Select Entities from the Entity Editor

Parameter values in the Entity Editor, as well as attributes in browser columns that require a selection pop out an embedded entity selector when clicked. All controls, shortcuts, and behaviors for this entity selector are the same as any other, except for a few differences in buttons layout.

Click or press "/" to select by typing names or IDs. While typing, the selection search function provides live suggestions of:
- Entity names that contain the typed search terms (separated by space) somewhere in their name.
  Tip: If you wish to treat spaces as characters instead of search term separators, turn on the Match Exact Phrase option in the Preferences dialog, located in File > Preferences > Browsers > Selection Search.
- Entity IDs that begin with a numeric search term.
A live suggestions list will show partial matches for names and IDs while typing, up to a certain number (configurable in File > Preferences > Browsers > Selection Search). If the model contains more partial matches than listed in the suggestions list, click Browse More, or press Ctrl + Enter, to browse and select from the full partial match list.
Tip: Live partial match suggestions are available for entity counts of up to 100,000. However, you can still select by typing names or IDs regardless of model size, and full match suggestions will be still provided and selectable.
To confirm your selection, click .
To cancel your selection, click .

Select Set Segments

The following additional functionalities are available in the entity selector when editing the contents of a set segment.

Use standard selection controls to append or deselect elements, facets, faces, or edges where the segments are defined.
Click to reverse or align segment directions using the Adjust Directions dialog. The reverse function flips all or some segment directions simultaneously. The align function is only available for segments defined on shell elements.
Tip: When aligning segments on shell elements, you can manually specify a reference element to align to by toggling the switch from Auto to Reference mode.
When selecting 3D elements, segments are added to their outside faces only, based on the current display state.
Tip: While selecting set segment contents, you can freely switch between supported selection types (for example: elements, facets, faces) and the current selections are converted accordingly.

The following restrictions and considerations apply when selecting set segment contents:

A single set segment can contain either face (2D) segments, or edge (1D) segments, but not a mixture of both.
- When using box selection, if a mixture of 1D/2D elements is detected, the 2D elements are given priority. Only the 2D elements inside the box are selected and any 1D elements are ignored.
Switching the selection type between elements, faces, and facets is supported, but some conversions might result in additional segments.
- Example 1: A single facet of a single floating 3D hex element is currently selected, and the selector is then switched from facets to elements. The selection is converted correctly from 1 facet → 1 element, and upon accepting the new selection, the resulting number of segments is now 6 since every exposed side of the selected 3D element gets a segment.
- Example 2: If the same 3D element is not floating but instead part of a displayed mesh, the resulting number of segments is less than 6 because only its currently exposed outside faces get a segment (hidden internal mesh faces do not get segments).
When selecting faces or facets, advanced selection operations are available (for example: select adjacent, reverse, by face, by path, and so on) which rely on their underlying elements. As such, any advanced selection operation performed on faces or facets considers their current base elements as fully selected (including all outside faces of 3D elements). The same applies to saving and retrieving selections via the right-click menu.
When selecting facets, performing graphical window selections of a large number of facets can have a significant performance cost. For such scenarios, using elements as the selection type is recommended for optimal performance.