I have a group range with every other poly selected but when I add a polyextrude they lose the selection yet I can still manipulate them with polyextrude, then I try to use scale and nothing happens because they are not selected. so why do the polys lose selection tag when adding polyextrude and how do I get selected polys back? I know I can manually select them but that becomes a PITA.

tick Front Group, then your extruded selection would then be known as extrudeFront (can be renamed) in later steps

Aside: you may experiment with Back Group, Side Group as well and save it for a rainy day.

thank you for reply. I could not get it to work at first. I backed up and started again and after third time it magically started working, following same steps. one of the exasperating things I have found with Houdini.