? about the selection tool

Hello, I have a problem- recently I haven't been able to select more than one object and I don't know why. A few weeks ago, if I drew two separate lines in my workspace, I could use my pointer to select both of the lines and both of them would then display the grip/edit boxes. Now when I select one line the grip/edit boxes will appear and then when I select the other line- the first line will de select itself and the second line will select and have the grip/edit boxes whereas before I could select one line( the grip.edit boxes would appear) and then when i selected the second line the grip.edit boxes would appear also so then i would have both lines with the grip/edit boxes at the same time. I didnt change or do anything so i dont understand why i cant select multiple objects now. Can anyone advise me on how to correct this problem? thanks in advance.

-Chris

Sounds like Noun/verb has been turned off CONFIG, SELECTION, Noun verb tick on. There is a variable setting also for this others will answer.

Sounds like PICKADD is probably the culprit, as explained in the screenshot. PICKFIRST would be the noun/verb selection variable which BIGAL mentioned, you can change either of them in OPTIONS on the Selection tab, on the left side of the dialog in Selection Modes. Assuming one is not inclined to use the SYSVDLG, as shown in the screenshots, or even at the commandline, but I enjoy seeing the big picture offered and explained in the SYSVDLG box.

Yes that was it Dadgad, my dialog box is slightly different though as I have the student 2014 autocad (I believe thats sometimes referred to as vanilla autocad), whereas that is a 2013 autocad in the diagram. I think that when I downloaded the service pack it must have reset that variable.

Yes that wast it BIGAL, thanks for that info

Yes that was it Dadgad, my dialog box is slightly different though as I have the student 2014 autocad (I believe thats sometimes referred to as vanilla autocad), whereas that is a 2013 autocad in the diagram. I think that when I downloaded the service pack it must have reset that variable.

There is no difference between the Student and the Nonstudent versions.

If you enter SYSVDLG at the commandline, you can access the 2014 version of the display shown on the screen.

When looking at relevant information regarding a variable, the Initial Value is the default out of the box Autocad setting, Current Value is self explanatory, and one is provided the option of changing a value in the New Value field. If you want to change anything, enter the new value in that field, then you must remember to press OK at the bottom of the dialog, in order to confirm and save it. The Save All button should be used, to ensure that one has a backup .svf file, which can be used to restore one's personal settings, should they ever get messed up, or if you want to copy or share your personalized favorite system variable settings to another computer, or coworker. Name it appropriately, and place it where you will be able to find it. This is very simple due diligence, and can really come in handy, if you use any customized settings at all. In order to reset ALL system variables to the factory default settings, all one needs to do is to use the READ button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Yes I see what you are talking about now Dadgad when I typed in SYSVDLG, that is the first time I've ever seen that dialog box. Now I see that the reason my dialog box looked different was because I opened my Options dialog box and clicked on the "selection" tab, from there I located the selection modes category and unchecked the "use Shift to add to collection" box. And that solved my problem and allowed me to once again select multiple objects by clicking on them. One of the things that I have learned so far is that there is sometimes more than one way to do a certain thing or perform a certain action in autocad. And yes by typing in SYSVDGL and going that route I could have also solved my problem.

When you hover over fields in OPTIONS, if you have TOOL TIPS turned on (OPTIONS, Display tab, or TOOLTIPS variable set to 1 at the commandline prompt), a description will appear, explaining which system variable it changes.

There are always about a half a dozen ways to approach any task in Autocad.

Many of the system variables deal with choosing to use the new codes and displays, which are almost always set up as the new default values: or if you prefer the older version, you can often elect to use the CLASSIC interface, and such options would be spelled out in the SYSVDLG descriptions.

The ones you find in OPTIONS are ones which are commonly changed, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. They are the ones which are most frequently tweaked, because they are the ones being promoted there.

By spending some spare time looking through the mind blowing number of system variables which are available in the software, one can learn plenty, and you can fine tune the software to work how you want it to.

Just use the cursor button on your keyboard to scroll through the sysvdlg list, so you can glance at the descriptions as you are scrolling, if you are killing a little time researching, or if you are trying to solve a problem, and are pretty sure you are closing in on the appropriate variable, such as having a Dimension problem, and the obvious variable doesn't jump right out at you based on the name, start scrolling through variables beginning with DIM.

Thanks for the info Dadgad, I am constantly learning new things about autocad!

An example 4 ways

osnap set all the object snaps to what you want

osmode 39 sets the snaps to a certain combination without using Osnap, hint set your osnaps then type osmode for number

(defun c:39 () (setvar "osmode" 39)) add this to say acaddoc.lsp and you can type 39 to set your osnaps

Press F3 turns osnap on/off

OSMODE is a great one, that I suspect gets under used BIGAL.

I used to use it, I think I favored 46, if I remember correctly, but haven't in some time, that is a nice idea creating that lisp to toggle the values, I think I will have to do that, set up 3 or 4 different values, to be used for differents recurring tasks.