Select by fence (polygon) and select inverse?

unearthed

Hi

In autocad one can select objects by drawing a polygon fence around them (the command is something like sel>f). Would it be possible to write a plugin to do this in SU?

Also would in be possible to do an inverse select, ie select everything that is not in the current selection, and deselect the current selection?

sdmitch

You can find a Select by Polygon plugin on my blog. To inverse the selection, just use the Sketchup Selection Tool while pressing the Shift key.

Chris Fullmer

SU's select tool is a fence selection tool, very similar to Autocad's already.

As for the invert selection tool, that could be done in ruby. It might be already, did you search the plugins list?

DavidBoulder

I have always wanted a selection fence to drill down in nested groups. If you use Adobe Illustrator this is pretty much what the indirect selection tool is (the hollow arrow icon vs. solid). Has anyone made a plugin that does this? One specific issue that will com up with selection across different groups is unexpected behavior when you move the section (if group origin rotations are not the same).

thomthom

Lots of weird things begin to happen when you select entities outside the current context. It's really not recommended. SketchUp and most tools aren't designed to handle that.

thomthom

@unearthed said:

In autocad one can select objects by drawing a polygon fence around them (the command is something like sel>f). Would it be possible to write a plugin to do this in SU?

Also would in be possible to do an inverse select, ie select everything that is not in the current selection, and deselect the current selection?

Vertex Tools has such features: http://www.thomthom.net/software/vertex_tools/
It works on vertices, but vertex selections is transferred to normal SketchUp selection when you exit the tool. And Invert Selection works within and outside the tool.

unearthed

Thanks all for your help, and thanks Mitch for your plugin, does exactly what I need.

And it looks like I'll be buying vertextools soonest thomthom, that's a cool tool.

cheers, nigel