Did you know that you can change your Selection Preferences in the Silhouette software?

To open the Preference Panel, click on the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the Design tab or click on the Edit menu in the top right corner and choose Preferences.

Selecting an Object

There are several ways to select objects on the Silhouette design mat.

1. Click on the object to select it.
To select multiple objects at the same time, hold down the Shift key and click on each object you want selected.

2. Click and hold the left mouse button, then drag a selection box around all the objects you want selected.

3. Use the Lasso tool (Designer Edition & v4.2 feature).
Click the Lasso Tool on the left side and lasso the objects you want to select.

Selection box

One way to know the object is selected is a selection box appears around the object.

Measurements – on the left & bottom side of the object are the height & width of the object or selected designs as a whole.

Control Points – these points can be grabbed and adjust the scale of the design. Grabbing the corners of the design will scale it proportionally versus grabbing the middle control point which will only change one direction of the design.

Rotate – the green circle at the top of the design can be grabbed and the design can be rotated manually.

Preferences Panel Selections

Here are the different options under the Selection Tools in the Preferences Panel.

Selection Tools: When Drag Selecting

When the left mouse button is held down and a drag box is drawn across the objects on the screen, you can choose to have them selected by the drag box only touching the object or being fully enclosed by the drag box.

Touching the object:

Enclosed:

Notice that the glove is not selected because the drag box has not fully enclosed it.

Selection Tools: When Many Shapes Selected

Single Bounding Box

Notice that there is one large selection box and the measurements are of all the objects selected as one.

Multiple Selection Boxes
If I want to size the glove and know exactly what size it is while still having all the objects selected, then choose Multiple Selection boxes as the option.

Now, each object has the individual selection boxes around it and each has the measurements of that object. So I could grab one of the control points and enlarge the design while knowing exactly how big the glove is. This way I could make a glove 8″ and still have all the other pieces sized at the same time to keep the proportions correct.

Selection Tools: When Right-clicking Subsequent Shapes

New Shape becomes selected – the object that you right click on will be the selected object and the right click menu appears.

Original Shape Remains Selected – right clicking anywhere on the design mat, the original shape is still selected and the right click menu appears. So if the glove is the selected object, even if I right click on the stitches, the glove is still the selected object and the right click menu appears.

Notice how the menu appears on top of the stitches that I right clicked on, but the glove is still the selected object. This means that the features in the right click menu that are chosen will apply to the selected object – in this case, the glove.

Selection Tools: Selection Lasso style

The Lasso Tool is a new v4.2 feature that is available with the Designer Edition upgrade or higher. It is found on the left tool bar in the Silhouette v4.2 software.

The options for the Lasso tool include: touches or enclosed. To use this tool, click on the Lasso tool on the left side and then hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse on the design mat. A dotted line will appear that shows where the Lasso is.

Touches – the lasso tool selects any object that it touches.

Enclosed – the lasso tool will only select the objects that are completely enclosed by the lasso dotted line.

The Lasso tool can be very helpful if you have a lot of pieces of a design on the screen and only want to select certain ones in an area.

For instance, on this Paw Print Mandala design, if I want to select only the pieces that make up the inner half circle of this shape, I would set the Lasso Tool to Touches and then draw the lasso around the inner circle.

Instead of holding down the Shift key and then clicking on each piece, I can use the Lasso tool to select all those in the center very easily.

It is all a matter of personal preference and how you use the software.

What are my Selection preferences set at:

This is how I keep mine. I know I can change them at anytime by opening up the Preferences menu, choosing a new option, clicking Apply, and then OK.

I used it this week in sizing and cutting the glove for my Spring door decorations, as I wanted the glove to be close to real size.

I changed the Selection option of the When Many Shapes are Selected to Multiple Bounding Boxes & was able to see the size of the glove, instead of the size of all the objects selected together.

Spring flowers brings Solicitors and Softball in our neck of the woods.

Did you know the Preferences Panel existed? It is full of great choices and we will be exploring more of it in the future.

Designs used in this post are from the Silhouette Design Store:
Baseball Set by Studio Illustrado – Design #60502
Watering Can by Silhouette – Design #291326
No Soliciting by Jillibean Soup – Design #276179
Lori Whitlock Background Shapes – Design #42924
Baseball Hat by Snapdragon Snippets – Design #39347
Positionable Skeleton by Samantha Walker – Design #4828

Feel free to post your comments and questions below or on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.

Enjoy!

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