topic Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working in AutoCAD Forum

'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

jcaicedo0 — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 18:48:02 GMT

Hello everyone.
I want to exclude texts from a selection of several objects I have in AutoCAD 2025, but the 'Quick select' tool is not working as I expect. Here is what I did: I had a selection of multiple objects (37) including polylines (12), lines (19) and texts (6). After selecting those objects, I typed QSELECT in the command line to launch the 'Quick selection' tool. In the 'Quick Select' window, in the 'Apply to' dialog box, I chose the 'current selection' option. Then, I applied the following options to make the texts that I have in the original selection, meet these filtering criteria: In the "Object Type" dialog box, I selected the "Text" option; In the "Properties" dialog box, I chose the "color" property, followed by the "=Equal" operator, followed by the "ByLayer" value. All the texts I have in the original selection with the other objects have the 'ByLayer' color property. I selected the "Exclude from New Selection Set" option under "How to Apply", in order to exclude the texts that match the filtering criteria (which is 'equals to' 'ByLayer' 'Color'). I left the 'Append to Current Selection Set' option unchecked. Finally, I clicked OK to apply the filter and exclude texts from the selection of multiple objects. The result was that I don't have any objects selected, so I failed to exclude only texts from my original selection. I tried everything above, but checking the 'Append to Current Selection Set' option with the same result. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks a lot

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

pendean — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:30:37 GMT

I am not able to replicate the missed-selection here in my own file with TEXT object types: can you share that portion of your DWG file here for others to examine please?

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

jcaicedo0 — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:55:34 GMT

Here is a sample

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

jcaicedo0 — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:54:23 GMT

Thanks for answering.

I'm sharing a portion of the file.

In the original file the objects are repeated several times.
I have to say that when I run 'Quick Select' WITHOUT a selection, and 'Apply to' 'Entire drawing", and the options: "Text" under "Object Type" dialog, "color" property, followed by the "=Equal" operator, followed by the "ByLayer" value, "Exclude from New Selection Set" under "How to Apply", and 'Append to Current Selection Set' option unchecked, then it selects everything but the texts in the drawing (this way it works). But imagine you need to do it only with the selected objects, and that's where it doesn't work.

I tried again in the portion file, starting with a selection of objects, and it doesn't work to exclude the texts.

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

nbonnett-murphy — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 15:25:06 GMT

Did you ever figure out how to fix this?

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

jcaicedo0 — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 22:39:40 GMT

Hello No, I had to run 'Quick Select' without a selection (Apply to entire drawing) excluding objects with the desired characteristics, and then, pressing 'shift' key, get rid of the objects I don't need. But it is exhausting when you have several objects

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

tozfttoz — Fri, 09 May 2025 19:39:34 GMT

I had a similar issue but it my filter criteria was text (i wanted to select only text boxes not containing "Ø75" and deselect the "Ø75" ones)

the only work around i found so far was to use the 'quick select' and set properties to 'contents' , operator 'wildcard match' , and value '~*Ø75*'

but that wouldn't work for filtering by colour property

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

themadcadlad — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:26:10 GMT

All of the smart people must have left Autodesk, because this software still doesn't work. Autodesk owes me for all of the time wasted troubleshooting problems like this.

@themadcadlad - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

andyDZFVB — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:29:54 GMT

I am having trouble with Quick Select as well. If I isolate a specific layer that has polylines, arcs, and MTEXT included and I only want the linework, it seems that I should be able to exclude the MTEXT when I select all the objects, hit QSelect, and exclude the MTEXT from the new selection set. Instead it deselects the arcs and polylines and only includes the MTEXT.

It's as if it only works to isolate the selected objects in the QSelect dropdown. I want to be able to select linework and text, and then exclude the text from the selection set so I can just copy the linework.

Re: 'QUICK SELECT' tool not working

jcaicedo0 — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 17:40:28 GMT

I remember not having this problem in earlier versions of AutoCAD, very early versions (Jurassic Park Theme). Please confirm.