AutoCAD 2004. One Step at a Time (Part 1)

10.5 Object Selection Filters “ Quick Filters

Selection filters have been available to CAD operators for quite some time; but the introduction of the Quick Select dialog box makes them friendly, convenient , and easy to use!

Use the QSelect command to access the dialog box (Figure 10.5a). The dialog box may appear a bit frightening at first; but once mastered, you'll find it irreplaceable.

Figure 10.5a:

Let's take a look.

• At the top of the box, you find the Apply to control box. Here, AutoCAD allows you to apply the data listed in the rest of the dialog box to the Entire drawing or to the Current selection (once a selection has been made).

• Create a selection set to which you can apply the data listed in the dialog box by picking on the Select objects button to the right of the Apply to control box. AutoCAD will return you to the graphics area where you can select the objects with which you want to work.

• The Object type control box acts as your first filter. Picking the down arrow will produce a list of the objects currently in use in the drawing (or the selection set). You can select the type of object with which to work, or Multiple if you wishes to apply the filters to more than one type of object.

• The Properties box allows you to filter the selection by specific properties.

• The Operator and Value control boxes work together. The Operator box allows you to set the filter: equal to , not equal to , less than or greater than the value set in the Value box. The properties shown in the Value box depend on the property selected in the Properties box.

• The How to apply: frame allows you to use the filters above to include or exclude objects from the selection set.

It really isn't as difficult as it sounds. Let's use filters to repeat what we did in the first part of our last exercise.

Do This: 10.5.1 Selection Practice with Filters

Reopen the sel-prac drawing in the C:\Steps\Lesson10 folder.

3. Follow these steps.

   Tools	Command Sequence	Steps
   No Button Available	Command: qselect	1. Open the Quick Select dialog box by typing qselect at the command prompt. Alternately, you can pick Quick Select from the Tools pull-down menu.
   		2. Tell AutoCAD you want to select some nodes “ pick the down arrow in the Object type control box and pick Point .
   		3. We'll filter the nodes by layer. Select Layer in the Properties box.
   		4. Leave the Operator box set to =Equals , but change the Value to the OBJ5 layer.
   		5. Pick the OK button to conclude the filter process. Notice that AutoCAD highlights the same nodes we selected in Steps 2, 3, and 4 of our last exercise.
   	Command: e	6. Enter the Erase command or pick the Erase button on the Modify toolbar. AutoCAD erases the objects (Figure 10.5.1.6a).
   	Figure 10.5.1.6a:
   	Command: quit	7. Quit the drawing. Don't save your changes.