Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Welcome to the ArchiCAD Video series!
Element selection is probably the most common user interaction
in BIM applications.
According to the basic concept of ArchiCAD
the model elements have to be selected prior to making any changes to them.
There are several selection methods available in ArchiCAD to make this
operation fast and comfortable.
This video gives you an overview of these useful techniques.
Let's see how easy to select individual model parts.
Just activate the Arrow Tool,
move the cursor over the desired element
and click with the left mouse button.
If the Quick selection option is turned on
you can click anywhere on the surface of the object,
otherwise you have to find a node or an edge.
Note that the Quick selection is active with the default ArchiCAD template.
The shape of the cursor informs you if you have found a selectable element.
It is a tick over element nodes,
a Mercedes sign over element edges
and a magnet on element surfaces.
ArchiCAD is consistent so the very same selection methods are available
in 3D views as well.
Pre-selection highlight informs you,
which element is about to be selected. This visual feedback is really useful in
complex situations when many elements have selectable parts
in a certain cursor position.
Note that you can toggle between the selectable parts with the Tab key.
More elements can be added to selection with Shift+click.
You can also remove items from the current selection with Shift+click.
Note that the selection remains active after the element modifications are completed.
In order the remove the selection hit the Escape key or click outside the selection.
While you are working with modeling or drafting tools
you can temporary switch
to selection mode by holding down the Shift key.
This useful technique is a great time saver
for ArchiCAD users.
The selection marquee is a very effective solution for selecting
multiple items.
It is simple to use:
keep the left mouse button pressed
and draw a shaded marquee around the required model parts.
The shape of the marquee can be changed
with the geometry method settings.
Rectangular and rotated rectangular marquees
will serve you well
in most cases. The Polygonal selection method could be useful in case you have to
select only a particular element
in a complex model.
There are three selection methods available in the Info Box.
The first one allows you to select
those model components,
which are partially included in the selection.
This is the default selection method
in ArchiCAD.
With the second one only those items are selected,
which are fully included in the selection marquee.
This option is extremely useful in complex 3D model views.
The third method
is the combination of the previous two.
If the selection rectangle is drawn
from left to right
it is considered as entire selection otherwise it works as partial selection.
In certain design situations you might have to select all elements
in the active view.
A typical example
is when you want to create a clean sheet by deleting everything on it.
Let's see how we can do it
in the fastest way.
Make the Arrow Tool active
and choose the Select All command from the Edit menu
and all elements will be selected instantly. If you prefer
to use keyboard shortcuts
just push the Ctrl+A key combination
for the same result.
Sometimes only elements of a given type
have to be modified or deleted.
As an example
let's select all the walls in this 3D view
so that we can change their layer.
The method is similar to the previous one
with one minor difference.
Instead of the Arrow tool make the Wall tool active.
Push the Ctrl+A key combination.
As you can see only the walls are selected, other model parts
remain intact.
You may also notice
that the Select All command
has changed to
Select all Walls
in the Edit menu.
Naturally the same technique can be used for other tools as well.
In complex design situations
it may also be required to select elements of a certain type located
in a specific area of the building.
Let's see an example.
Our building consists of two wings and we'd like to select only the columns
in the right side.
This complex task
can be performed easily
with the combination of two ArchiCAD techniques.
First create a marquee around the desired area.
Then select all columns within this area.
For this activate the Column Tool, push Ctrl+A and click.
The very same technique can be used in 3D views as well.
Let's see how.
Our task is to select all the columns on the first
two stories in the left side of the building.
Open the 3D window and
set a view, which shows all the desired elements. Create a 3D marquee around
the target area
and make it's height somewhere in the range
of the second story.
Activate the column tool and push the Ctrl+A key combination.
The required columns are selected instantly.
With the previously described methods you can comfortably pick those elements, which are
visually identifiable
in the active view. In certain design situations however the desired
elements have to be sorted
and selected by their non-visual properties. The Find & Select command
is an intelligent solution for these kinds of problems.
Let's see how it works.
We would like to select all the non load-bearing internal walls in this project.
Open the Find & Select palette from the Edit menu or use the Ctrl+F key combination.
In the upper part of the dialog
is the list of criteria.
The first one defines the element type.
Since we are looking for walls
let's set the wall type.
We know that
external walls are placed on the A-Wall-External layer
while the internal ones
are on other layers.
We can use this to find the internal walls.
Let's create a new criteria
with the add button and choose Layer.
Set the condition to "is not" and the criteria value
to A-Wall-External.
Since we are looking for non-structural walls add one more criteria
and choose "structural function".
For the criteria value set
non-load bearing. Once we are ready with defining the search conditions we can select
the element immediately
by pushing the + button.
The number of selected elements
is displayed at the bottom of the palette.
Further elements can be added to the selection
by creating new criterion.
In a similar logic
you can remove elements from the current selection with the -- button.
There is one more practical use Find & Select.
It allows you to find elements
similar to a selected object.
All you have to do
is define as many criteria as you need
and then pick up the properties
of the preferred element.
For this you can use the pipette button
or alternatively
Alt+click on the desired object.
Frequently used criteria sets can be saved
with a custom name for later use.
We have seen that
the clever use of ArchiCAD's intelligent selection techniques can boost your
productivity and reduce the time you have to spend on modeling
modeling and documentation.