Group Select Beams and Posts in X17 (Framing Members)

[BlairDrafting]

In Chief Architect there is a function I believe is called "group select, which allows you to select only the objects on screen which you are currently building. Ie: using the wall build tool and holding the shift key to only select walls on screen. I love this function because it allows me to quickly select specific items on screen while not selecting everything in the area or selecting the wrong item.

 

I've noticed in X17 when using the "group select" function to select beams it also selects posts. This seems to be new to X17 and I find it frustrating because rather than only editing or deleting the beams I want to manipulate I also end up grabbing any posts in the area. Does anyone know how to force Chief to only select beams with "group select" like it did in previous versions? I looked through the preferences, default settings and took a quick search through the forum to see if this has already been answered, but haven't seen anything yet.

[Chrisb222]

 

12 minutes ago, BlairDrafting said:

I've noticed in X17 when using the "group select" function to select beams it also selects posts.

 

You're right, using the "Select tool, shift-drag" function on beams will also select posts.

 

For this you want "Marquee Select Similar." Select one beam, then hit this button on the bottom Edit toolbar and drag-select:

 

 

You can also use Match Properties in that same toolbar, but for this use case MSS is better.

Edited yesterday at 04:57 PM by Chrisb222

[Loyd44]

17 hours ago, BlairDrafting said:

In Chief Architect there is a function I believe is called "group select, which allows you to select only the objects on screen which you are currently building. Ie: using the wall build tool and holding the shift key to only select walls on screen. I love this function because it allows me to quickly select specific items on screen while not selecting everything in the area or selecting the wrong item.

 

I've noticed in X17 when using the "group select" function to select beams it also selects posts. This seems to be new to X17 and I find it frustrating because rather than only editing or deleting the beams I want to manipulate I also end up grabbing any posts in the area. Does anyone know how to force Chief to only select beams with "group select" like it did in previous versions? I looked through the preferences, default settings and took a quick search through the forum to see if this has already been answered, but haven't seen anything yet.

In X17 beams and posts are now treated as the same framing member category, so group select grabs both by default. To isolate beams you need to switch to the Select Objects tool, open the Select Similar or Filter options, and temporarily limit the selection to the specific object type or layer the beams are on. The reliable workaround is to place beams on their own layer, lock or turn off the posts layer, then use group select so only beams are available to grab. This mimics the old behavior even though the underlying category is now unified.