Selecting and modifying

Before most changes you select what to change. This chapter describes how elements are highlighted and selected, how a selection is refined, how selected elements are dragged, and the tools of the Modify panel. Everything here works the same in the desktop app and in the browser.

Highlighting and selecting

Move the cursor over an element: its lines are drawn wider, the status bar at the bottom of the window names it (category and type, as Walls : Exterior wall…), and after a moment the same words appear under the cursor. Click to select the highlighted element. A selected element is drawn in the selection colour in every view where it shows, and the count at the right end of the status bar says how many elements are selected.

A right click on an element selects it and opens the context menu. Esc, or a click on an empty spot, clears the selection.

Windows work in plans, sections, sheets and 3D views. In a 3D view the left button selects; the right button orbits and the middle button pans (see The interface).

Elements close together: TAB

When elements lie close together or one over the other, the one highlighted may not be the one you want. Keep the cursor still and press Tab: the next element under the cursor is highlighted and the status bar names it. Shift+Tab goes back. Click to select the highlighted element. In a 3D view Tab goes from the nearest element to the ones behind it; on a sheet, through views placed one over the other.

Chains of walls and lines

Walls and lines joined end to end form a chain. With the cursor on one of them, Tab highlights the whole chain (the status bar says Chain of n joined elements); a click selects it. A chain can mix walls with room separation lines and area boundaries; detail lines chain with the detail lines of their view. Where three or more meet, the chain goes on along the one that makes the smallest angle with the last; a wall that stops against another one between its ends takes the chain on along that wall.

Part of a chain. Select the first element of the part, move the cursor over the last one and press Tab: the elements between them are highlighted. Tab again highlights the whole chain, a third time the last element alone. Click to select what is highlighted. On a closed chain the part goes round by the side where the cursor is: near the end of the last element that one way round reaches first.

Elements joined at a point. Select an element and keep the cursor on it, near an end where others are joined. Tab highlights it with the nearest one joined there; Tab again, every element joined there. Click to select them.

A selected chain. Where two selected walls or lines meet, a round control appears. Drag it to move the joint: the selected ends there move together and stay joined; elements not selected are left where they are. Drag the chain with Shift to move it whole, horizontally or vertically; drag it with Ctrl to place a copy.

Filtering a selection

Click the count in the status bar, or Filter on the contextual tab, to open Filter. It lists the categories in the selection, how many elements each has, and the total. Untick a category to leave its elements out: the selection and the count in the status bar follow at once. Check all and Check none tick or untick every category. OK keeps the selection, Cancel brings back the one you started with.

Select All Instances

Right-click an element ▸ Select All Instances, then Visible in View (the elements of the same type shown in the active view) or In Entire Project. Typing SA and Enter does the same as Visible in View. The element must have a type: rooms, for example, have none.

Dragging elements

Drag a selected element to move it; the whole selection moves together, and one drag is undone by one Ctrl+Z. A temporary dimension shows the move, and the status bar its length (Move: 1500). With Select and Drag turned on in the status bar, an element can be dragged without selecting it first; with it off, a drag that starts on an element not selected draws a window.

• A wall joined at its ends to walls that are not selected moves square to itself only, and the joined walls stretch to stay joined. Walls that stop against it follow too. Hold Shift to move it freely; the joined walls still follow.
• Any other element moves freely; hold Shift to keep the move horizontal or vertical.
• Doors and windows move with their wall and keep their place along it. Dragged on their own, they slide along the wall; dropped on another wall, they move into it.
• Hold Ctrl when you start dragging to place a copy instead.

Elements are dragged in plans, sections and elevations (along the view), on sheets (views), and in 3D views, where they move on the horizontal plane where you grabbed them. The arrow keys move the selection a small step, rounded to a tidy value at the zoom of the view; with Shift, ten steps.

The Modify tools

The Modify panel of the contextual tab has three rows: Align, Offset, Mirror - Pick Axis, Mirror - Draw Axis, Split Element, Split with Gap; Move, Copy, Rotate, Trim/Extend to Corner, Trim/Extend Single Element, Trim/Extend Multiple Elements; Array, Scale, Pin, Unpin, Delete. The status bar says what each tool expects next, and the options bar shows its options. Esc cancels the step in progress; pressed again, it ends the tool.

Move, Copy, Rotate, the two Mirror tools, Array and Scale work on the selection. Started with nothing selected, they let you select first (clicks, Ctrl, windows, Tab), then go on when you press Enter or End on the options bar.

Move, Copy and Rotate also work in 3D views: their points are taken on the plane of the level clicked.

Before each click the tool shows what the click would do: the selection drawn where it would go (moved, copied, turned, mirrored about the axis under the cursor, offset to the cursor's side, aligned to the reference), following the cursor, with the distance or the angle beside it.

Where a tool asks for a second point, you can type a distance (or an angle) instead and press Enter: it shows next to the cursor while you type, and is measured towards the cursor.

Move

Click a base point, then the destination. The tool ends and the elements stay selected. Options:

• Constrain: the move is along or square to the selected wall (horizontal or vertical for other elements);
• Disjoin: walls joined to the moved ones do not follow, and a door or window can be moved onto another wall;
• Copy: copies are placed instead; with Multiple, one at each click until Esc.

Copy

As Move, but a copy is placed. With Multiple, a copy at each click until Esc; Constrain as for Move.

Rotate

The centre of rotation shows at the middle of the selection; drag it to put it elsewhere. Click the first ray, then the second: the selection turns by the angle between them, shown by a temporary angular dimension. Instead of the second ray, type the angle and press Enter, or type it in Angle on the options bar and press Enter. Copy turns a copy; without Disjoin, walls joined to the turned ones follow.

Mirror

Mirror - Pick Axis: click a wall, a grid or a line as the axis. Mirror - Draw Axis: click two points. Copy is ticked: a mirrored copy is placed; untick it to mirror the elements themselves.

Array

Linear: click two points. Number is how many elements in all. With Move To: 2° the two points give the spacing; with Last, the last element goes to the second point and the others are spread evenly. Constrain keeps the direction along or square to the selection.

Radial: drag the centre where the copies turn about, click the first ray, then the second (or type the angle and press Enter, also in Angle). With 2° the angle is between neighbours, with Last it is the whole span.

Offset

Moves a wall or a line square to itself, or places a copy (Copy is ticked).

• Numerical: set Offset, then click the element on the side it should go to. Press Tab first to offset the whole chain (of the same category) as one: its corners are kept.
• Graphical: click the element (Tab for the chain), then two points: the distance between them, square to the element, is the offset. You can type it instead. Ctrl copies.

Align

Click the reference, then the element to align: the face of the element nearest to your click goes onto the face of the reference nearest to its click. Prefer chooses Wall faces or Wall centerlines. After aligning, a padlock shows on the aligned face: click it to keep the two aligned, so that moving the reference moves the other one too. Without Multiple Alignment the next click picks a new reference; with it (or holding Ctrl) you can align several elements to the same one. Esc once starts a new alignment, twice ends the tool.

Trim/Extend

Walls and lines are trimmed or extended; click each one on the part to keep.

• Trim/Extend to Corner: two elements, which then meet at a corner;
• Trim/Extend Single Element: the boundary, then the element;
• Trim/Extend Multiple Elements: the boundary, then each element in turn.

Split Element and Split with Gap

Split Element: click a wall or a line where it should become two. With Delete Inner Segment, click two points: the part between them is removed, with the doors and windows in it. Split with Gap: set Joint Gap, then click: the two parts are that far apart.

Scale

Walls and lines (and the position of dimensions) can be scaled; with anything else selected, Scale is not available. Graphical: click the origin, the end of a first vector, the end of a second one: the elements are scaled by the ratio of the two lengths (you can type the second one). Numerical: set Scale Factor, then click the origin. Doors and windows keep their distance from the middle of their wall.

Pin and Unpin

Pin keeps the selected elements where they are: they cannot be dragged, moved by a tool or deleted, and a message says so. A pinned element shows a pushpin when selected; click the pushpin, or use Unpin, to free it.

Delete, undo and redo

Delete (or the Del key) removes the selection and what it hosts; pinned elements stay. Ctrl+Z undoes the last change and Ctrl+Y redoes it: each tool, drag or nudge is one step.

Typed shortcuts

Type the letters and press Enter: MV Move, CO Copy, RO Rotate, MM Mirror - Pick Axis, DM Mirror - Draw Axis, AR Array, OF Offset, AL Align, TR Trim/Extend to Corner, SL Split Element, SG Split with Gap, RE Scale. PN pins and UP unpins the selection, SA selects all its instances visible in the view. Keyboard shortcuts lists them all.

Not yet available

• Tab to reach a part of an element: a curtain panel or mullion, a part of a stacked wall;
• Select All Instances from a type in the Project Browser;
• Group and Associate of Array;
• splitting walls along a horizontal line in elevations and 3D views;
• cut, copy and paste through the clipboard, Paste Aligned, Create Similar.