F2 Selection
Like the integrated Treebar selection, the F2 selection window provides significant advantages for selecting multiple items. F2 selection filters out entity types that don’t apply to the current selection, and lists the remaining items in a hierarchical view like in the SA Treebar. But in addition to basic selection options, the F2 window also offers search options including Wildcard and selection By Color.
There are three variants of the F2 selection window: there is a window specific to point selection mode, object selection mode, and instrument selection mode. Each is slightly different and has options particular to the specific mode.
To Use the F2 Selection Window:
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During selection (while the prompt is displayed), do one of the following:
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Press F2,
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Click the F2 - Select from a list icon in the toolbar, or
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From the menu, select View>Point Selection Tree-View.
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Select the desired items, then click the OK button.
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Continue selecting items using other methods (if desired), then confirm your selection by pressing the Enter key.
To Expand or Collapse the Entire Tree of Items (Point/Object Selection Modes):
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Click the Expand or Collapse button.
To Select All Items in a Folder or Collection:
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Check the box next to the folder or collection name.
To Select an Entire Category or an Entire Point Group (Point/Object Selection Mode):
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Check the box next to the category/point group (for example, Spheres, Point Groups, or Frames).
To Select All But a Few Items in a Category or Point Group (Object/Point Selection Modes):
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Check the box next to the category type, then uncheck individual items within that category.
To Select Contiguous Rows of Items (Object/Point Selection Modes):
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Check the box next to the first item in the list.
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Hold down Shift and check the box next to the last item in the list.
To Select All Items in the List:
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Click the All button.
To Deselect All Items in the List:
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Click the None button.
Selection By Color
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In an object selection mode, call up the F2 selection dialog.
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Click on the By Object Type button.
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In the Select Object Types dialog, select the object types you’d like to select, then click the OK button.
It may be desirable to use object color to characterize different enti- ties in the job file. For instance, you may decide to color all nominal objects yellow, and all as-built or measured objects blue. If you fol- low this colorization scheme, then you can easily select all nominal or measured objects using selection by color.
There are two ways to select objects by color. You can select graphi- cally by color, or you can F2-select by color. Both color selection modes apply to object selection only, because only objects can be assigned a color. When selecting graphically by color, you choose a
single item whose color defines the color to select. SA will then auto- matically also select all objects that match that color. F2 selection by color allows you to directly pick a color (not an object) and SA selects all objects of that color.
To Graphically Select Objects By Color
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While in object selection mode, press the F3 key or click on the Graphical Selection Mode icon.
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In the Graphical Selection Mode dialog, click the Select Objects by Color (Applies Once) button.
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Click on an object whose color defines the color you’d like to select.
To F2 Select Objects By Color
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With a selection prompt displayed, press the F2 key or click the list selection icon.
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In the resulting Object Selection dialog, click the By Color but- ton.
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In the Select Color dialog, check one of the colors in the list. (Only the colors in use in the file will be displayed).
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Click OK. You will be notified how many objects matched the color criteria, and they will be added to your selection.
Selection By Object Type
The F2 selection window enables you to select items by their type. Although this is not particularly useful when selecting items in a single collection (because those items are already organized by type and can be easily selected by clicking one checkbox), if you have multiple collections of items that you want to select by type, this can save you some time.
To Select Objects By Type:
Selecting all point groups by their object type.
Wildcard Selection
Wildcard selection is a powerful way to select items by name from the F2 window. To use it, click the By name using wildcards button, which opens the dialog in.
The Wildcard Selection dialog.
This dialog may appear slightly different depending on whether the current command allows you to select points or objects. In this dia- log, asterisks (*) represent a set of contiguous characters, and ques- tion marks (?) represent a single character. You can also use [] to select a specific character.
Wildcard selection automatically adds an asterisk (*) at the beginning and end of your search text. This may result in selection of more items than desired.
This dialog allows you to enter selection criteria based on collection, object, and point names. In each criteria field, enter a search string. Any entities that match all of the entered criteria will be selected.
Examples (all based on point selection):
To Select: |
Enter the following into the fields: |
|
|
---|---|---|---|
|
Collection |
Group |
Target |
All points in all collections |
* |
* |
* |
All points in all collections containing “Survey” |
SURVEY |
* |
* |
All points in the Survey collection from point groups whose names contain “Instrument”, followed by any string, fol- lowed by “Measured” |
SURVEY |
INSTRUMENT*MEASURED |
* |
Selects all points in all collections with a “*” at the end of the name |
* |
* |
*[*] |
To select everything except the items selected by the search criteria, check the Inverse Selection Mode option. After completing a wild- card selection, the items are selected (signified by the checked checkbox next to their entry in the list) but the F2 dialog remains open so that you can modify your selection or add to it. You can even add the result of another wildcard selection to your currently selected items.
To Select Based on Wildcards:
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At a selection prompt, open the F2 Selection Window.
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Click the By Name Using Wildcards button.
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Type in your criteria, then click OK.
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Modify the selection as needed, or perform another wildcard selection.
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Click OK to select the items.