Selecting and Grouping Objects

on this page: select all or part | select multiple objects | group | add to existing group

Group objects to specify several objects as a whole. You can use grouping to organize parts of a model--to make it easier to move and edit several objects at a time, for example. Or you can use grouping to define more advanced hierarchies--to make it easy to articulate parts of the model during an animation, for example.

The basics of selecting and grouping:

To select all or part:

To select multiple objects:

Select an object and use Shift-click to select additional objects. The last object selected in this manner is the master selection and has manipulator handles. The other selected objects display bounding boxes with no manipulator handles. However, you can still place the place the cursor over the individual bounding boxes to move the group. Resizing and rotating is controlled from the master selection. Moving, rotating, and resizing affects all of the objects in the multiple selection at the same time.

When you click on another object, or in the scene, the objects are deselected. Pressing Shift-click again removes objects from the selection.

To group objects:

  1. Shift-click to select the objects you want to group.

  2. Choose Edit > Group, or use Ctrl-g. The objects will now be grouped, with a single manipulator. The grouped objects are treated as a single object whose axis is the center of the group. The objects remain grouped unless you choose the group and choose Edit > Ungroup, or use Shift-Ctrl-g.

See Creating Group Hierarchies for more details on grouping.

To add a new object to an existing group:

  1. Select the object you want to add to the group.

  2. Shift-click to select the group, which makes the group the master selection.

  3. Choose Edit > Add to Group.

  4. Use Edit > Detach From Group to remove the object that you added to the group.

This technique applies to adding a new object to any existing group, including those defined by the LOD and Switch editors. See Creating Group Hierarchies to learn how Add to Group differs from Group.

To create a new parent group:

  1. Select the objects above which you'd like to create a new parent group.

  2. Choose Edit > Create Parent Group.

See Creating Group Hierarchies to learn when to use Create Parent Group.