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would to box-select items in a sketch). After you drag the rectangle, SolidWorks displays a temporary volume and changes to an isometric view. If you draw the original rectangle in an isometric view, the rectangular volume lines up with the screen (not the standard planes), and it rotates the view somewhat to give you access to all three dimensions of the temporary volume. SolidWorks displays arrows on the volume so you can tug and pull the faces to position it for selection of parts.

5. Use the arrows to resize the resulting volume on the screen, as shown in Figure 7.16. SolidWorks selects any part that is completely within the volume. Selection is made automatically when the volume contains the part; you don't have to do anything to activate the selection. Clicking outside of the volume dismisses the temporary display of the volume but retains the selection. While the selection is active, you can use commands from RMB menus as usual.

FIGURE 7.16

Sizing the selection volume

Selecting suppressed components

To select all the parts in an assembly that are currently suppressed, you can use the command available at Tools⇒Component Selection⇒Select Suppressed. This command does not have a toolbar button, but you can assign a hotkey to it through the Tools⇒Customize⇒Keyboard interface.

The only indication that parts have been selected is in the FeatureManager. Once the parts are selected, you can use RMB options with the selection.

Choosing hidden components

Selecting hidden components works just like selecting suppressed components, and again this command has no interface or toolbar icon but can be linked to a hotkey.

Selecting parts mated to another part

The Tools⇒Component Selection⇒Select Mated To command will, as the name suggests, select any part mated to the part you select after you execute the command. There is no interface, and no indication of what to do after you choose the Select Mated To menu option, but for whatever part you click next, SolidWorks selects all the parts that are mated to it.

Selecting internal components

The criteria for what SolidWorks means by “internal components” is not clearly defined. If you run this selection method on the Bike model, it does select a couple of parts that may not be considered strictly internal parts (parts under the seat and the small chainring on the crank). This is one of those tools you may have to experiment with to get the results you want.

Choosing Toolbox parts

The tool found at Tools⇒Component Selection⇒Select Toolbox selects all the Toolbox parts in an assembly, including parts at different levels in subassemblies.

Using the Advanced Select options

The Advanced Select command has been around for a very long time in the software yet is not used very often. It used to stand alone as the only advanced selection method, but now with all of these options under the Component Selection heading, it has a lot of company.

Advanced Select uses a classic dialog box interface rather than the newer PropertyManager-type interface used by the more popular tools. Figure 7.17 shows the Advanced Component Selection dialog box.

FIGURE 7.17

Using the Advanced Component Selection dialog box

You can use the criteria in the Advanced Component Selection dialog box to set up, save, and reuse queries (searches) based on special categories, conditions, and values. The example in Figure 7.17 sets up a search where the display is Shaded with Edges. Clicking the Apply button runs the search and selects the appropriate parts in the FeatureManager.

An example of where you would use Category 2 is if Category 1 was set to File Status; in this case, Category 2 could be Read Only, Write Access, User With Write Access, Needs Save, or Out of Date. The Condition options would be Is, Is Not, Contains, Does Not Contain, and so on.

You can use this interface to create, save, recall, and run searches based on a wide range of criteria. In most cases, a good PDM system makes these options redundant, but not everyone has a good PDM system installed and running.