[Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Have some feature requests, feedback, cool stuff to share, or want to know where FreeCAD is going? This is the place.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Read the FreeCAD code of conduct!
Hologram
Posts: 201
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2022 3:05 pm

[Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by Hologram »

Having read this topic: [Feature Request] disable deselect, I was thinking about the selection behaviour of FreeCAD in general. At the moment, if I want to select an edge of an object, I click it once. If I want to deselect it, I would have to click it again. And then there are the possibilities to click once to select a subobject, click twice to select the entire object, etc. (see: Selection methods in the Wiki).

This could be expanded to allow for more advanced selection and deselection methods. Blender, albeit a mesh modeller, offers plenty of additional selection methods that are well worth adding to CAD software. What I am proposing is this:

Ctrl + LMB click adds to the selection
Ctrl + LMB drag adds to the selection with a window selection

Alt + LMB click removes from the selection
Alt + LMB drag removes from the selection with a window selection
Window deselect.gif
Window deselect.gif (328.95 KiB) Viewed 1303 times
Shift + LMB click toggles selection (selects if deselected and deselects if selected)
Shift + LMB drag toggles selection (selects if deselected and deselects if selected)

But, you could also opt to use shift for advanced selection. Shift click one edge and shift click another one and it will do a shortest path selection (it will select all contiguous edges in between the two selected edges).
Pick shortest path.gif
Pick shortest path.gif (145.2 KiB) Viewed 1303 times
Another thing I noticed is that there currently is no way to deselect curves in the Sketcher workbench other than (Ctrl +) LMB clicking the curve again. So the sketcher and draft workbench would benefit from these more advanced selection methods as well.

To avoid accidental object selection after a second LMB click, you could add an option to use double click for that instead (or set a two times click threshold like the keyboard shortcut's multi key sequence delay).

Finally, I would like to have hotkeys to select all visible curves or to select inverse (select deselected & deselect selected). But that's probably also possible with a macro.
Select inverse.gif
Select inverse.gif (182.58 KiB) Viewed 1303 times
drmacro
Veteran
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by drmacro »

Have you seen this toolbar in Assembly 4?

It allows selection of edges, faces and vertexes.

Here I've added it to my global toolbar for quick access.
Attachments
Screenshot_20230201_095054.png
Screenshot_20230201_095054.png (40.94 KiB) Viewed 1260 times
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
drmacro
Veteran
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by drmacro »

Also, there is not much you can do with a bunch of selected faces or vertexes. It's not like Blender where you can select and extrude/rotate/etc.

Also, there is Shift-E (select element) and Shift-B (select box).

Also, see the Selection view to tell what you might have selected.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
Hologram
Posts: 201
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2022 3:05 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by Hologram »

Hi @drmacro,

No I haven't checked assembly 4. But my request isn't about selection modes (e.g. the 1, 2, 3 shortcuts in Blender or the Vertex, Edge, Face selection) you mention. These aren't mutually exclusive and should be used together with the selection modes I proposed. ;)
drmacro
Veteran
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by drmacro »

Hologram wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 4:12 pm Hi @drmacro,

No I haven't checked assembly 4. But my request isn't about selection modes (e.g. the 1, 2, 3 shortcuts in Blender or the Vertex, Edge, Face selection) you mention. These aren't mutually exclusive and should be used together with the selection modes I proposed. ;)
I simply note things that can be used today. You may or may not have known about them.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
User avatar
NewJoker
Veteran
Posts: 3014
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:49 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by NewJoker »

drmacro wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 3:19 pm Also, there is not much you can do with a bunch of selected faces or vertexes.
Unless you are working in the FEM workbench, for instance.
Hologram
Posts: 201
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2022 3:05 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by Hologram »

drmacro wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 6:00 pm I simply note things that can be used today. You may or may not have known about them.
Fair enough ;)
bleber
Posts: 259
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2016 5:12 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by bleber »

There are more advanced selection modes that are important to speed up things for example:
Select all edges same length and same parallelism to make same fillet.
GeneFC
Veteran
Posts: 5373
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:36 pm
Location: Punta Gorda, FL

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by GeneFC »

bleber wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:49 pm make same fillet.
Allows model breaking more rapidly. :lol:

Gene
drmacro
Veteran
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Re: [Feature request] Selection behaviour - more advanced options

Post by drmacro »

GeneFC wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:58 pm
bleber wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:49 pm make same fillet.
Allows model breaking more rapidly. :lol:

Gene
And, spectacularly I'd expect. ;)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
Post Reply