About Selection
You can select an item before or after a feature tool is activated. To select an item, you place your pointer over the item in the graphics window. If another item is above it, you can query the item. After the item preselection highlights, click it. You can select multiple items by pressing the CTRL key as you click. Creo Parametric builds a list of selected items or a "selection set" and indicates the number of items in the selection set in the Selected Items area located on the Status bar. For example, if you select three items, 3 selected is displayed in the Selected Items area. You can double-click the Selected Items area to open the Selected Items dialog box. This box contains the names of all items in the selection set. You can view the selection set and remove selected items.
When you select an item in the graphics window, the corresponding branch in the Model Tree expands up to the selected item and its node is highlighted. When you select Geometry or Vertices as filter, the tree expands either to the actual object selection or to the extended context object (feature or part that owns the selection). When you make a new selection, the previously auto expanded branch collapses, and the new selection gets auto located in the model tree.
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By default, on the model tree navigator,  , the Auto Locate in Tree check box is selected. If you clear the Auto Locate in Tree check box on the model tree navigator, you can right-click and use the Locate in Model Tree on the shortcut menu to locate the selection manually. |
If you are selecting while working in a feature tool, each tool has specific selection requirements that must be met. These requirements are governed by filters and collectors. To make querying and selecting easier, Creo Parametric provides filters that narrow the range of selectable items. These filters are located in the Filter box on the Status bar. After you select items and open a feature tool, Creo Parametric places the selected items in collectors.
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• Preselection highlighting is enabled by default. If you disable it, you must use a different selection method. Refer to the topic under See Also for more information. • By default, when you select an item in the Model Tree or Layer Tree, geometry corresponding to the selected tree item is highlighted in the graphics window. You can disable this highlighting of geometry by clicking and then clicking Highlight Geometry in the Model Tree or Layer Tree. |
Clearing a Selection
As you select items, you may want to clear the selection of an item from the selection set, chain, or surface set. You can clear a selection in the following ways:
• Working outside of a tool
◦ Holding down the CTRL key, click individual items to clear each one. For example, individual items in a surface set.
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• To clear the selection of the individual items from the ends of a chain, hold down the SHIFT key and click each item. To clear the selection of the entire chain, hold down the CTRL key and click the chain.
• You can also click Undo to clear all the selection.
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◦ Remove the item using the Selected Items dialog box.
◦ Clear the entire selection set, chain, or surface set by clicking in a vacant area in the graphics window.
◦ Right-click the Selected Items area and click Clear on the shortcut menu to clear the entire selection set.
• Working inside of a tool
◦ Clear a selected item or clear all items in the active collector either by using the Clear shortcut menu command from the graphics window, or the Remove or Remove All shortcut menu commands from within the collector itself.
◦ Holding down the CTRL key, click individual items to clear each one from the collector. For example, individual items in a chain or surface set, or the entire chain or surface set.
◦ Right-click the Selected Items area and click Clear on the shortcut menu to clear the selected items.
Working with a Selection
After you finish selecting, you can begin working on the selection set by doing any of the following:
• Activate a feature tool by clicking a toolbar button enabling you to directly manipulate the item in the graphics window, or to use the Dashboard. Note that all selections inside a feature tool are governed by the requirement of that tool. For example, you may only need to select one item to satisfy a Primary collector but multiple items for another collector.
• Right-click and use the shortcut menu commands to perform an action on the selection set.
• Use the menus on the Menu bar to perform an action on the selection set.
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If you cancel a feature tool, Creo Parametric restores the selection set that existed immediately before you opened the tool. This enables you to perform modeling actions on the selection set without having to recreate it.
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