Selection & Visibility

Overview

Almost all VICUS Buildings functions — transformations, assigning constructions, copying, deleting — act on the current selection. Objects are selected in the 3D scene by mouse click, with a selection window, or in the navigation tree; Smart Selection (Ctrl+F) filters by properties. Selection and visibility changes are undoable actions and can be reverted with Ctrl+Z.

Selection by mouse click in the scene

A left-click on a surface selects the surface together with the sub-surfaces (windows/doors) it contains. Modifier keys change this behavior:

Input	Effect
Left-click	Selects the surface and its sub-surfaces; exclusive in standard mode (the previous selection is cleared)
Ctrl + left-click	Additive selection: adds an object to the existing selection or removes it
Shift + left-click	Selects the parent object with all its children — i.e. the entire room including neighboring surfaces
Alt + left-click	Selects only the surface itself, without the sub-surfaces it contains
Esc	Clears the entire selection (or cancels an ongoing drawing/transformation operation)

The basic behavior of a simple click can be reversed in the Settings: with the option Use additive selection mode (Ctrl+click for single selection), every click toggles the selection additively, while Ctrl+click selects exclusively.

Hidden objects cannot be clicked in the scene. The number of currently selected objects is shown in the info bar below the scene (Sel: N).

Selection window (Ctrl + drag)

Holding Ctrl + left mouse button draws a selection rectangle. The drag direction determines the behavior:

Drag direction	Effect
To the right	Captures all objects touched by the rectangle
To the left	Captures only fully enclosed objects
Downward	Captured objects are added to the selection (green frame)
Upward	Captured objects are removed from the selection (red frame)

If the Shift key is also held while dragging, then — as with Shift-click — the associated rooms with all their surfaces and sub-surfaces are captured.

Selection in the navigation tree

Each tree row has a selection checkbox and a light-bulb icon for visibility; a click acts on the object including all child objects, or, with the Shift key held, only on the object itself. The toolbar above the tree bundles the selection and visibility actions:

Action	Shortcut	Function
Remove (Del)	Del	Deletes the selected objects — but only if they are visible
Hide selected objects	F6	Hides all selected objects in the scene
Show selected objects	F7	Makes all selected objects visible again
Select all	Ctrl+A	Selects all selectable (visible) objects
Deselect all	Esc	Clears the entire selection
Invert selection	Ctrl+I	Inverts the current selection
Smart Selection	Ctrl+F	Opens the dialog for property-based selection (see below)

Smart Selection (Ctrl+F)

The Smart Selection dialog (Ctrl+F or via the tree toolbar) selects objects based on properties. On the Building objects page, a category is chosen first:

• By construction — surfaces by the usage type of the assigned construction (exterior wall, interior wall, roof, …), plus Other and Invalid construction
• By window / door — sub-surfaces by the type of window component, plus Invalid sub-surface
• By geometry type — Surfaces, Sub-surfaces, Rooms or Buildings without further condition

The result list can be narrowed with additional filters:

• Name filter: — exact match; * as wildcard (e.g. *Filter*), several names separated by ;
• Boundary condition filter: — only surfaces whose building component uses the selected boundary condition
• Area filter: — comparison of the area in m² with the operators <, >, =

The reset button clears all filters. Select performs the selection; if no matches are found, the dialog reports No objects with these properties found. The filter settings persist within the session.

Selection information

The button in the info bar (tooltip Show detailed selection information) opens the Selection information dialog with a quantity evaluation of the current selection:

• Bounding box — dimensions of the selection as dX, dY, dZ in meters
• Tab Building with three tables:
  • Surfaces — Name, Area [m²], Net area [m²] (minus sub-surfaces), Inclination [°], Orientation [°]
  • Sub-surfaces — Name, Area [m²], Parent surface
  • Rooms — Name, Floor area [m²], Volume [m³]
• Summary — total row: number and total/net areas of the surfaces, number and area of the sub-surfaces, number, area and volume of the rooms

This lets you, for example, read window-area ratios or envelope areas directly from the model without starting a simulation.

Camera quick views (Ctrl+1-9)

Fixed camera positions are available for checking the selection and orienting yourself in the model (menu View, best used via the numeric keypad):

Menu entry	Shortcut
View from north	Ctrl+2
View from east	Ctrl+4
View from south	Ctrl+8
View from west	Ctrl+6
View from above	Ctrl+5
Bird’s-eye view from north-east	Ctrl+9
Bird’s-eye view from north-west	Ctrl+7
Bird’s-eye view from south-east	Ctrl+3
Bird’s-eye view from south-west	Ctrl+1

In addition:

• View > Find selected geometry (Ctrl+G) — positions the camera near the currently selected geometry. Useful for locating an object selected in the navigation tree within the model.
• View > Reset view — returns the camera to its initial position: looking down onto the coordinate origin.

Related topics

• The Building workspace (camera navigation with mouse and keyboard)
• Building structure & terms (navigation tree, IDs)
• Transformations
• Keyboard & mouse (reference)