How to Use Quick Select in BricsCAD
Quick answer: Quick Select builds a working selection set by filtering on entity type, color, linetype, or any other entity property, applying to the entire drawing or to the entities already selected.
Accessing Quick Select
Either display the Properties panel and click its Quick Select button, or run QSELECT. The Properties panel switches to Quick Select mode.
General Procedure
- Open the Properties panel in Quick Select mode.
- Start defining a working selection set by choosing entity types from the Entities dropdown.
- Set filters for it by choosing operators and values in the Properties list.
- Click a selection tool to add the filtered set to the active selection, remove it from the active selection, or create a new active selection from it entirely.
- Optionally repeat steps 2 through 4.
Defining the Entity Set Basis
The Entities dropdown offers two lists: entity types present in the whole drawing, and entity types present in the current selection (if any), each showing a checkbox and entity count.
- Click the dropdown; All is preselected by default.
- Optionally tick specific entity types to narrow the basis. For example, tick only Circles to work with circles specifically, this makes the Radius property available as a filter next. Or tick every relevant type (or click All) to keep working across multiple entity types, in which case shared properties like Layer remain available as filters.
The common properties of whatever’s in your entity set basis then display in the Properties list.
Filtering with Properties and Operators
Available properties depend on the entity types in your set. General, 3D Visualization (model space only), and Geometry properties are available for every entity; other properties appear only for specific entity types. If no entity type is specified, only general properties show.
Each property filters using one of these operators:
| Operator | Filters to |
|---|---|
| Select All (*) | No filtering applied (the default) |
| Equals | Entities whose property equals the specified value |
| Not Equal | Entities whose property doesn’t equal the specified value |
| Smaller | Entities whose property is less than the specified value |
| Smaller Or Equal | Entities whose property is less than or equal to the specified value |
| Greater | Entities whose property is greater than the specified value |
| Greater or Equal | Entities whose property is greater than or equal to the specified value |
| Wildcard match | Entities whose plain text property matches a wildcard pattern |
For a block’s Name property specifically, the Equals operator (with a wildcard filter) combines the functionality of Equals and Wildcard match together.
Setting Filters
- Click a property’s current operator, or right-click its value field; a context menu appears.
- Select an operator.
- Click the property’s value field.
- Either tick one or more values in the dropdown, or type a value directly (use the Wildcard match operator specifically to filter editable plain text properties with wildcard characters).
- Optionally repeat to add more filters.
Updating the Active Selection Set
Three selection tools apply your filtered working set to the active selection:
- Add to current selection set: adds matching entities.
- Remove from current selection set: removes matching entities.
- Clear current selection and create new selection: replaces the active selection entirely with the filtered set.
QSELECTINIT controls what’s preselected in the Entities list at the start of a session (all entities in the drawing, or all currently selected entities). QSELECTLIST controls whether the lists show only an All option, or a full breakdown of entity types too. By default, the Properties panel stays in Quick Select mode after use (QSELECTAUTOCLOSE is off); click the Quick Select button again to return to normal Properties mode.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Quick Select only work on the whole drawing, or can I filter within an existing selection too? Both, it applies to either the entire drawing or your current active selection set.
What happens if I don’t specify an entity type before setting filters? Only general properties, common across every entity type, are available to filter on.
How is filtering a block’s Name property different from other text properties? Its Equals operator combines both Equals and Wildcard match functionality in one, rather than requiring you to choose between them separately.
Does the Properties panel automatically return to normal mode after I use Quick Select? No, not by default; QSELECTAUTOCLOSE is off by default, so click the Quick Select button again to switch back manually.