OOF2: The Manual

3.9. Skeleton Selection
	Chapter 3. Task Pages

3.9. Skeleton Selection

The Skeleton Selection Page has two purposes: it contains tools for creating and manipulating Skeleton groups, and tools for selecting Nodes, Segments, and Elements. Groups can be made from selections, and selections can be modified by groups.

Groups and selections of objects are useful because other operations can be applied to them. For example, it's possible to refine the Elements in an Element group, or pin the selected Nodes.

The geography of the page is shown in Figure 3.15. The Skeleton Chooser at the top of the page selects the Skeleton upon which the rest of the page operates. The Mode Buttons below it determine whether or not the page is selecting and grouping Elements, Nodes, or Segments. Only one of the three modes can be active at one time. The Info Area simply states how many objects (Elements, Nodes, or Segments) are selected.

Figure 3.15. The Skeleton Selection Page

The bulk of the Skeleton Selection Page is occupied by the Group Operations Pane and the Selection Modification Pane. The Group Operations Pane creates and manages groups of Elements, Nodes, or Segments, depending on the current mode. The Selection Modification Pane selects and deselects the same objects.

The Group Operations Pane

The Group Operations Pane consists of three regions. A central list of groups, and two columns of buttons. The central list shows all of the defined groups of Elements, Nodes, or Segments (depending on the Mode) in the current Skeleton Clicking on a group selects it for operations by the buttons.

The buttons to the left of the group list operate on the groups themselves:

Depending on the mode, the New button invokes either OOF.ElementGroup.New_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.New_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.New_Group to create a new group. It brings up a dialog box to ask for a name for the group. The new group will be empty and will be automatically selected in the group list.
The Rename button invokes either OOF.ElementGroup.Rename_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Rename_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Rename_Group to rename the group currently selected in the group list.
The Copy button invokes either OOF.ElementGroup.Copy_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Copy_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Copy_Group to copy the group currently selected in the group list. The new group will contain the same objects as the group being copied.
The Delete button deletes the group selected in the group list, by invoking either OOF.ElementGroup.Delete_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Delete_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Delete_Group. The objects stored in the deleted group are not affected.

The buttons on the right side of the group list affect the contents of the selected group.

The Add button invokes either OOF.ElementGroup.Add_to_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Add_to_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Add_to_Group to add the currently selected Elements, Nodes, or Segments to a group.
The Remove button invokes either OOF.ElementGroup.Remove_from_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Remove_from_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Remove_from_Group to remove the currently selected Elements, Nodes, or Segments from a group.
The Clear button removes all the members from the selected group, by invoking either OOF.ElementGroup.Clear_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Clear_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Clear_Group.
The Info button prints information about a group in the Message window. It invokes either OOF.ElementGroup.Query_Group, OOF.NodeGroup.Query_Group, or OOF.SegmentGroup.Query_Group.
The Assign and Remove buttons in the Material pane are only active in Element mode. They invoke OOF.ElementGroup.Assign_Material and OOF.ElementGroup.Remove_Material to assign and remove Materials from Element groups. Materials assigned explicitly to groups in this way override the Material assignments made to pixels by OOF.Material.Assign.

The Selection Modification Pane

The Selection Modification Pane contains tools for making and modifying selections in the Skeleton. The pull-down menu labelled Action contains commands from the OOF.ElementSelection, OOF.NodeSelection, or OOF.SegmentSelection menus, depending on the current mode setting. The area right below the pull-down menu is used to set the parameters for the commands.

At the bottom of the Selection Modification Pane are seven buttons:

The OK button performs the action specified by the Action menu.
The Prev and Next buttons cycle through the recently used modifiers in the Action menu. They don't have any direct effect on the Skeleton selection.
The Undo and Redo buttons undo and redo the recently made Skeleton selections. They're the GUI equivalent of the Undo and Redo commands in the OOF.ElementSelection, OOF.NodeSelection, and OOF.SegmentSelection menus.
The Clear button unselects all selected objects in the current mode, by invoking OOF.ElementSelection.Clear, OOF.NodeSelection.Clear, or OOF.SegmentSelection.Clear.
The Invert button unselects all selected objects in the current mode and selects all the unselected ones, by invoking OOF.ElementSelection.Invert, OOF.NodeSelection.Invert, or OOF.SegmentSelection.Invert.

More tools for selecting Skeleton components are available in the Skeleton Selection Toolbox in the Graphics Window. Those tools all rely on mouse input, in contrast with the tools in the Skeleton Selection Page, which are all mouseless.


3.8. Pin Nodes		3.10. Skeleton Boundaries