You can also create selection nodes in the geometry sequence for user-defined named selections of all or a few of the geometric entities at a specific geometric entity level based on one or more of the nodes above the selection node in the geometry sequence. This way it is possible to make a selection that only includes a few of the geometric entities from one or more geometry objects and also create selections based on entire geometry objects. Using selections based on a geometry object makes it possible to track, for example, all boundaries in the final geometry that belong to that geometry object, even if its original boundaries are intersected by other geometry objects during a parametric sweep, for example. That is, the selection nodes in the Geometry branch can provide better associativity when changing or updating the geometry than the corresponding selection nodes under Definitions. See the following sections for details on the selection nodes in the geometry sequence, which you choose from the Selections submenu in the Geometry node’s context menu.

If the current node in the geometry sequence is before the node preceding the selection node or after the selection node, the selection is not visualized (because the selected object or entities might not be visible in this state). In this case, the Build Preceding State button appears instead of the selection list (this also applies for nonexplicit selections in some selection nodes if From selections is selected under Input Entities). To create a state in which the selection can be visualized, click Build Preceding State or click the Build Selected button (). To rebuild the entire geometry, click the Build All Objects button ().

To create these selections, click the geometry object node in the Model Builder and then select the Resulting objects selection check box in the Settings window’s Selections of Resulting Entities section. The selections then become available with the name of the geometry node (Block 1, for example) in subsequent geometry nodes. To make the selections available in all applicable selection lists in the Settings windows for the physics nodes, material nodes, mesh nodes, and so on, select an option from the Show in physics (Show in instances if in a geometry part) list: All levels, to make the selection available for all geometric entity levels; Domain selection (the default for most nodes); Boundary selection; Edge selection (3D only); Point selection; or Off, if the selection should not be available outside of the geometry sequence. Not all entity levels are available for all geometric primitives and operations. There are no explicit Selection nodes for these selections. For example, for a 3D Component model with a single Block node, the Selection list contains the selection Block 1, which for a domain selection is the single domain, and for a boundary selection consists of the six faces of the block.

To hide the selected geometric entities or geometry objects in the named selection nodes, right-click the node and choose Hide Selection (). To show the hidden selection again, right-click the node and select Show Selection ().