Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
AutoCAD's
Selection preview
features remove a lot of doubt about which ob-
jects you're selecting.
Rollover highlighting
displays individual objects with a
thick, dashed lineweight as you move the crosshairs over them.
Area selection
dis-
plays a transparent, colored highlight over multiple selections when you use Win-
dow and Crossing options. You can enable and disable both features on the Selec-
tion tab of the Options dialog box (refer to Figure 10-1).
The following example demonstrates how to use the ERASE command in command-first
mode with several different selection options. The selection techniques used in this ex-
ample apply to most AutoCAD editing commands.
1. Open a drawing that contains some objects, or start a new drawing and create
some lines, arcs, or circles.
You needn't be too particular drawing these because you're going to blow them
away in the following steps.
2. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and no objects are selected.
If any objects are selected when you start an editing command, the com-
mand, in most cases, will operate on those objects (selection-first editing) instead
of prompting you to select objects (command-first editing). For the reasons that I
describe in the section “Commanding and Selecting,” earlier in this chapter, I re-
commend that you use command-first editing style until you're thoroughly familiar
with it. Later, you can experiment with selection-first editing if you like. (Just re-
verse the sequence of commanding and selecting that I describe in this chapter.)
3. Click the Erase button on the Home tab's Modify panel.
AutoCAD displays the
Select objects
prompt at the command line and, if Dy-
namic Input is enabled on the status bar, the Dynamic Input tooltip.
4. Select two or three individual objects by clicking each one.
AutoCAD adds each object to the selection set. All the objects you select remain
highlighted, and AutoCAD continues to display the
Select objects
prompt.
5. Specify a window selection box that completely encloses several objects.
Move the crosshairs to a point below and to the left of the objects, click, release the
mouse button, move the crosshairs above and to the right of the objects, and click
again.
