Select objects and components - Houdini online help

Overview

In Houdini you can select objects or components and then choose a shelf item or command to apply to the selection, or you can choose a shelf item and the tool will prompt you for the type of selection it needs.

The Select tool (S) lets you select objects or geometry before applying shelf items or menu commands.

S

Select

In object mode, the selection arrow is black. In component mode, the arrow is white. This is simply to help you remember which mode you're in when you're working in the viewer.

Right click this icon for a menu of selection options.

Selection keys

Keys	Action
	Select
Ctrl + ⇧ Shift +	Add to selection
Ctrl +	Remove from selection
⇧ Shift +	Toggle selection
A	Select all
N	Select nothing

If you want to lock the select tool to add, remove, or toggle mode, right click the Select tool and choose Add, Remove, or Toggle from the menu. Choose Replace to return to the default behavior.

Prompted selection

Houdini will prompt you for a selection when you click a tool and any of the following are true:

Nothing is selected.
The selection cannot be used by the tool.
The tool requires multiple selections (e.g. boolean operations).

Houdini will display a blue prompt at the bottom of the main window with instructions on what to select.

Once you've completed the selection, press Enter or ⇧ Shift + . You can also click and choose Finish selection.

Selection type

The selection mode controls

What you can select in the view.
What node appears in the parameter editor
What handles appear when you click the Handles tool.

When you select in object mode, the parameter editor will show the parameters for the object (e.g. a light, a geometry container, camera, bone, etc.). When you select in component mode, the parameter editor will show the parameters for the surface node with the display flag.

1

Select objects

When you click geometry in this mode, the object is selected.

Right click this icon for a menu of object types where you can choose which types of objects are selectable.

Select components

Right click this icon for a menu of component types.

2	Points
3	Edges
4	Faces
5	Vertices
	Breakpoints
	Point groups
	Face groups

When you click geometry in this mode, any components of the chosen type (faces, edges, points, breakpoints, point groups, or face groups) will be selected.

F8

Switch between object and component selection

Select particles

Right click this icon for a menu where you can choose selecting particle nodes vs. individual particles. See particle systems.

Select dynamics

Right click this icon for a menu where you can choose whether to select dynamics objects and/or dynamics modifiers (e.g. forces). See dynamics.

Drag selection

You can change the type of drag selection by right-clicking the Select tool and choosing one of the following:

	Box	The default. Dragging draws a box. When you release the mouse button, everything inside the box is selected.
	Brush	Dragging over objects/components selects them.
	Lasso	Dragging draws a freeform shape. When you release the mouse button, everything inside the shape is selected.

Selection filters

(Also known as selection masks.)

Right click the selection type icons (Object, Component, Particles, or Dynamics) to show a menu of subtypes which you can allow to be selected or prevent from being selected.

This lets you, for example, work with characters and props in your scene without worrying about accidentally selecting lights.

Make an object unselectable

In the network editor, click the Selectable flag to make the object unselectable.

Selecting edges

Select the next edge	Once you have one edge selected, you can press F or press and choose Select Next Edge to add to the selection. The red arrow indicates the direction in which the new selection will be added.
Select edge loops	Press L or press and choose Select Partial Edge Loop. This loops the selection until it hits another selected edge or a point where more or less than four edges meet. (To loop over selected edges, press ⇧ Shift + L or press and choose Select Edge Loop. This loops the selection until it hits a point where more or less than four edges meet, ignoring any current selection.)
Change the edge direction	If you want to use the Next edge option to add to your selection, you may need to reverse the direction of the red arrow. Press the ⇧ Shift + R , or press and choose Reverse Edge Direction.

Grow the selection

Changing the selection type converts the current selection into the chosen type. You can use this to grow the selection by alternating between selection types.

If you have faces selected, you can convert the selection to points by pressing 2 (Select Points). Then, if you convert the selection back to faces by pressing 4 (Select Primitives), the outer ring of faces is now selected.

You can continue to grow the selection by alternately typing 2 and 4 .

Reselect geometry

The reselect geometry command lets you reselect the input to an existing modeling operation. This lets you edit the construction history by changing the points/faces/etc. the operation applies to.

Select the node for which you want to change the selection.
Right click the Select tool and choose Reselect for tool.

Tips

Make selecting overlapping geometry easier

Choose Edit > Preferences > Objects and Geometry.
Turn on Popup menu selection.

When this option is on, if you click to select and the mouse is over multiple pieces of geometry, Houdini gives a list of choices of what to select.

Basics Select objects and components