samples miss the selection box.

The SelVolumePipe command selects objects inside, outside, or crossing a pipe-shaped volume.

The SelVolumeSphere command selects objects inside, outside, or crossing a spherical volume.

The SelDim command selects all dimensions.

The SelDot command selects all annotation dots.

The SelLeader command selects all leaders.

The SelText command selects all text.

The AddNextU command adds the control point in the positive u direction to the selection.

The AddNextV command adds the control point in the positive v direction to the selection.

The AddPrevU command adds the control point in the negative u direction to the selection.

The AddPrevV command adds the control point in the negative v direction to the selection.

The NextU command selects the control point in the positive u direction.

The NextV command selects the control point in the positive v direction.

The PrevU command selects the control point in the negative u direction.

The PrevV command selects the control point in the negative v direction.

The SelConnected command selects adjacent control points.

The SelU command selects all control points in the u direction.

Double click-and-drag to select and immediately drag a row of control points.

The SelUV command selects all control points in the u and v directions.

Double click-and-drag to select and immediately drag a row of control points.

The SelV command selects all control points in the v direction.

Double click-and-drag to select and immediately drag a row of control points.

The SelClippingPlane command selects all clipping planes.

The SelExtrusion command selects all objects created as light-weight extrusions.

The SelHatch command selects hatch objects.

The SelLight command selects all lights.

The SelMappingWidget command selects all texture mapping widgets.

The SelNamedViewWidget command selects all named view widget objects.

The SelPictureFrame command selects all objects created with the PictureFrame command.

The SelCrv command selects all curves.

The SelShortCrv command selects all curves less than a specified length.

The SelClosedCrv command selects all closed curves.

The SelChain command selects curve or surface edges that touch end-to-end.

The SelLine command selects all lines and straight, higher degree curves. For example, a straight degree three curve with four points will be selected, but a degree three curve with five or more points will not be selected.

The SelPolyline command selects all polylines.

The SelClosedMesh command selects all closed mesh objects.

The SelMesh command selects all mesh objects.

The SelNakedMeshEdgePt command selects unwelded vertices on polygon mesh edges.

Note

• Polygon mesh vertices are not completely surrounded by faces are displayed.
• Joined meshes, such as those made by the MeshBox command, have naked mesh edge points where the sub-meshes are joined.
• To eliminate naked mesh edge points, match them in pairs, and then use the Weld command to make a single mesh that cannot be exploded. Edges that formerly rendered sharp will shade rounded, unless you use the FlatShade command.

The SelOpenMesh command selects all open mesh objects.

The InvertPt command deselects all selected control or edit points and selects all visible control or edit points that were not previously selected.

The SelPt command selects all point objects.

The SelPtCloud command selects all point cloud objects.

The SelPolysrf command selects all polysurfaces.

The SelClosedPolysrf command selects all closed polysurfaces.

The SelOpenPolysrf command selects all open polysurfaces.

The SelNonManifold command selects non-manifold polysurface objects.

The SelSrf command selects all surfaces.

The SelClosedSrf command select all closed surfaces.

The SelOpenSrf command selects all open surfaces.

The SelTrimmedSrf command selects all trimmed surfaces.

The SelUntrimmedSrf command selects all untrimmed surfaces.

The SelColor command selects all objects of a specified color. Objects enclosed in block instances or groups are not selected.

The SelID command selects objects by object ID number.

The SelLinetype command selects objects with the specified linetype.

The SelMaterialName command selects objects with the same render material name assigned by object or by layer.

The SelName command selects object by name.

The SelRenderColor command selects objects by their (diffuse) render color. Objects enclosed in block instances are not selected. Objects enclosed in groups are selected.

The SelKey command selects objects by their user attribute key.

The SelValue command selects objects by their user attribute value.

The SelKeyValue command selects objects by their user attribute key and value.

The SelBlockInstance command selects all block instances.

The SelBlockInstanceNamed command selects all block instances of a specified name.

The SelGroup command selects a group by name

The SelLayer command selects all objects on a layer.

The SelLayerNumber command selects objects by layer number.

Note

• The number of the first layer is zero.
• Each layer has a number that is assigned to it for a Rhino editing session.
• The numbers may change when the model is closed and then reopened.
• This number has nothing to do with the order the layers appear in the layer dialog box.
• Deleted layers keep their number.

The SelCaptives command selects captive objects set up using the CageEdit command.

The SelControls command selects cage control objects set up using the CageEdit command.

The SelObjectsWithHistory command selects objects that have history.

The SelChildren command selects child objects of the currently selected objects.

The SelParents command selects parent objects of the currently selected objects.

The SelLast command selects the last changed objects, including importing objects.

The SelPrev command re-selects the previous selection set.

The SelDup command selects objects that are geometrically identical with another object, visible, and in the same location regardless of other object properties.

The SelDupAll command selects all visible objects that are geometrically identical, including the original.

Since this command selects both the copies and the originals, it lets you find objects that have been changed by comparing a before and after version of the model.

Compare to the SelDup command, which selects all visible objects that are geometrically identical, excluding the original.

See also

Select objects

Edit objects using control points.