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:
-
Click an object to select it; Shift-click to extend the
selection to include additional objects.
-
Use the grouping functions from the Edit menu to group,
ungroup, add to the existing group, and create a new parent group. The
grouping functions are explained in more detail below.
-
Use group hierarchies to specify spatial
relationships between objects in a group. For example, a robot leg that
articulates at the knee and foot joints should be grouped so that
moving the upper leg also moves the knee, lower leg, and foot. (This is
where Create Parent Group and Add to Existing Group
become useful.)
To select all or part:
-
Use pick (arrow button
found on Viewing
toolbar) to choose an object. When you click, the object's
manipulator appears. This is a bounding box around the selected object
with knobs for translating, rotating, and scaling the object:

-
Choose Edit > Select All or Deselect All to quickly
select and deselect all the objects in your scene. Shortcuts:
Ctrl-/ and Ctrl-\
-
Clicking on the background deselects all objects.
-
Shift-click a selected object to remove it from the
selection.
-
Within a group: Use the Parent and Child arrow
icons
(found to the right of the
top toolbar) to select parts of a grouped object. Select Parent or
Child displays the group hierarchy up to the part you have currently
selected. For example, if you select the shin of a robot leg that is
part of a group hierarchy Thigh, Knee, Shin, Foot, then
pressing the Child button will only select as far as the
shin.
-
You can also use the Outline Editor to select parts of an object by
clicking the object's Transform. The Transform becomes highlighted
once you click it.
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:
-
Shift-click to select
the objects you want to group.
-
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:
-
Select the object you want to add to the group.
-
Shift-click to select the group, which makes the group the
master selection.
-
Choose Edit > Add to Group.
-
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:
-
Select the objects above which you'd like to
create a new parent group.
-
Choose Edit > Create Parent Group.
See Creating Group Hierarchies to learn when
to use Create Parent Group.