How do I select different objects within a scene easily

Comments

• Chohole Posts: 33,604

  September 2012 edited September 2012

  Yeah, click on the little terrain icon at the bottom of your screen.
  
  If you can't see it click on the dot bottom righthand corner to change the bottom bar.

  Post edited by Chohole on September 2012
• LordHardDriven Posts: 937

  September 2012 edited December 1969

  I'm assuming that in the area you are clicking to select water1 terrain1 is right there too? If so in that situation hold down the control key while clicking. This should show you all the objects (meshes or groups) in the area you are clicking and then select water1 from that. If for example there were more elements to the water and you needed to add all of them you would hold the shift key along with the control key and this allows you to select additional items without loosing what you've already selected
• Horo Posts: 10,103

  September 2012 edited December 1969

  Select any object and toggle to the next with the Tab key. This is usually fastest if the scene has not yet a lot of objects in it.
• tdrd Posts: 0

  September 2012 edited December 1969

  Thanks for that guys - helps a lot.
• ManOfSteel Posts: 14

  September 2012 edited December 1969

  You can also color code an object, or a group of objects, by assigning them a "family" color. This is done by clicking on the little grey square in the column of icons next to the object when it's selected. You'll get an array of colors to choose from and a chance to label, or name, the object(s). This is really helpful if you need to select a bunch of similar objects at once. For instance, if I was making a forest scene, I might assign all the leaves on the trees a green color. Not only will it help me see them more easily (the mesh will turn green) but if I decide to change their material I can just choose the green family from the colored family colors at the bottom right of the screen and they'd all be selected at once. MUCH easier than trying to select every leaf group on every tree individually!
  So if you have a very specific, deeply situated object that you're going to be selecting often in the course of building your scene (like your landscape) or if you're going to have groups of similar objects that you might have to select and/or change (a set of lights, trees, rocks, body parts of an imported Poser figure, multiple clouds, parts of a building made from the same material, etc.), it's very handy to color code them.
• Jamahoney Posts: 1,791

  September 2012 edited September 2012

  Lord's CTRL and Shift keys' suggestion is very useful as it will be something that gives you greater control over certain objects you want to affect.

  Other useful things you can do with objects using the keys suggested above is in rotation, resizing.

  Rotation: Click mesh, hold down CTRL, grab hold of one of the mesh's corner dots, and use your mouse to rotate it any which way you wish (this is a very powerful technique).

  Resizing: Again, click mesh, hold down ALT, grab hold of one of the dots again, and move mouse left for reducing, right for increasing. If you hold down Shift instead of the ALT, this combination does the same again, but in increments.

  Get used to using these keys with the mouse as they will save you tons of time.

  Jay

  Post edited by Jamahoney on September 2012
• White Rabbit Posts: 231

  November 2012 edited December 1969

  Thanks guys! This totally answered my question plus a bunch extra great information too!