Selection Colors
Using Selection Colors
Using selection colors in 2D and 3D models can make it easier to distinguish between selections of geometry objects and geometric entities. You can add a selection color to all selection nodes that you add from the Selections menu when right-clicking a Definitions node (or from the Definitions toolbar) In their Settings window, you can choose a color that represents that selection from the Color list. You can also assign colors using a Color list when you select the Resulting objects selection in the Settings window for most geometric primitives and geometry operations in geometry sequences.
From the color palette that opens you can choose None (the default, for no color); choose a color from the list of theme colors; or define and add custom colors that you can choose from by clicking Define custom colors, define a new custom color, and then click Add to custom colors (see The Color Palette for more information). You specify a color theme for the Graphics window in the Preferences dialog box on the Color Themes page under User Interface. You can also specify it in the root node’s Settings window. The color themes contain a set of colors that are chosen to form a suitable theme.
When you change the color theme, the colors chosen from the previous color theme change to the colors for the new color theme at the same positions in the list of theme colors.
Color Appearance and Precedence
Colors defined in the geometry sequence are displayed when viewing the geometry sequence. They are also displayed for the finalized geometry (for example, when the working with the mesh and physics) but only if that selection has the Show in physics option selected. Colors for selections and materials are not displayed in the geometry sequence.
The selection colors, the colors for selection highlighting, and colors for materials cannot appear at the same time. The following precedence rules control which color to display:
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Selection-related colors always have precedence.
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Selection-feature colors have precedence over geometry colors.
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If multiple selection features define a color for the same entity, the precedence order is as follows:
a
Boundary color
b
Domain color
c
Object color
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If several selections define a color for the same entity, latter features in the list override former.
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Material colors have precedence over selection-feature colors (but material colors are not enabled by default).
By clicking the Suppress Selection Highlight button () you can temporarily disable the selection highlight colors in the Graphics window. The state is reset automatically when you, for example, switch node in the Model Builder.
Controlling the Selection Colors
From the Colors menus () on the Definitions and Geometry toolbar you can choose the following actions for selection colors in definitions nodes and in geometry nodes, respectively:
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Choose Color Selections () to color all selections using colors from the current color theme.
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Choose Reset Colors from Theme () to reset all colors to those from the current color theme.
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Choose Remove Selection Colors () to remove all selection colors so that they are set to None.
These settings are also available in a Group node that you have created and that contains a number of selection nodes, for example.
In the Graphics window toolbar, you can choose Show Selection Colors and Show Material Colors and Texture from the Colors menu () to control the display of selection colors and material color and texture. Both of them can be selected at the same time. The same settings are also available in the Colors section of the View nodes’ Settings window.