Select All

[Penny Patton]

Is there any reason SL does not have a "select all" button, allowing you to select all the prims on a parcel?

Every piece of creative software I have ever used has some kind of "select all" functionality. SL is the only one lacking such a basic function.

 This isn't the only example of an extremely basic piece of functionality all creative software has that is conspicuously absent from SL.Now that Linden Lab calls SL a "shared creativity tool", will we start to see LL adding in these long missing creativity tool features?

[BenniJay]

Is the camera angle thing I mentioned in the thread just below this one another missing functionality or am i just overlooking some option? If it is missing they should definitely fix that.

[Ciaran Laval]

This is Jira worthy, agreed, selecting all objects should be easier.

[Penny Patton]

I've created Jiras for so many bugs, problems, missing functions...many far more important than even this kind of basic, expected functionality which LL has yet to act on. After 7 years of that it's difficult to work up the motivation to create a Jira submission.

Especially when you consider a feature like "select all" should not be up to the residents to point out to LL to begin with. 

[Chosen Few]

---

BenniJay wrote:

Is the camera angle thing I mentioned in the thread just below this one another missing functionality or am i just overlooking some option? If it is missing they should definitely fix that.

---

I put a full explanation of the camera controls into that other thread for you.  Unless I misunderstood your writing, the answer to your question here is the second one.  You were missing something.  SL's camera has the same standard type of functionality as just about all 3D modeling programs.  It's just not explained very well by LL, since for some strange reason, somebody over there seems to have a hardon for the on-screen controls.

 

On a side note, it's not a good idea to say "the thread below" or "the thread above" or anything like that, on a forum.  Depending on how people's user preferences are set, threads move around, as people respond to them.

[Chosen Few]

---

Penny Patton wrote:

 

Especially when you consider a feature like "select all" should not be up to the residents to point out to LL to begin with. 

---

Now that you mention it, it does seem like a pretty glaring omission.  But I have to say I'm of two minds when it comes to being judgmental about it.  On the one hand, you're right that it's abslultey basic, and that pretty much every other program in the world has it.  But on the other hand, just how obvious can I really call it when it never before occurred to me to even think about it?

If SL did have this feature, would it be one that we'd even use?  It's not often that there's call to select everything in any 3D scene.  I've been using Maya daily for nine years, and I just had to check now to see if it has Select All, since I've never had cause to use it in that program.  I also went and checked in Mudbox, since I've never used it there either.  Both programs do have it, but I might not have ever noticed if they didn't.

Of course, it's always better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it.  So I'm all in favor of adding it.  There are much bigger fish to fry, though, if we're making a wish list.

[Penny Patton]

As someone who builds, I frequently need it. Not just want it, need it. When you need to move a large build, say 1/8 of a sim or larger, it becomes a necessity.

 I'm also not the first person to mention it. I've spoken about this very feature to Lindens in the past, and like I said I've got a dozen Jiras to my name that LL has yet to act on, so it's kinda hard to find motivation to make yet another one for LL to ignore.

 

 As someone who uses a multitude of content creation software on a daily basis, I'm constantly frustrated by how many such features SL lacks.

 

 There are no features to enable you to easily move a large build from one sim to another (just TRY moving a full sim build between unconnected sims), undo is unreliable at best (just today I was set back by hours on a build I was working on because SL decided, entirely at random, to apply an undo to only half the selected prims. After which "redo" failed entirely. This was just moving a set of prims, at no point were any prims deselected then reselected. Moving and undo worked up to that point, then it just randomly failed. Would a "save state" option be too much to ask?

 If we're making a list, SL has years and years of features that need to be added.LL has added maybe one or two from that list over the course of twelve years, so it's more than a little frustrating. It would be one thing if LL were regularly adding much needed features, marking requested features as "on the to-do list" and providing updates, but that's not happening.

 

 SL will always have "bigger fish to fry" in terms of problems, especially because pretty much all of those bigger fish require that some of the smaller issues be addressed first.

[Chosen Few]

I guess everyone has different styles of tool usage.  For me, Select All has never been anything I've missed.  I agree with you that there are many features SL would do well to add, some basic, some not.  But that particular one just never would have struck me as terribly important.  To each, his own.

 

As for the difficulty of moving builds across sims, yeah, that's always been an issue.  We've all figured out lots of work-arounds, of course, but it would certainly be nice if there were something reliable that were a real feature.

[Penny Patton]

You're doing a lot of things the hard way if you never use 'select all'. ^^; There's a reason it's in all content creation software (excpet SL), and it's usually the same hotekey, too (ctrl+a). Photoshop, Maya, 3DSM, even word processors (including Notepad of all things) have this feature.

[Monti Messmer]

Hi, isn´t  some like this in the land tools where you can select everything created/owned under same name, on a parcel or sim ?

SL ís no 3D software it just allows the creation in very limited ways anyway.

I agree that alot basic edit functions should be added before doing things like mesh, Media on a prim, V2/3 ....

For me the biggest killer is moving things just to have them snap back to the old location in one piece or just parts.

Monti

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

You actually can select all objects in an entire sim at once, but only under some very specific circumstances. Since you're a builder those circumstances might be yours though.

1 You need to own all objects on the sim.

2 You need to have land rights on the sim.

If the first isn't the case, selecting all objects on the sim would be useless in most cases, so that isn't really an issue. I think that's exactly why LL didn't bother or even think of a "select all" function, since in most sims it would be pretty useless.

Since you're a builder I suspect you have the rights I mentioned.

In the about land menu, in the objects tab, you can select all your own items with one click. Maybe that will help you. It will even allow you to have some friends or alts have their objects mixed with yours without getting in the way, which would be the case with a "select all" command. The selecting by menu is done by parcel if I'm not mistaken, this means you can have an area on your sim dedicated for building, or do several buildings at the same time.

Nonetheless,  I agree such a basic function should be added.

[Chosen Few]

I didn't mean to imply I never use it all, Penny.  All I said was I've never had cause to use it in my 3D modeling work.  I appreciate your kind concern, but after nearly a decade making my living as a 3D artist, I'm reasonably sure I'm not doing it the hard way. 

When I'm using Photoshop, Illustrator, any browser, Word, Excel, any database program, music notation software, or almost any other kind of program I can think of,  I of course hit Select All about a thousand times a day, just like everyone else.  In fact, if you could see my keyboard right now, there's a telltale pattern of ware on my ctrl and A keys, since I use that shortcut so often. (You'll also see it on Z, X, C, V, N, and L, while we're on the subject.)  Even my Enter key isn't as worn as those shortcut keys are.

However, when it comes to 3D modeling in particular, as I said before, it just happens to be rare that one would find cause to select every last item in a scene.  There are just too many different types of objects, too many ways of selecting them, and too many different kinds of activities going on during the 3D creative process.  Maya doesn't even have a hotkey for Select All, if that gives you any indication of how seldom it's used.  (Ctrl-A opens the attribute editor in Maya.)

Of course, not every modeling program is set up the way Maya is, and it's certainly possible that people coming from a different background than I came from might have a totally different outlook on this.  As I said, to each, his own.

Once again, I'm not disputing that Select All should be added to SL.  My only reason for commenting was I found it interesting that I'd never noticed its absence.  I was mainly just expounding on the possible reason for why it never occurred to me.

 

 

By the way, this may be trivial, but it's probably worth being careful about generalities.  It really isn't the case that all content creation software has Select All.   Not every creation program is even selection based in the first place.  Crazy Bump, for example, offers no means by which to select anything.  There wouldn't be any point in it, given the way the program works, and what it's for.  The same is true of the basic version of Filter Forge.  Wood Workshop is another that comes to mind.  There are plenty of others.

[Penny Patton]

---

Kwakkelde Kwak wrote:

In the about land menu, in the objects tab, you can select all your own items with one click. Maybe that will help you. It will even allow you to have some friends or alts have their objects mixed with yours without getting in the way, which would be the case with a "select all" command. The selecting by menu is done by parcel if I'm not mistaken, this means you can have an area on your sim dedicated for building, or do several buildings at the same time.

---

 

Those particular circumstances aren't always the case. Group builds are problematic, as are builds done for third parties on land I don't own or have land rights to.

 

 Still, I think I know the function you're talking about, but it only lets you show all the objects you, or someone else, owns, with the option of returning them. It does not allow you to select and manipulate them with the build tools.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

---

Penny Patton wrote:

Those particular circumstances aren't always the case. Group builds are problematic, as are builds done for third parties on land I don't own or have land rights to.

---

That's why they are particular circumstances:) For group builds the "select all" wouldn't do you any good either I'm afraid, unless the entire build is full perm, including all scrips and other object content. This won't be the case very often. If you select all and pick it up to move to another sim, the next owner permissions will apply if the items aren't yours.

---

Still, I think I know the function you're talking about, but it only lets you show all the objects you, or someone else, owns, with the option of returning them. It does not allow you to select and manipulate them with the build tools.

---

Yes that's it. I thought you wanted to pick up all your own items from one parcel. By returning the items to yourself  that's exactly what you do. I'm not going to try on my home sim, but I was under the impression everything gets returned in one group, I'm not sure though.

Selecting everything on a plot to move it around or edit it with the building tools might result in a heap of trouble, for example with certain objects not moving because some commands didn't reach the server, or objects 1000 meters up being moved around without anyone knowing. That, on top of the fact most people don't have any need for the function and the question what "all" would be in SL, makes me believe LL won't add the feature any time soon. (Doesn't mean it couldn't be a big help for some people, including you, but only for some people)

 

 

[Penny Patton]

If we judged the usefulness of features based on how many people might or might not use them, we wouldn't have any content creation tools at all. except for those used to adjust attachments.  

 I'd also argue that the lack of proper tools drives away many potential high-end builders. Afterall, why bother building in SL when at that level it's actually more difficult in SL than it would be for any given videogame engine, 3D modelling sfotware, etcetera? It is certainly a factory as to why my time building in SL has dropped substantially over the years and I know plenty of talented artists who won't even consider touching SL because of the state of the tool set.

I'd probably have several selection options for builders. "Select all prims in the sim", "Select all prims on this parcel" and variations such as "select all my prims" for sim and parcel.

It would also help if there were tools specifically for relocating group builds between sims. As it is now, SL's own toolset discourages group builds.