I think I'll wait for you to release the V3 beta before I make any more assumptions, the best thing is to try it out and get a feel for it instead of trying to imagine how it would be in the workflow.

Cheers

Hi Danny, so one thing I have to decide is whether filtering should only limit selections to the filtered items or whether it should limit both selection and deselection actions.

Or would it be better to have deselections still work without restriction even when a filter is in place?

Any guess on this part?

- Michael

On what is the Filter ?
Names ? Visible/no visible? Alphabetic: Normal / Inverse...

Hi Pilou - the filter is a state that you can set on a scene browser item. Once it is set it will limit selection so that only objects that match that item will be selected.

So for example - set a filter on Style = Red. now when you click in the viewport or do any other selection method it will only select things that have style = red.

You'll be able to use this in combination with other selection methods - for example set a filter on Style = Red and then go to the Types section and select curves - only red curves will get selected due to the filter being active.

- Michael

Any chance circular selection method makes it into v.3?

Hi Grendel - it's possible but it's not particularly high on the radar since circular selection hasn't really been mentioned very often as far as I remember.

If it's an important feature for you, put it on the Top 5 feature request list for v3 thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3628.1

Would you expect it to select things only entirely inside the circle or anything that touches the circle? Or would it be for selecting control points only?

- Michael

""""""""Would you expect it to select things only entirely inside the circle or anything that touches the circle? Or would it be for selecting control points only?""""

Personally I have looked for this when doing point editing.

I would use it either to select inside or outside depending on the situation. I honestly do not use a lot of control point editing as I lean toward more mechanical things than organic product type stuff.

Hi Grendel,

> I would use it either to select inside or outside depending on the situation.

Could you describe a bit more about what you mean by selecting the outside? Instead of selecting everything to the outside, would it work to do a select all and then do a deselect with a circle selection tool to remove selection of things inside the circle?

Basically for regular selection of full objects there are 2 choices - should only objects that are completely contained within the circle be selected, or should any object that touches the circle even partially be selected?

- Michael

So a circular selection right to left touching or left to right strict similar rectangle selection existing ;)

Hi Pilou, well probably a circular selection would be done with the first point at the center, not quite corner-to-corner like the regular rectangular selection.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> so one thing I have to decide is whether filtering
> should only limit selections to the filtered items or
> whether it should limit both selection and deselection actions.

I'd always expect both selection and deselection, that's because all the other CAD programs I've used throughout my career work this way, the only difference between these and MoI is that the other programs use a modifier key with the mouse click to deselect.

-

Yes :)
point the center then go to the Left = all touching the circular surface is selected
point the center then go to the Right = all inside the circular surface is selected

A circular 3D Selection? So a sphere selection ;)
Same above 2D Selection : just second click is Z Left/ Right selection

Hi Pilou,

> point the center then go to the Left = all touching the circular surface is selected
> point the center then go to the Right = all inside the circular surface is selected

Unfortunately this leaves the starting at the center and going straight up or down as indeterminate... That's kind of different with a rectangular selection since a corner-to-corner rectangle straight up or down is a degenerate flat line, but that's not the case with a circle.

So I'm not so sure that the same left/right mechanism fits quite as well with a circle from center point.... Maybe.

- Michael

The circle could be a corner to corner also.. And a modifier key would constrain a perfect circle.. So "elliptical" selection also!!

< So I'm not so sure that the same left/right mechanism fits quite as well with a circle from center point.... Maybe
Why not : )
Seems a click center point + second click give all possibilities: circular surfaces or Spheres :)

I was thinking

Select center point
drag for diameter
click
arrows bracket the circle line inside and out
click inner to select inside circle, click outer to select outside

the circle would affect anything inside or touching....or outside and touching if an outside selection is needed

The filter sounds great, looking forward to try it!

In some situations locking the solids only will be nice to prevent accidental sub-object selection.

Marc

Hi Grendel,

> arrows bracket the circle line inside and out
> click inner to select inside circle, click outer to select outside
>
> the circle would affect anything inside or touching....or outside
> and touching if an outside selection is needed

The problem with that, is that extra inside/outside step would be really inconsistent with how other selection tools works.

Like for example if you do a rectangular selection right now, there isn't any extra stage to do that kind of inside/outside step - instead the way you do that with the rectangular selection is to first do a "select all" and then do a rectangular selection but hold down the ctrl key which makes it do a deselection of the things captured by it, that produces a rectangular hole in the selection.

It's good if other kinds of selection tools would work in a more consistent manner to the existing ones, rather than having a really different kind of flow to them like the arrow bracket inside/outside step like you've described here...

- Michael

I love these threads where Michael is explaining his rational for features, specifically:

"Things like a permanent extra button means that some beginning user who just wants to do simple things and doesn't need to do any filtering will pay some price in UI complexity for something that they don't use. That's the kind of thing I'm trying hard to avoid."

Implied in this is an often overlooked psychology principle, hierarchy of knowledge and its unconscious effect on emotions, which is required for efficient teaching/learning.
Its at once disheartening and exciting to see that while my University professors are forgetting it, Michael is actively employing it in the indirectly related field of UI design!

I believe that its such things, considered small by modern standards of judgment, that are the reason why many people are grappled by MOI, at first emotionally and then intellectually.