Selecting objects
Click, shift-click, and rubber-band selection, the Select menu (Select All, None, Invert, Hierarchy, Parent, Similar, by type) with its shortcuts, and what "primary" selection means.
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Selection is how you tell the editor "this is the thing I mean." On desktop, a plain left-drag is reserved for selecting — which is exactly why orbiting needs the Alt key (see Moving around the viewport).
| To… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Select one object | Left-click it in the viewport, or click its row in the Scene Tree. |
| Add to the selection | Shift+click another object. Shift-clicking something already selected removes it. |
| Marquee-select | Left-drag a rectangle across empty viewport space — everything inside is selected. Hold Shift while dragging to add the marquee to your current selection. |
| Deselect everything | Click an empty patch of the viewport. |
Select All and friends — the Select menu
For sweeping selections, the top bar has a dedicated Select menu, with the shortcuts you'd expect coming from other 3D tools:
| Command | Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Select All | A | Selects every visible object in the scene. Hidden objects are skipped — you can't click them, so a sweep won't grab them either. |
| Select None | Alt+A | Clears the selection — the same as clicking an empty patch of viewport. |
| Invert Selection | Ctrl+I | Selects everything that isn't currently selected, and drops what was. |
| Select Hierarchy | — | Expands the selection downward to include every object nested under it — grab a group, get the whole group's contents. |
| Select Parent | — | Climbs one level up to the parent group of the selection. |
| Select Similar | — | Selects every object of the same type as the current selection — all meshes, all cameras, and so on. |
| By type | — | One button per kind of object the scene actually contains (Meshes, Cameras, Text, Particles, Groups…) to grab all of that type at once. |
The top of the Select menu also carries the selection mode toggle — Object (a click picks one object), Hierarchy (a click picks the whole top-level group), and Component (drops into poly edit mode). The same toggle lives in the Poly menu.
The "primary" object
When several objects are selected, the last one you added is the primary. The Properties panel and the transform gizmo act on the primary, and in the Scene Tree it's drawn a touch brighter than its companions. Shift-click a different object to make it the new primary.
How selection looks
By default, selected objects get a clean outline drawn around them, and objects you hover glow faintly. If you'd rather, Settings lets you switch the highlight to a green emissive tint, or both, and turn hover highlighting off.