Selecting the Edges and Faces of a Solid

Several 3D Power Pack tools require the selection of edges or faces of a solid. The Extract tool’s Surface mode and the Shell Solid tool require face selection. The Chamfer Edge and Fillet Edge tools can require both face and edge selection, depending upon the option selected in the preferences dialog box.

Selecting Edges

The cursor changes to an arrowhead when on or near an edge. If more than one edge is near the cursor, the nearest edge is selected. Click the edge to select it.

The cursor also changes to an arrowhead when on or near an iso-parametric curve (which displays in a lighter shade of pen color than the edge); however, an iso-parametric curve cannot be selected.

 

Action	Description
Select more than one edge	Press the Shift key and select the edges
Deselect a selected edge	Click on the edge again with the Shift key pressed
Deselect edges that have been selected	Click on an empty area
Deselect the last selection	Press the Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Macintosh) key, or double-click on the edge

Selecting Faces

Face selection in VectorWorks is actually an edge-based selection. When the cursor is on or near an edge or near an iso-parametric curve, you can select the face on either side of the edge depending on the cursor position.

If the cursor is positioned over more than one face, or near an iso-parametric curve on a face, the Select Face dialog box opens to specify which face to select.

Click Next or Prev until the desired face is selected. Click OK to select the face.

Multiple faces can be selected while pressing the Shift key, much like the edge selection described earlier. Deselecting faces is also similar to deselecting edges.