Explaining Selection and Grip Settings

Quick answer: Selection and grip settings control both the method used to select entities and how selected entities display, including whether grips appear. Selection settings live in the Selection settings group of Program Options in the Settings dialog; grip settings live under Drawing > Drafting > Display/Viewing.

Selection Settings

Name	Variable	Controls
Highlight	`HIGHLIGHT`	Whether entities highlight on screen when selected
Image highlight	`IMAGEHLT`	Whether a raster image highlights entirely, or just its frame, when selected
Pick add	`PICKADD`	Whether subsequent selections replace or add to the current set. On, selections extend the set (hold `Shift` to remove); off, new selections replace the set unless you hold `Shift`
Pick automatic	`PICKAUTO`	Automatic window selection, stored as a bitcode: 1 draws a selection window when clicking a blank area, 2 draws one when dragging over an entity, 4 draws a lasso selection when clicking away from any entity; negative disables window selection while saving the current value
Pick box	`PICKBOX`	The size of the pick-box at the cursor, default 4; an entity must be touched or overlapped by it to be selected by clicking
Pick drag	`PICKDRAG`	Whether a selection window is drawn by dragging (on) or by clicking two opposite corners (off)
Pick first	`PICKFIRST`	Whether you select entities before or after issuing a modification command
Linetype gap selection	`LTGAPSELECTION`	Whether gaps in non-continuous linetypes can be snapped to or selected; on disallows it (legacy behaviour), off allows it
Pick style	`PICKSTYLE`	Controls group and associative hatch selection: 0 either, 1 group selection (selecting a group member selects the whole group), 2 associative hatch selection (not yet supported)
Match options for SELECTSIMILAR	`SELECTSIMILARMODE`	Which properties must match for `SELECTSIMILAR` to select same-type entities
Frame selection	`FRAMESELECTION`	Whether the hidden frame of an image, underlay, clipped Xref, or wipeout can be selected
Nearest Distance	`NEARESTDISTANCE`	Whether and how a nearest-distance dimension displays between selected entities: 0 off, 1 on, 2/4/8 aligned to the X/Y/Z axis respectively
Selection area	`SELECTIONAREA`	Whether selection area effects display
Selection area opacity	`SELECTIONAREAOPACITY`	The transparency of the selection area; higher values are more opaque
Crossing area color	`CROSSINGAREACOLOR`	The colour of crossing selection areas
Window area color	`WINDOWAREACOLOR`	The colour of window selection areas
Selection preview display	`SELECTIONPREVIEW`	When entities highlight on hover: 0 never, 1 when no command is active, 2 when a command prompts for selection, 3 both. Off, this also disables the Quad’s hover display, rollover tips, and selection cycling badges/dialogs regardless of their own settings
Selection preview effect	`PREVIEWEFFECT`	The appearance of highlighted entities: 0 dashed lines, 1 thickened lines, 2 dashed and thickened (not yet supported)
Selection preview filter	`PREVIEWFILTER`	Excludes entity types from selection previewing: entities on locked layers, entities in Xrefs, tables, MText entities, hatches, and groups
GL Selection Highlight Style	`HIGHLIGHTEFFECT`	The highlight method: 0 dashed lines, 1 different colour, 2 thickened line, 3 both
Selection Highlight color	`HIGHLIGHTCOLOR`	The highlight colour used when `HIGHLIGHTEFFECT` is 1 or 3
Selection cycling	`SELECTIONCYCLING`	Display for overlapping entities: negative or 0 disables cycling, 1 shows a badge on hover, 2 shows both a badge and a selection dialog
Selection Modes	`SELECTIONMODES`	Which subentities highlight in selection preview, a bitcode set via the Selection Modes toolbar: 1 detects 3D solid edges, 2 detects 3D solid faces (hold `Ctrl` to invert the Select Faces status), 4 enables boundary detection for closed boundaries in the current UCS’s XY-plane or on a solid’s face (`BOUNDARYCOLOR` sets the highlight colour). Pressing `Tab` repeatedly at a fixed cursor position cycles through included subentity types
Preview selection delay	`PREVIEWDELAY`	Milliseconds to wait before highlighting (sub)entities under the cursor
Constraint Bar Display	`CONSTRAINTBARDISPLAY`	Visibility of a geometric constraint on creation or selection
Dynamic Constraint Mode	`DYNCONSTRAINTMODE`	Whether hidden dimensional constraints show a blue glyph when their entity is selected

Grips Settings

Grips display on selected entities whenever GRIPS is non-zero.

Name	Variable	Controls
Grips	`GRIPS`	0 turns grips off, 1 turns on endpoint grips, 2 turns on endpoint and midpoint grips
Grips in blocks	`GRIPBLOCK`	Whether grips display on entities within blocks
Grip color	`GRIPCOLOR`	The colour of unselected grips, green (index 72) by default
Selected grip color	`GRIPHOT`	The colour of selected (“hot”) grips, red (index 240) by default
Hover grip color	`GRIPHOVER`	The colour of an unselected grip while the cursor pauses over it, blue (index 150) by default
Grip size	`GRIPSIZE`	The grip display size in pixels, default 4
Grip object limit	`GRIPOBJLIMIT`	Suppresses grip display once the selection exceeds this many entities; 0 always shows every grip
Grip tips	`GRIPTIPS`	(Not yet supported) Whether grip tips display on hover for custom entities or dynamic blocks that support them
Grips attraction	`ENABLEATTRACTION`	Toggles grip magnetism
Grips attraction distance	`ATTRACTIONDISTANCE`	The distance within which the cursor gets pulled toward a nearby grip

Discrepancies with Earlier Pages in This Hub

Cross-checking this master reference against earlier pages surfaces four genuine inconsistencies worth flagging rather than silently resolving:

PICKSTYLE’s value range: this source describes only values 0, 1, and 2. An earlier page in this hub (sourced from the hatch and gradient system variables reference) described Ctrl+H toggling PICKSTYLE between paired values, 0↔1 and 2↔3, implying a value of 3 exists too. This source doesn’t mention 3 at all.
SELECTIONMODES and vertex selection: this source’s bitcode list for SELECTIONMODES covers only 1 (edges), 2 (faces), and 4 (boundary detection). Several earlier pages in this hub (covering entity selection and grip editing) referenced “bitcode 8 of SELECTIONMODES” specifically for enabling 3D solid vertex selection, a bit value not mentioned here at all.
PREVIEWFILTER vs SELECTIONPREVIEWFILTER: this source names the variable PREVIEWFILTER. An earlier page in this hub, describing the identical exclusion list (locked layers, Xrefs, tables, MText, hatches, groups), called it SELECTIONPREVIEWFILTER instead.
GRIPOBJLIMIT vs GRIPOBJECTLIMIT: this source names the variable GRIPOBJLIMIT. An earlier page on grip editing, describing the identical suppress-grips-above-a-limit behaviour, called it GRIPOBJECTLIMIT.

If any of these specific variable names or value ranges matter for your work, it’s worth confirming directly against the running software.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I find selection settings in BricsCAD? The Selection settings group, under Program Options in the Settings dialog.

Where do I find grip settings? Under Drawing > Drafting > Display/Viewing, in the Drawing settings category of the Settings dialog.

Why does my Quad not display on hover even though QUADDISPLAY looks correctly configured? Check SELECTIONPREVIEW. If it’s off, the Quad’s hover display is ignored entirely, regardless of QUADDISPLAY‘s own setting.

What’s the exact name of the variable that suppresses grips above a certain selection count? This source calls it GRIPOBJLIMIT, though an earlier page in this hub referred to the identical setting as GRIPOBJECTLIMIT, worth confirming directly if the exact name matters for your work.