USER INTERFACE | SELECTION METHODOLOGY
Please feel free to add any selection tips and tricks I may have forgotten.
One of the keys to modeling quickly and efficiently is to master the various selection methodologies available in Wings.
Paint select by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the cursor over the elements to be selected. Only visible elements will be selected.
Marquee select by clicking in an empty area of the workspace and while holding down the left mouse button dragging out a selection box. Selects both visible and hidden elements.
Shift Marquee select on the other hand only selects visible (forward facing) elements. It also constrains the selection set to those elements wholly contained in the selection box.
The plus and minus keys (+, -) will expand and shrink the current selection set, respectively. In the case of expansion, each press of the + key will select all elements that are directly adjacent to the currently selected elements. Each press of the key will shrink the currently selected set of elements from the outer most inward. If you press enough times, eventually everything will be deselected and can not be re-expanded by using the + key. The + key can be used very effectively to select faces that are otherwise almost impossible to select, such as the back side of a tooth, for example. Choose a face next to the face that you cannot easily select, then hit the + key to select all the adjacent faces. The face you had a hard time selecting should then be selected. Then just click on the other faces to deselect them, leaving the target face selected.
L will select an edge loop.
G will select an edge ring.
F3 will select the next edge loop in a series of edge loops.
F4 will select the previous edge loop in a series of edge loops. The F3/F4 combination can be very useful for working on a long segment of a model (a tail for example) where you want to go from edge loop to edge loop to perform some minor modifications. You can keep going up and down the segment making modifications until you are satisfied with the results.
Please feel free to add any selection tips and tricks I may have forgotten.
One of the keys to modeling quickly and efficiently is to master the various selection methodologies available in Wings.
Paint select by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the cursor over the elements to be selected. Only visible elements will be selected.
Marquee select by clicking in an empty area of the workspace and while holding down the left mouse button dragging out a selection box. Selects both visible and hidden elements.
Shift Marquee select on the other hand only selects visible (forward facing) elements. It also constrains the selection set to those elements wholly contained in the selection box.
The plus and minus keys (+, -) will expand and shrink the current selection set, respectively. In the case of expansion, each press of the + key will select all elements that are directly adjacent to the currently selected elements. Each press of the key will shrink the currently selected set of elements from the outer most inward. If you press enough times, eventually everything will be deselected and can not be re-expanded by using the + key. The + key can be used very effectively to select faces that are otherwise almost impossible to select, such as the back side of a tooth, for example. Choose a face next to the face that you cannot easily select, then hit the + key to select all the adjacent faces. The face you had a hard time selecting should then be selected. Then just click on the other faces to deselect them, leaving the target face selected.
L will select an edge loop.
G will select an edge ring.
F3 will select the next edge loop in a series of edge loops.
F4 will select the previous edge loop in a series of edge loops. The F3/F4 combination can be very useful for working on a long segment of a model (a tail for example) where you want to go from edge loop to edge loop to perform some minor modifications. You can keep going up and down the segment making modifications until you are satisfied with the results.
