Softimage SDK Programmer's Guide > Plug-in Development > Selection > Finding Out What's Currently Selected >

# Accessing the List of Selected Components via the C++ API

- Use the Softimage Object Model SubComponent interface via the CComAPIHandler, which is a kind of a COM wrapper for the C++ API:

    // C++ API -- iterating over the selected components
    Application app;

    // Make sure something is selected
    Selection sel = app.GetSelection();
    LONG lCount = sel.GetCount();
    app.LogMessage(L"Found " + CString(lCount) + L" selected items.");
    if ( lCount < LONG(1) )
    {
    	app.LogMessage( L"No components are selected" );
    	return CStatus::OK;
    }
    for ( LONG i=0; i<lCount; i++ )
    {
    	if ( sel.GetItem(i).GetClassIDName() == L"X3DObject" )
    	{
    		X3DObject x3dobj(sel.GetItem(i));
    		app.LogMessage(L"\titem[" + CString(i) + L"]: " + x3dobj.GetName() );
    	}
    	else
    	{
    		app.LogMessage(L"\titem[" + CString(i) + L"]: " + sel.GetItem(i).GetClassIDName() );
    	}
    }

    // The collection of selected components exists in the first member
    CComAPIHandler comCollItem( sel.GetItem(0) );
    CComAPIHandler comSubComp( comCollItem.GetProperty(L"SubComponent") );
    CValue subCompType = comSubComp.GetProperty( L"Type" );
    app.LogMessage( L"Type of subcomponent: " + CString(subCompType) );

    // Grab the component collection
    CComAPIHandler comCompColl( comSubComp.GetProperty(L"ComponentCollection") );

    // Now we can iterate over the component collection's members
    LONG lCollCount( comCompColl.GetProperty(L"Count") );
    app.LogMessage(L"Found " + CString(lCollCount) + L" selected components.");
    for ( LONG j=0; j<lCollCount; j++ )
    {
    	CValue rtn;	// output from the Item property
    	CValueArray idx; idx.Add(j); // set the index to use
    	comCompColl.Invoke( L"Item", CComAPIHandler::PropertyGet, rtn, idx );

    	// From the CRef class, we can convert it to the actual class
    	CRef itm(rtn);
    	if ( itm.GetClassID() == siVertexID )
    	{
    		Vertex vtx = Vertex(itm);
    		app.LogMessage( L"Found a vertex at index " + CString(vtx.GetIndex()) );
    	}
    	if ( itm.GetClassID() == siSampleID )
    	{
    		Sample smp = Sample(itm);
    		app.LogMessage( L"Found a sample at index " + CString(smp.GetIndex()) );
    	}
    	if ( itm.GetClassID() == siEdgeID )
    	{
    		Edge edg = Edge(itm);
    		app.LogMessage( L"Found a edge at index " + CString(edg.GetIndex()) );
    	}
    	if ( itm.GetClassID() == siControlPointID )
    	{
    		ControlPoint ctrl = ControlPoint(itm);
    		app.LogMessage( L"Found a control point at index " + CString(ctrl.GetIndex()) );
    	}
    	// etc.
    }