Object selection distance

[pascal0312]

The object selection in F360 (and Eagle before this) is clunky.

If I select this polygon, select the MOVE command and want to move it I have to right click and select Move:Group.

However, the 'selection border' is so big, you'll always select the object and get the above right-click dropdown. 1 pixel to the left and it will show Move:Group dropdown.

This also works for selecting components. 

Consider the above image. With nothing selected, and right clicking on the top-left corner of the drop-down menu it's still selecting the circle. Why? I'm not even close to the circle.

I want to right click next to the first selection to move. Not having to find the invisible border around the object in which I still click that object. I want to right-click the white box, not the circle almost 2cm on my monitor apart.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @pascal0312,

Thanks for your feedback this is something we want to improve and are working to make better. With that said the workflow you are illustrating is pretty suboptimal and there are things you can do make it work better.

1) Leverage the Selection Filter, to exclude objects and layers you are not interested in selecting.

2) Select the command first then the object.

3) Use the shortcut cycle select to clear ambiguities. When you select and item and icon changes (looks like the MOVE icon) right click to cycle through nearby items, once you land on the one you want left click to select it.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[pascal0312]

I don't find option 1 a viable solution. I do use the selection filter when working on certain objects. But I don't like inserting the Selection Filter for every action I do. It's a suboptimal workflow, requiring extra mouse actions on something I expect the software to do for me. (Select correct items)

Option 2 doesn't work for a drag selection.
Moving a whole polygon requires selecting the whole polygon, then using the move command and using right click -> group:move. Otherwise I'm just moving 1 line of the polygon.
While trying your solution and mashing keyboard buttons in the process I did find out about 'Shift+leftclick' which will select the whole polygon if you click 1 line. That makes option 2 a better solution. I did not know about this nor did the bottom statusbar tell me about it.
It only says "Left-click to select object to move", maybe add more info to include 'shift+left click' as well?

Option 3 is fine when objects are on top of each other or very close to each other. But if I'm selecting the white box on a point that's about 2cm from the red circle, I fully expect to have 1 viable option to select. Or at least the software should select the most likely thing I would've selected. Maybe the 1:1 scale is very close to each other, but zoomed in it's very clear what I'm trying to select and the software should follow that instinct as well so to speak.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @pascal0312,

In the image above is that grey rectangle part of a component? If it is, you will not be able to select it at all on the layout editor. In the scenario selecting the via makes sense.

I was going to comment on option 2 but you figured it out already.

The idea isn't to constantly have to go to the selection filter for every single selection, with that said he are aware of the current shortcomings of the selection mechanism and want to make it much better. The selection mechanism is one of the hardest things to get right, we've been trying to make it more intuitive but it's proven to be a difficult problem to solve.

I'm hopeful that this attempt will be fruitful and we can achieve a selection mechanism that users will not have to think about.

Best Regards,