How Do I Turn on the Selection Window in AutoCAD?

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Welcome to this tutorial on how to turn on the selection window in AutoCAD. The selection window is an essential tool that allows you to select multiple objects in a specific area, making your workflow more efficient. In this article, we will guide you through the steps to enable the selection window in AutoCAD, so let’s get started!

Step 1: Accessing the Options Menu

To turn on the selection window, we need to access the Options menu. You can do this by clicking on the Application menu (the ‘A’ icon located at the top left corner of your AutoCAD screen) and selecting Options from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Navigating to Selection Settings

In the Options dialog box, you will see a list of categories on the left-hand side. Click on User Preferences and then select Selection Cycling. This will open up a new tab where you can customize your selection settings.

Step 3: Enabling Selection Window

In the Selection Cycling tab, scroll down until you find an option called Show selection preview in window. Check the box next to this option to enable it. You can also adjust other settings like color and opacity according to your preference.

Step 4: Applying Changes and Exiting Options Menu

Once you have enabled the selection window, click OK at the bottom right corner of the Options dialog box to apply your changes and exit.

Tips:

  • If you want to quickly toggle between enabling and disabling the selection window, you can use a keyboard shortcut – press and hold the Shift key while selecting objects. This will override your default settings and enable the selection window temporarily.
  • The selection window can be a rectangular shape or a polygonal shape depending on your selection method. You can switch between these two options by pressing the Spacebar during the selection process.
  • If you prefer using the command line, you can type in PICKADD and set its value to 2 to enable the selection window.

Congratulations! You have successfully turned on the selection window in AutoCAD.

Now you can easily select multiple objects within a specific area, improving your productivity and accuracy. We hope this tutorial has been helpful to you. Happy designing!