Selection filter

[jfjacques]

I've never understood why the selection filter was a substitute for click to select. 

I get it, sometimes scenes get crowded and it would makes sense to use a filter. 

yet, why is it that if I set the selection filter to "all", it's a massive pain to select lights, and forget about cameras...

Is there a way for me to happily select what I want to select without to think about and change the selection filter?  I go into rhino3d, the scene is just as crowded but I can select exactly what I want by simply clicking on it or it's outline or it's isocurve. Can max do this,am I missing something? 

[Daf]

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@jfjacques wrote:

yet, why is it that if I set the selection filter to "all", it's a massive pain to select lights, and forget about cameras...

This is exactly the time to use the filter - set the filter to lights - then only lights will be selected. Unless the lights are very, very close to each other it should be very easy to select them without also selecting any cameras, etc....

I usually use the scene explorer if I can't easily select something from the screen.

Daf

[jfjacques]

The point is, the selection filter is a pain, scene selector is also workflow pain. Neither would be as required if Max was able to select it's objects using a click like in rhino sketchup and likely a bunch of other software. 

[Anonymous]

So what you expect is an 'override' function that always selects all object types by clicking it no matter what the selection filter is set to?

[jfjacques]

Not at all, I want to be able to simply select any object with a click. In other words, I would want the "all" selection filter to actually allow you to select everything. As things stand, it's difficult to select lights and a huge pain to select cameras without changing to their respective filters. This isn't because the scene is crowded, it's just the way max seems to select things. 

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @jfjacques,

There are a couple ways around this problem, but I'm not sure it's ever going to match your favorite other software, whatever it is.  I don't like the scene explorer as much as the old list view, and I disable it.  The selection floater is the same as list view though (but always active), so I mentioned it below.  

1) First, selection sets are a great way to go, I use them so much it's almost second nature now.  

2) Second, the Selection Floater UI is a fast way to filter objects, I have a post about it here.  You can hide various objects very quickly and then unhide them.  At first it may seem clunky, but after a bit of usage it's amazing.  (To me.)  

3) Some practice with the hit targeting might be needed.  Let's say you're in the top view and you have a sphere nearest the camera with a light underneath it.  As long as your mouse is actually over the light (but the sphere is in the way) you have 1 click to go down 1 level.  The first click selects the sphere, the 2nd click selects the light.  (Don't move the mouse during this time.)  Takes a bit of getting used to, but it's great imho once you are used to it.  I think a lot of people don't get how this works, so the move the mouse a bit which resets the list and get all frustrated.  I've been there. 

4) Last, you can use Window Crossing for small things like cams and lights.  There is a bug or two in there, but it works overall.  

Please try some of these things and see if any helps for you.  I get it, at first Max seems weird and foreign but after a while you get into a groove and it's really nice. 

EDIT: Formatting.

Best Regards,

[Swordslayer · Accepted solution]

You might also want to try the Selection overlapping objects script.

[jfjacques]

Thanks so much for that detailed explanation!  

The bit about hit targeting is what I was looking for -that explains a lot.  

I also never use scene explorer, preferring the layer explorer. UI Floater looks like it would be useful to create selection sets. Which I currently under-utilize. 

[jfjacques]

Thanks, yes!!! Hit targeting would be a pain at times. This is exactly the function I wanted. 

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

I'm glad this is helpful for you @jfjacques!  Thanks for the update and happy holidays.

Best Regards,