Bangalore, India
If you read the Release Notes of BricsCAD V14, you will see several hundreds of major and minor changes. Each one has been created to enhance the CAD drafting experience and improve productivity.
Locating these changes can be a challenge. However, I found some simple ways to help me find my way (more on that later, in this post - see Another Useful Tip ).
The SELECTSIMILAR command is one such small improvement that first caught my eye. This is what the release notes says:
- SELECTSIMILAR command selects similar entities of the same type as the currently selected one, based on a set of matching properties, stored in the SELECTSIMILARMODE system variable.
- SELECTSIMILARMODE system variable sets the selection criteria for the SELECTSIMILAR command. It is a bitcode value holding the sum of following values:
- 0 Entity type
- 1 Color
- 2 Layer
- 4 Linetype
- 8 Linetype scale
- 16 Lineweight
- 32 Plot style
- 64 Entity style (E.g. text style, dimension style, table style)
- 128 Name (E.g. for blocks, xrefs and images)
This is a command to select entities by properties. As of now, there is no way you can select by geometry. You can fine tune the way SELECTSIMILAR filters entities by using the SELECTSIMILARMODE system variable or via the Settings dialog (see below):
-or- you can even use the SEttings option of the SELECTSIMILAR command (see below)
SELECTSIMILAR works only when PICKFIRST system variable is switched on. I would have loved if it worked even when PICKFIRST was switched off. For example, I am used to entering the command first and selecting objects later with the previous option to retrieve the selection. But it does not work that way. I have filed a Support Request with Bricsys and waiting for an answer.
Update on 14-Nov-2013: Bricsys has responded and said that they will change the behavior of the SELECTSIMILAR command in the next update of BricsCAD V14.
SELECTSIMILAR now joins the existing set of entity selection tools already available in BricsCAD, like QSELECT and FILTER
Another useful tip (to find additions in V14 compared to V13): If you have BricsCAD V13 and V14 running side-by-side, it is easy to see the new commands (within a category) added. For example, typing SELECT on the command line in BricsCAD V13 provides me with these options:
and, in BricsCAD V14, it gives me these options:
Comparing the two screens, it is easy to identify the new selection-related commands that were added in V14. I am using this method to investigate category-by-category additions and hidden gems. I would next go on to investigate the new commands and read their help to know exactly what BricsCAD V14 has introduced.
The same logic can be extended to any command-set.
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