selecting wire frame or surface?

[fastolds]

Is there an option to select a surface instead of wire frame geometry? I have a complex part and it's hard to get the correct lines selected.

[pcms1965]

fastolds
it really depends on what type of operation that you would like to do. did you do the geometry in Surfcam or some other CAD program? If you imported the drawing you may be able to go into the layers and shut down certain layers. i have imported parasolid and igs files and it creates a surface layer, a 3d wireframe layer and a 2d wireframe layer. the 2d wireframe helps a lot of times when there is a lot of geometry. hope this helps.

[fastolds]

Thanks for the help. I think I did try to shut off layers. Yes, they were imported files from solid works and IGES files. I was hoping there was an option I didn't know about on selection. I have played with other software that you can select surfaces when in solid mode and I liked the ease of that. I need to find me a spaceball next to make m life easier.

[Cammotion]

fastolds, you can also use the "mask" menu to blank out whatever type of geometry you don't want to select. You can make different layers to put stuff on, and select only surfaces, and move them there for example. You can select by color this way also. Hope this helps.

Bill

[pcms1965]

good idea Bill. i never think about the mask operation.

[Cammotion]

pcms1965, I hear you, sometimes I forget the obvious! Mask and layers are very handy, and I use them a lot. I've even transformed surfaces, say 20" up in Z, to see what else is there in some very "busy" models. Lotsa tricks you can do!

Bill

[fastolds]

I will play around with the suggestions you guys have made. It is a very busy part. Thanks for the help!!