Select elements/objects that are visible in a viewport

[PeterKehoe]

The "By VP Frame" method for selecting is very useful. I would like a similar method which allows you to box an area but only select those elements or objects which are visible in the viewport, so it will ignore hidden elements or objects. This could be an additional option to the "Boxing" section called "Visible".

This would most likely need to be implemented based on the facet model, similar to how the Econofast mode works in Annotation. While obviously not perfect, it should be much easier than selecting all of the element or objects manually.

[thollerweger]

Could you explain that by an image?

I think that the normal behaviour of modeling is only visible objects are selected.

[PeterKehoe]

Thanks, yes I can explain this better. The normal behavior is to only select "drawn" objects. The difference is that I want to select only the visible objects of the ones that are drawn. In the picture below, I only want to select the case parts (parts on the outside-shown as semi-transparent) and not select the interior mechanism parts.

[thollerweger]

Now i understand.

I think that´s rather difficult.

Do you want do select just the visible parts from this specific view or all outer parts including the hidden parts from the backside?

- In the first case the components list from Annotation Views could help you. Maybe there is a way to use this information.

- In the second case - there is a hole at the frontside - how should modeling recognise which parts you want to select?

[PeterKehoe]

Ideally I would like to use this to get to "all outer parts", but I would be satisfied with just the visible parts in this specific view; I think that would be easier and a good start.

Knowing that Annotation can get a components list is what makes me think that what I am asking for is feasible. But I don't want to have to create a drawing to do it.

Having holes in the outside parts does make it more challenging; that is why limiting it to a specific view direction is probably the best approach. Even so, more objects/elements may be selected than should be, but I'm hoping that when that happens it is easier to remove those than it would be to add all of the correct ones.

[bhug]

Does this means, if a part is at the outside of your case, but hidden from the given view angle, it should not be selected?

[PeterKehoe]

Berthold, yes, if a part is outside but hidden from a given view angle it should not be selected. I expect that it will take selecting from multiple view directions to get all of the "outside" objects, but having this select option would still save a lot more time then selected them one-by-one (which is about the only option today).

[wvangeem]

Just as Peter mentioned in my similar product idea http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/2730, this is perhaps rather difficult to implement, but the technology of visible parts/faces is already present in the Annotation functionality.

This functionality could be very helpfull to simplify parts/assemblies up to outer face level.

Lots of parts are now downloaded, and contain exhaustive parts/faces, not needed in the current context. These large parts have as a result large assemblies, large Annotation drawings, ...

Lot of our customers are asking such functionality.

[olivierlp]

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