Rhino BETA Feature: Fence Selection

Serengeti (Rhino BETA)
1

The Rhino BETA now includes Fence Selection.

What is this Feature?

The new SelFence command, along with the addition of Fence as an option in the Trim and Extend commands, now offers a more efficient way of selecting objects in an irregular area.

Why Fence?

Previously, the SelBrush command could be used, but it required a drag-selection, not point-to-point or using an existing curve as a selection input. The new SelFence command and Fence selection method now allow you to draw a line/curve through the objects you would like to select, adding any objects that are intersected to the active selection.

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Alternatively, there is a command-line option in SelFence to provide an existing curve object as a selector.

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Added: SelectThroughObjects option

SelFence now includes a SelectThroughObjects command-line option, matching the one already available in SelBrush.

  • No: only the object nearest the fence line at each intersection point is selected.
  • Yes: all objects the fence line passes through are selected, including ones hidden behind other geometry.

This is especially useful for sub-object selection workflows where you need to grab points, edges, or faces that would otherwise be occluded.

How It Works

1. Command: SelFence

SelFence Help Doc

Click & drag to draw a freeform curve, or click point-by-point to draw polylines through the desired objects.

2. Command: Trim with Fence Option

Trim Help Doc

After running the Trim command, and selecting the cutting object(s), select the Fence option on the command line.

3. Command: Extend with Fence Option

Extend Help Doc

After running the Extend command, and selecting the boundary object(s) or length, select the Fence option on the command line.

Download the Rhino BETA and Try It Out!

2

lovely! this is super useful-

3

Nice!!! Very Nice!!!

8

Great. :smiley: Reminds me of the paint select that some 2d paint programs have.

9

What is the difference between the new Fence selection and and SelBrush with a very small brush radius?

10

SelBrush does a huge negative impact on the performance in my Rhino 7. Perhaps the new SelFence command offers a much better performance.

11

@Matt_Bennett, interesting. Inside the Trim and Extend commands, Fence acts like a shortcut instead of typing SelFence or any other selection option. I’m not sure if Fence is the right word inside the command options and to be honest I’m not even sure if the selection method should be inside command options.

What other Rhino commands have shortcuts for selection methods inside the command options?

I thought instead of typing ‘F’ + Enter, SelFence could be triggered with an Instant Alias ‘SF’ but it seems this does not work inside a command.

12

Hi, the current trimming process lacks a live preview. I suggest adding a real-time cutting preview so users can see the trimming effect as they go, not after it’s done

13

Thanks, devs! Great addition!

14

Hi @Matt_Bennett ,
This is a very great addition and deserve a much more attention.

Hiding this functionality as option of the trim tool is making it harder to discover and , instead, it may become a full command.

In addition it should be even more automatic: in many Cad the trim tool works for the curve by finding all the possible intersection and letting the user to just drag over and cut away while moving.
In general terms this is less efficient and drives to multiple unneeded intersection but beginners would like it due to the higher interactivity.

It would be like having all the curve selected before the trim tool ( exactly like beginners do today) and use the fence mode to drag around and cut things

15

@Matt_Bennett This should be a standard selection method usable with any command.

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You can use an instant alias such as SF.

17

Late to the party but this will be a great feature for our CNC customers when cleaning up 2d geometry for cutting. Just tried it out it works well much appreciated! @Matt_Bennett

Is there any special functionality if the fence line self intersects? could that make it select everything within the fence line? I could see that being useful. Particularly when creating holes in complex designs. For example holes in large routed acoustic wall panels.

18

In addition to being an option in the trim and extend commands, the selection method can be accessed via the SelFence command.

19

As things progress, I’m sure this will be applied to tools that would benefit from the fence selection option. However, you can use SelFence for now prior to running many commands to pre-select the input.

20

Instant Aliases cannot be triggered inside other commands.

21

I am personally hoping that it becomes possible to switch the selection style to Fence or any of the other selection options other than box select. It would be nice to set a default that gets used each time you perform a selection and to be able to change another selection mode as default on the fly.

22

3DSMax had: Rectangle, Circle, Lasso and Polygon selection style. It was super useful to set any of these as the default selection style that stay active after the initial use.

24

Not sure why you mention this to be honest, that doesn’t invalidate nor complicate the request to set a default selection method now, does it?

26

that would be a rock solid decision