Selecting Features

Before you can edit an existing feature or features, you first must select them. Choose the Digitizer tool from the Selection Toolbar. Once a feature is selected, you can tell that it is selected because it will be drawn with a different style. The different methods for actually selecting features are described below.

Manual Selection

One way to select features is by simply by clicking the left mouse button near the feature, or in the case of area features, within the feature. Using this method, the closest point or line feature will be selected, or if no point or line features are nearby and you clicked within an area feature, the area feature will be selected.

To select multiple features at a time, you can drag a selection box by holding down the left mouse button to draw a box. Any features entirely within the box drawn or features which are cut by the box will be selected. If you hold down the 'I' key while dragging the box, only features and vertices that are completely within the box will be selected. This is useful for things like selecting a point feature that is on top of a line/ area border.

You can add to an existing selection by holding down the CTRL key while performing a selection with any of the above described methods. You can deselect features by holding down the SHIFT key while performing a selection. You can toggle the selection state of features by holding down both the SHIFT and CTRL keys while performing a selection. As a final option, holding the 'P' key when clicking to select the feature may be used to select the topmost area feature at a location. This is useful for selecting area features that may be overlaid by a line or point feature. It's functionally equivalent to using the Vector Display tab of the Configuration dialog to enable only the "Select From Areas" option - a temporary selection filter.

If you are planning on moving lots of features, you can speed up the process by holding down the ALT key when selected features and/or vertices. Doing this will cause you to automatically put into move mode when selecting new features and/or vertices.

Keyboard Shortcut List

DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL OPERATIONS

CTRL + Z: UNDO the last operation, if possible (example: when digitizing new features)
DELETE : MARK the selected feature(s) AS DELETED
CTRL + DELETE: DELETE the selected vertice(s)
SHFT + DELETE: UNDELETE the selected feature(s)
LEFT DOUBLE-CLICK: EDIT FEATURE under cursor
CTRL + ALT + M: MEASURE the cut-and-fill VOLUME of the currently selected line or area feature
CTRL + N: Cycle through non-connected line endpoints (end-NODES)
SHFT + T: Create new line (TRACE mode)

SELECT FEATURES ( SHAPES, AREAS & LINES ) WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

CTRL + LEFT CLICK: ADD/ APPEND selected features to cached selection
SHFT + LEFT CLICK: REMOVE selected features from cached selection
CTRL + SHFT + LEFT CLICK: Toggle the SELECTION STATE of selected features
A + LEFT CLICK: Select only the topmost AREA feature at the clicked location
L + LEFT CLICK: Select only the topmost LINE feature at the clicked location
P + LEFT CLICK: Select only the topmost POINT feature at the clicked location
ALT + LEFT CLICK: Automatically enter MOVE mode for selected feature(s) after selection
I + LEFT DRAG BOX: Only select FEATURES that are completely CONTAINED WITHIN the drag box
S + LEFT [CLICK or DRAG BOX] : Only select VERTICES from line or area features that are ALREADY SELECTED

SELECT FEATURES ( SHAPES, AREAS & LINES ) WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

CTRL + LEFT CLICK: ADD/ APPEND selected features to cached selection
SHFT + LEFT CLICK: REMOVE selected features from cached selection
CTRL + SHFT + LEFT CLICK: Toggle the SELECTION STATE of selected features
A + LEFT CLICK: Select only the topmost AREA feature at the clicked location
L + LEFT CLICK: Select only the topmost LINE feature at the clicked location
P + LEFT CLICK: Select only the topmost POINT feature at the clicked location
ALT + LEFT CLICK: Automatically enter MOVE mode for selected feature(s) after selection
I + LEFT DRAG BOX: Only select FEATURES that are completely CONTAINED WITHIN the drag box
S + LEFT [CLICK or DRAG BOX] : Only select VERTICES from line or area features that are ALREADY SELECTED

INSERT VERTICES WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

SHFT + LEFT CLICK: New vertex will be inserted at NEAREST LOCATION to clicked location on selected feature rather than at click location
I + LEFT CLICK : STAY IN VERTEX INSERT MODE after inserting vertex. Useful if needing to insert multiple vertices

DRAW SHAPES WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

SHFT : Causes the shape to be ELLIPTICAL or RECTANGULAR rather than the default of circular or square
T + LEFT CLICK: Causes shapes to be ANCHORED at the CENTER OF SHAPE rather than the top left of shape

DRAW AREAS & LINES WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

THESE SHORTCUTS ARE EXECUTED WHILE MOVING THE MOUSE

X or SHFT: Clamp (restrict) drawing of features/ vertices to the HORIZONTAL axis

Y or CTRL: Clamp (restrict) drawing of features/ vertices to the VERTICAL axis

CTRL + SHFT : Clamp (restrict) drawing of features/ vertices to the DIAGONAL axis

R : Clamp (restrict) drawing to RIGHT ANGLES from direction of last drawn segment

MOVE FEATURES & VERTICES WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

THESE SHORTCUTS ARE EXECUTED WHILE MOVING THE MOUSE

X or SHFT: Clamp (restrict) movement of features/ vertices to the HORIZONTAL axis

Y or CTRL:Clamp (restrict) movement of features/ vertices to the VERTICAL axis

CTRL + SHFT: Clamp (restrict) movement of features/ vertices to the DIAGONAL axis

THESE SHORTCUTS ARE EXECUTED WITHOUT MOVING THE MOUSE

R : Toggles clamped movement to RIGHT-ANGLES from direction of last drawn segment

CTRL + SHFT + M: MOVE the selected features

ALT + LEFT CLICK: Automatically enter MOVE MODE for selected feature(s) after selection

J + LEFT CLICK: Automatically enter JOIN MODE if more than one vertex is selected

SNAP-TO BEHAVIORS WITH DIGITIZER/ EDIT TOOL

ALT + LEFT CLICK: DISABLE automatic SNAPPING behavior
V + LEFT CLICK: ONLY snap to EXISTING VERTICES/ FEATURES (advanced snap option that restricts snap to active vertices, lines or areas

Other selection options

Clear Current Selection - choose this button to deselect all data that is currently selected. The ESC key will also do this.

Advanced Selection

You can also select area, line, and point features within selected area features by first selecting one or more area features using the previously described methods, then right clicking and selecting the appropriate option under the Advanced Selection Options sub-menu. This makes it easy to find and edit all of the point, line, and/or area features within some other area feature(s).

When working with island and parent areas, there are also some options available under the Advanced Selection Options sub-menu that make it easy to select all of the island areas associated with selected parent areas and to also deselect the parent area for a selected island area. You can also select lines or points within selected areas, or also select any area that share a vertex with the selected area(s) or any areas that they were connected to, or select any line features that share a vertex with the selected area(s).