Doc:2.6/Manual/Modeling/Curves/Selecting

Page status (reviewing guidelines) Images add images Proposed fixes: none

Curve Selection

Curve selection in Edit mode is much less complex than with meshes! Mainly this is because you have only one selectable element type, the control points (no select mode needed here…). These points are a bit more complex than simple vertices, however, especially for Béziers, as there is the central vertex, and its two handles…

The basic tools are the same as with meshes, so you can select a simple control point with a LMB -click, add to current selection with ⇧ ShiftLMB -clicks, Border-select, and so on.

One word about the Bézier control points: when you select the main central vertex, the two handles are automatically selected too, so you can grab it as a whole, without creating an angle in the curve. However, when you select a handle, only this vertex is selected, allowing you to modify this control vector…

L (or CtrlL) will add to the selection the cursor’s nearest control point, and all the linked ones, i.e. all points belonging to the same curve. Note that for Bézier, using L with a handle selected will select the whole control point and all the linked ones.

Select Menu

With curves, all “advanced” selection options are regrouped in the Select menu of the 3D views header. Let’s detail them.

Random...

Inverse

Select/Deselect All

Border Select

All these options have the same meaning and behavior as in Object mode (and the specifics of Border Select in Edit mode have already been discussed here).

Every Nth

Mode: Edit mode

Hotkey: None

Menu: Select » Every Nth

This only works if you already have at least one control point selected. Using the current selection, it will add to it every nth control point, before and after the initial selection. The “selection step” is specified in the N pop-up numeric field shown during the tool start.

Select/Deselect First/Last

Mode: Edit mode

Hotkey: None

Menu: Select » Select/Deselect First, Select » Select/Deselect Last

These commands will toggle the selection of the first or last control point(s) of the curve(s) in the object. This is useful to quickly find the start of a curve (e.g. when using it as path…).

Select Next/Previous

Mode: Edit mode

Hotkey: None

Menu: Select » Select Next, Select » Select Previous

These commands will select the next or previous control point(s), based on the current selection (i.e. the control points following or preceding the selected ones along the curve).

More and Less

Mode: Edit mode

Hotkey: Ctrl+ NumPad/Ctrl- NumPad

Menu: Select » More/Less

These two options are complementary and similar to those for meshes. Their purpose, based on the currently selected control points, is to reduce or enlarge this selection.

The algorithm is the same as with meshes, but results are more easy to understand:

• More: for each selected control point, select all its linked points (i.e. one or two…).
• Less: for each selected control point, if all points linked to this point are selected, keep this one selected. Otherwise, de-select it.

This implies two points:

• First, when all control points of a curve are selected, nothing will happen (as for Less, all linked points are always selected, and of course, More can’t add any). Conversely, the same goes when no control points are selected.
• Second, these tools will never “go outside” of a curve (they will never “jump” to another curve in the same object).