Selection Toggles

In Revit 2014 we were introduced to a number of new buttons in the lower right corner of the Revit interface. In order from left to right they are; Select links, select underlay elements, select pinned elements, select elements by face, drag elements on selection. (This last one was in previous versions)

I personally love these new tools as they give us more control in cleaning up what we can and can’t select whilst working, in what can sometimes be a complex and busy environment. 

So cross the ‘select elements by face’ and you will no longer be inadvertently selecting those floors in the middle of the plan. Have some pinned objects you don’t want to be able to select? Cross ‘select pinned elements’. In Revit, when underlays are turned on, they can be edited, which has its positive, but most of the time we use to gauge what is happening above and below. So cross ‘select underlay elements’ and they will no longer be part of your selections. Now it is a true ghost without the ability to select it.

I would recommend crossing all of these and toggling them on as you need them.

Quick tip....  I ALWAYS recommend every user (experienced or not) have ‘drag elements on selection’ crossed. In our haste movement of cursor selection, accidently clicking and dragging (in one motion) a wall a short distance when you don’t want to, then waiting for Revit to throw you a bunch of warnings about how bad this was and how this results in clashes, unjoining, joining, rooms breaking etc etc, it’s a simpler life to have this ability simply turned off at all times. 

The resulting behaviour of this is you must select the object first, then move it.

(I wish windows explorer had this feature! Accidently dragging folders into others is so annoying isn’t it!)

So introduce your team to these new tools, they really do make life that little bit easier and clearer.