As you work, you constantly select and manipulate objects and their components. There are a number of tools you can use to select these elements, as well as a number of views in which your selections can be made.
The Select panel is located in the main command area on the right of the default layout.
In Softimage, you can select any object, component, property, group, cluster, operator, pass, partition, source, clip, and so on; in short, just about anything that can appear in the explorer.
The only thing that you can’t select are individual parameters — parameters are marked for animation instead of selected. For more information about marking, see Marking Parameters for Animation [Animation].
Selected elements are highlighted in the 3D, schematic, and explorer views. In addition, the name of the selected element appears in the Object Selection box on the Select panel. If multiple objects are selected, the word “Multi” appears with the number of selected objects in parentheses.
Selected components are highlighted in red in the 3D views, and are listed by their component indices in the Sub-object Selection box. If the type of the selected components is not the same as the current selection filter, then the component type is indicated in the Sub-object Selection box as well. See Selecting Components.
If an object is branch-selected, the letter “B:” appears before the name. For more information on branch selection, see Selection and Hierarchies.
If the object is part of a model, the model’s name appears as a prefix to the object name. For more information about models in general, see Models [Data Management].
You can also select elements by typing directly in these boxes: see Selecting by Name.
Selection Filters, Tools, Modes, and Interaction Models
When you use the mouse to select elements in the 3D and schematic views, the current selection filter determines what type of elements you can select. The selection tool determines the mouse interaction in the 3D views. Softimage also offers several selection modes, which are predefined pairs of the most commonly-used combinations of filter and tool. The specific mouse buttons and modifier keys that you use to select, add to the selection, toggle, and deselect elements are determined by the interaction model. These concepts are described in the following sections.
Selection filters determine what you can select in the 3D and schematic views. They allow you to restrict the selection to a specific type of object, component, or property, which makes it easier to select the desired elements in the views. The selection filters are located below the Select icon on the Select panel.
For more information about specific types of selection filters, see Object Selection Filters, Component Selection Filters, and Property Selection Filters. You can also filter the current selection as described in Modifying the Selection with Filters.
To select something in the 3D views, a selection tool must be active. Softimage offers a choice of several selection tools, each with a different mouse interaction: Rectangle, Lasso, Raycast, and others. For a complete description of how to activate and use these tools, see Using Selection Tools.
Selection modes are preset combinations of a selection filter and a selection tool. They allow you to activate the most common combinations with a single key press. For more information, see Object Selection Modes and Component Selection Modes.
The interaction model determines which specific mouse buttons and modifier keys that you use to perform different actions — like selecting, adding to the selection, toggling, and deselecting .
The initial interaction model depends on the choice you made in the Interaction Model dialog box the first time you started Softimage. However, you can change it at any time and your change is remembered the next time you start Softimage.
For more details, see Selecting Objects Using the Different Interaction Models and Selecting Components Using the Different Interaction Models.
You can select objects in hierarchies in several ways: node, branch, and tree.
Node selection is the simplest way in which an object can be selected. When you node-select an object, only it is selected. If you apply a property to a node-selected object, that property is not inherited by its descendants. If you transform a node-selected object, its descendants are not affected (although they will update if they have animation on their local transformations).
To node-select objects
• Left-click an object. This works with any interaction model.
When you branch-select an object, its descendants “inherit” the selection status and are highlighted in light gray. You would branch-select an object when you want to transform it and its children as a single unit, or when you want to apply a property that gets inherited by all the object’s descendants.
To branch-select objects
• Middle-click an object. This works with any interaction model.
You can also tree-select objects. This selects the object’s topmost ancestor in branch mode. There is no fundamental difference between branch and tree selection; the only difference is which node is the topmost selected one. Tree selection is simply a convenience that lets you select an entire hierarchy by clicking on any of its objects.
To tree-select objects
• Right-click on an object. This works with any interaction model.
When you tree-select an object, by default the model node is not selected even if there is one. This makes it easier to animate and set keys on only those parameters that are within the model’s namespace (the model itself is in the scene root’s namespace). If you want to select the model, you can either click its node directly or use a command to modify the selection as described in Converting Hierarchy Selection. Alternatively, you can change your Selection preferences to select the model when right-clicking.
Note that right-clicking on a kinematic chain element always branch-selects the corresponding chain root even if the chain is part of a larger tree. If you want to select the whole tree, you can then press Ctrl+t or choose Select > Select Tree.
Other Useful Tools for Selection
You can select objects in the explorer, schematic, and spreadsheet views at any time, as long as no other tool like Parent or Delete is active. You do not need to activate a selection tool first.
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5