Perform Extended Entity Selection

Use extended entity selection to find, filter, and select subsets of entities. Extended selections can be added to, removed from, or intersected with existing selections, and previous selections can be also saved and retrieved.

To access extended entity selection:
  • Right-click in the modeling window and choose an option from the Select menu.
    This menu shows all available selection functions and methods for the currently active entity selector types.
  • Open the Advanced Selection dialog in one of the following ways:
    • Click next to an entity selector.
    • Press Spacebar.
    • Right-click in the modeling window and choose Select > Advanced.
    Use the drop-down menus at the top-left of the dialog to choose the extended selection mode (Add, Remove, or Intersect) and the selection method (options vary depending on entity type), then select a subset of entities.

    The process for selecting entities varies depending on the method.

    Tip: The options in the context menu beneath Advanced (By Entity, By ID, etc. ) correlate to different selection methods in the Advanced Selection dialog. Choosing one of these options opens the dialog with the selected method.

Extended Entity Selection Options

The following options are available for extended entity selection.

Note: The following selection options do not apply to all entity types. Only valid selections for the current entity type are displayed in the menu.

Context Menu Options

Displayed
Select all entities of the specified type currently displayed in the modeling window.
Reverse
Allows for a Boolean "not" to be performed on the currently displayed entities; all selected entities are removed from the mark; all entities which are not on the mark and are currently active are selected.
All
Select all entities of the specified type. The set to be added to the user mark includes entities displayed and those not displayed.
Adjacent
Select entities adjacent to the entities already selected.
Attached
Select entities by specifying an entity among a large group of continuously connected elements. HyperLife Weld Certification includes the entities currently displayed that are attached to the entities already selected. Entities that are not displayed will not be selected although they may be attached to the entity selected.
Face
Select entities by surface face. HyperLife Weld Certification finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. The Geometry feature angle option in Preferences > Geometry determines the feature lines. Attached, adjacent surfaces or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.
Similar
Select entities that are similar to the your current selection based on config.
Save Selection
Save the currently selected entities to a holding area known as the user mark.
Retrieve Selection
Retrieve previously saved entities from the user mark.

Advanced Selection Dialog Options

By Assembly
Select entities by assembly.
By Block
Select entities associated with one or more block entities.
By Collector
Select elements, lines, surfaces, loads, coordinate systems, vectors, equations, and points by collector.
If you select component collectors in regard to elements or lines, the elements or lines contained in the selected components are selected. With all other entities, the entities selected by this operation are those attached to the selected component.
By Component
Select entities by component.
By Config
Select elements by configuration and type. The element type is dependent on the template file.
Use the visibility filter drop-down menu to apply your settings to all entities in the model, regardless if they are displayed on the screen or not, or only the entities that are displayed.
By Connector Group
Select entities associated with one or more connector groups.
By Domains
Select entities associated with a morph domain.
By Edge
Select entities (nodes, elements) by surface edge. HyperLife Weld Certification finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. The feature line can be adjusted using the Angle slider. Attached, adjacent surfaces or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.
Click to view more options.
Tip: You can also select elements by edge by holding Alt while left-clicking. Hold Alt and scroll to adjust the feature angle.
By Face
Select entities (nodes, elements) by surface face. HyperLife Weld Certification finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. The feature line can be adjusted using the Angle slider. Attached, adjacent surfaces or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.
Click to view more options.
Tip: You can also select elements by face by holding Alt while left-clicking. Hold Alt and scroll to adjust the feature angle.
By Group
Select entities by group.
By Handles
Select entities associated with morphing handles.
By ID
Select entities by typing in their ID numbers.
Use a comma to separate multiple entities.
By Include
Select FE entities such as elements, loads, and groups that belong to the selected include.
By Laminate
Select entities associated with one or more laminate entities.
By Line
Pick lines in the modeling window. Entities associates with the lines are selected.
By List
Select entities from a list.
By Material
Select entities by material.
By Morphing Volumes
Select entities associated with morphing volumes.
By Multibodies
Select entities associated with one or more multibody entities.
By Output Block
Select the nodes, elements, comps, systs, groups and mats within an outputblock.
By Part
Select entities associated with a part.
By Path
Pick multiple nodes, lines, or elements and select all the nodes/lines/elements that fall in the closest connecting path. If you select two nodes on a free edge of some elements, the function tries to find the closest path along that free edge. This function uses the connectivity of the elements between the nodes, and thus requires the selected nodes to be part of a continuous shell mesh. Similarly, By Path for lines uses the connectivity of surfaces/solids and thus requires the selected lines to be surface/solid edges.
Activate the Show path preview option to the visualize the path before you create it.
Tip: You can also select node/line paths by holding Alt while left-clicking. Note that the path preview is not displayed when using the keyboard shortcut.
By Ply
Select entities associated with one or more ply entities.
By Points
Pick points in the modeling window. Entities associates with the points are selected.
By Property
Select entities by property.
By Set
Select the entities within a set.
By Solid
Pick solids in the modeling window. Entities associates with the solids are selected.
By Surface
Pick surfaces in the modeling window. Entities associates with the surfaces are selected.
By Width
Select surfaces by width, either by picking a sample surface or by specifying a range of values for the width.
Note: The browser list for the geometry-based selection methods, namely “By Point”, “By Line”, “By Surface”, and “By Solid” is disabled by default for improved performance. Enabling these lists can lead to slower performance on large models.

Attribute Columns

Add attributes to the selection dialog as columns to facilitate sorting and efficient identification of entities.

Add attribute columns to the Advanced Selection dialog by right-clicking on the column headers and selecting More. A dialog containing a list of the available attributes for the specific entity type is shown, from which the column's visibility can be controlled. Once a column is added to a particular entity-based selection method, it is available across all the entity selectors that refer to that selection method.

Note: The possibility to add attribute columns is available only for the selection methods which are based on entity types. For example: “By Material”.


Figure 1.

Column Filtering and Search

Search and filtering attribute column data in the selection dialog.

Define search filters inside the selection view to identify entities based on known attributes. Quickly search by directly typing the entity name or ID in the search bar or perform an advanced search by interactively building the search string using the column data. Click on the text field of the search bar to access a dynamic suggestion list that assists in building an advanced search string.



Figure 2.

Click the filter icon on the column header to apply a quick filter directly to the columns.



Figure 3.
Note: Once a search string is applied for an entity list, the recently used search strings are saved and can be accessed by clicking on the text field of the search bar.

Refer to the browser documentation for more information on search and filtering.