Introduction
It has come to my attention that many (most?) OR users are unaware of what can be done with multi-selection (or more concisely, "multi-select") in the recent releases. And so here is a quick tutorial about how it works and what you can do with it in the latest versions of OpenRocket. It will cover features in both v22.02 and the upcoming 23.09 (currently in beta).
Notes
Basics
In a nutshell, multi-selection is the ability to select multiple components simultaneously. Most computer users are already familiar with this... you can use multi-selection when dealing with almost any list of things, like emails, or files, or whatever.
Generally, control-clicking the mouse will let you toggle the selection of individual items. In a few seconds I can do this:
Shift-clicking, on the other hand, will select the item you're clicking and all items between it and the most recent selected item, and unselect others. So, let's say I first select "Body tube" and then control-click on "Wadding". I get this:
Now I shift-click on "Inner Tube", and I end up with this:
I've now select a contiguous block from "Wadding" (most recently selected item) through "Inner Tube". Meanwhile, "Body Tube" was unselected.
Using shift-click and control-click, you can pretty quickly and easily select whatever collection of components you want.
Simple Operations
The first things we can do with multi-selection are the obvious editing functions. Most of what I'll describe now is available in four ways:
1) The big ol' edit buttons:
2) The Edit menu:
3) The keyboard shortcuts as shown in the Edit menu
4) The contextual menu (right-click on one of the selected items):
Note that is the contextual menu from 23.09 beta, so it may look a bit different than what you have now if you're on 22.02. We'll get to the differences later.
So, by whatever is your preferred method, you can delete, duplicate, copy, paste, or reposition the selected items in the list. To reposition items, there's a fifth method: simply drag the selected item(s) up and down within the list.
Again, most of this should be familiar to anyone that has used a modern computer. It's also not that interesting. Things will get more juicy in the next installment.
It has come to my attention that many (most?) OR users are unaware of what can be done with multi-selection (or more concisely, "multi-select") in the recent releases. And so here is a quick tutorial about how it works and what you can do with it in the latest versions of OpenRocket. It will cover features in both v22.02 and the upcoming 23.09 (currently in beta).
Notes
- For the remainder of this tutorial, I'll be using the Windows/Linux convention of "control-click". Mac users should translate to "command-click". Everything else is the same across platforms except where noted.
- I'll be focusing on operating on the Component Tree, i.e.:
You can also do some multi-selection in the rocket figure display, although that uses the mouse a bit different.
Basics
In a nutshell, multi-selection is the ability to select multiple components simultaneously. Most computer users are already familiar with this... you can use multi-selection when dealing with almost any list of things, like emails, or files, or whatever.
Generally, control-clicking the mouse will let you toggle the selection of individual items. In a few seconds I can do this:
Shift-clicking, on the other hand, will select the item you're clicking and all items between it and the most recent selected item, and unselect others. So, let's say I first select "Body tube" and then control-click on "Wadding". I get this:
Now I shift-click on "Inner Tube", and I end up with this:
I've now select a contiguous block from "Wadding" (most recently selected item) through "Inner Tube". Meanwhile, "Body Tube" was unselected.
Using shift-click and control-click, you can pretty quickly and easily select whatever collection of components you want.
Simple Operations
The first things we can do with multi-selection are the obvious editing functions. Most of what I'll describe now is available in four ways:
1) The big ol' edit buttons:
2) The Edit menu:
3) The keyboard shortcuts as shown in the Edit menu
4) The contextual menu (right-click on one of the selected items):
Note that is the contextual menu from 23.09 beta, so it may look a bit different than what you have now if you're on 22.02. We'll get to the differences later.
So, by whatever is your preferred method, you can delete, duplicate, copy, paste, or reposition the selected items in the list. To reposition items, there's a fifth method: simply drag the selected item(s) up and down within the list.
Again, most of this should be familiar to anyone that has used a modern computer. It's also not that interesting. Things will get more juicy in the next installment.
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