Select elements in subdivision models

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As the design develops, you'll end up with more CVs

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and in wireframe, the ones in the distance and the foreground are all visible.

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And so if I do a box-select,

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I kind of expect to select these ones at the front and these ones behind.

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But that becomes more of an issue when I'm using box mode

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because I don't see the CVs behind the shading.

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So it looks like I've done a controlled selection.

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But in fact, I've accidentally selected these ones behind.

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It's not so much of a problem in surface shading

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because I can see the obscured CVs

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and that's due to this Xray setting that gives them a partial visibility,

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so you can see them,

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but you're still at risk of selecting them.

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And that's why we have this icon up here for Camera-based Selection.

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And when that's on, a drag-select won't select the ones behind.

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The shading occludes the selection.

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And that works for box mode shading too.

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And this icon is a shortcut for the Preferences > Selection Options here

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and it defaults to just Shaded occlusion,

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but I can choose to use both Shaded and Wireframe.

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So then without shading,

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I still have the occlusion effect for the selection

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even in the wireframe.

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And I can always toggle that off and switch back to being able to pick through.

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And it's worth keeping an eye on that setting so

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that you always get the behavior that you're expecting.

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Another way of managing lots of geometry is selection sets.

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So let's say I want to select this hood

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and I can use the Grow tool here to get the faces that I want.

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Then if I want to pick that often,

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I can come up to the Edit menu and create a selection set from it.

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And there's a couple of options, but I'll just take the default setting and say go

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and then here on the Windows menu, I've got the Selection Set Lister

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and I can rename the set here if I want to.

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And if I do a Pick Nothing, then on the palette, I've got a Pick Selection Set tool

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that'll pick the whole set with just one click

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and a set can be surfaces, curves, faces, CVs or a mixture.

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So here I can pick this line of CVs

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and create another selection set

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and I can rename it here.

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And when I use Pick Selection Set,

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I need to click on a member of that set,

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so a CV, in this case.

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I can't just pick on the edge of the hull to select it.

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Alternatively, I can pick it using the entries in the Set Lister.

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So if you're going to use selection sets,

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it's probably worth adding the pick tool to your marking menu.

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And another tool that some users also add is Pick Hull

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because picking SubD elements and CVs can be a bit confusing.

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So here if I use Pick Edge, it actually does two things.

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It selects the edge which I use for SubD tools like Bevel or Crease.

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But also when I do a transform CV, it selected the two CVs associated with that edge

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and Pick Face has the same two selections,

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the face object for tools like Extrude or Extract,

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but also the four CVs on the corners for Transform

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and the same for edge loop,

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I've got edges

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but I only see selected CVs when I activate the Transform CV tool.

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So if I want to pick those CVs first, I can use Pick Hull instead

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and it selects the same range

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but only the CVs not the edges.

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And for some tools like Align up here,

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that's what's required.

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And then just a final tip is to explore

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these different settings for the three mouse buttons,

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they're fully customizable. But there are four options for only three buttons.

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And the one not in the default settings is Pick,

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so I'll show you that. And I'm going to put that onto my middle mouse button

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and then put add back on to the left because it's so useful.

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And that just means I no longer have the toggle option.

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So then if I pick some faces

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and then I want to pick over here instead,

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previously, I'd have to do a Pick Nothing first,

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but with the middle mouse button, I can just pick this one instead

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and then use the left button to add

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and add again

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and I can use the right button to unpick.

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So that pick option just means I don't have to use

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Pick Nothing to go and pick a completely different item.

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So there's no right or wrong for these.

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It's just up to you to explore the settings and see if they suit you better

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or to just keep the default settings if you're used to those.