How to Select Entities in BricsCAD

Quick answer: BricsCAD lets you select entities either before or during a manipulation command like MOVE or COPY, provided the PICKFIRST variable is on. You can select entities one at a time, drag a selection window to grab several at once, and combine multiple selection methods together to build exactly the set you need.

Selecting Entities One by One

1. Hover over the entity. It highlights, and the Quad shows your most recently used command plus a few of the entity’s properties.
2. Click to select it, or if entities overlap, press Tab repeatedly to cycle through them and click once the one you want highlights.
3. Repeat to add more entities, or launch a command once you’re done.

Selecting Multiple Entities with a Window

Click to set one corner of a selection rectangle, then drag toward the opposite corner, the direction you drag matters:

• Dragging right: a blue rectangle appears (window selection). Only entities completely inside it get selected.
• Dragging left: a green rectangle appears (crossing selection). Any entity inside the rectangle, or just touching or crossing its edge, gets selected.

Click again to complete the rectangle at the opposite corner.

Removing Entities from a Selection

Hold Shift while using any selection method to remove entities from the current set instead of adding to it. Press Esc to clear the whole selection at once.

Selection Modes for 3D Solids

Selection modes control which subentities of a 3D solid, edges, faces, boundaries, or vertices, get highlighted and can be selected:

• Select edges: click a 3D solid edge to select it.
• Select faces: click a 3D solid face to select it.
• Select detected boundaries: click a closed boundary on the XY plane or on a solid’s face to select it.
• Select vertices: click a 3D solid vertex to select it.
• Disable selection modes: turns all of the above off at once.

You can turn these on or off from any of several places:

• Settings dialog: Program options > Selection > Selection Preview > Selection Modes
• Directly via the SELECTIONMODES system variable
• The Status Bar’s Selection Modes toggle
• Ribbon: Modeling tab > Controls > Selection modes
• Right-click a toolbar > Toolbars > Selection Modes

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between window and crossing selection? Dragging right creates a window selection (blue), which only grabs entities entirely inside the rectangle. Dragging left creates a crossing selection (green), which grabs anything inside or touching the rectangle’s edge.

Can I select entities before launching a command like MOVE? Yes, provided the PICKFIRST system variable is on, which lets you build a selection first and then launch the command on it.

How many selection modes are there for 3D solids? Four: edges, faces, detected boundaries, and vertices, plus an option to disable all of them at once.

How do I quickly clear my entire selection? Press Esc.