Action Mode Tools

The series of icons found on the right side of the Connector Entity Browser control both entity selection and the display of the model. These buttons behave in two different ways depending on the setting of the view option buttons. If no view option button is active, the core behavior of the action mode tools (show/hide/isolate) applies exclusively to the selected connectors, similarly to components in the component view of the Model Browser. For that reason, this topic focuses on their behavior when a view option is active.

In this mode the actions like show, hide, isolate or isolate only are not only done on the selection; based on the selection, the browser performs a process of finding and filtering so that further entities can be taken into account for the action depending on the setting of the view option toggle buttons.

Use these tool set buttons to advance or step back through multiple selected connectors, pick connectors from the graphics area, add connectors to an active panel's entity collector, turn the display of individual connectors on and off, visually isolate specific connectors, or undo any visual modifications (show/hide/isolate).


Figure 1.
Icon Description
The next and previous buttons cycle through the selected connectors in the tree, but are only active when entities in the tree are selected (highlighted). These are especially helpful when not all selected connectors can be seen in the partial view of the tree.
These buttons affect how the rest of the tools work, by determining what type of entity they will act on. For example, when set to "connectors", the Selector tool (described below) will only select or deselect connectors.
Note: These icons are disabled and set to their default values ("connectors" and "both geometry and elements") since only connectors can be selected in the Connector Entity Browser, but the Connector Browser works with all kinds of connectors – both geometry and FE-based.
Use the Selector tool to interactively select any type of supported connector entity via the browser, or by selecting within the graphics area. The Selector can be used to find connector entities from the graphics area which will then be highlighted in the list, and is also an efficient way of selecting multiple connector entities at once.
Finally, the selector can be used in conjunction with the action buttons show, hide, isolate and isolate only as well as the advanced action buttons show/hide twin connectors and isolate/isolate only twin connectors; simply select connector entities from the browser or graphics area using the Selector, then click the desired action button.
Note: These advanced action buttons only activate when at least two connector entities are selected.

In other respects the Selector works exactly the same as described for the Model Browser.

The Add to Panel Collector is a function whereby the browser can be used to select and add entities to the panel collectors within Engineering Solutions. This is an alternative method to using the advanced selection capabilities already available in each panel collector's extended entity selection menu. This button only becomes available when you have a Engineering Solutions panel open that includes at least one entity collector.
Show/Hide the currently selected entities, depending on the currently active view option toggles.
Alternatively, click this mode on and then pick the desired connectors from the graphics area; connectors and any other entities determined by the view option toggle settings are hidden as you click on them.
Note: When used to select from the graphics area, this button only works on visible connectors.
Isolate/isolate only the currently selected entities. Alternatively, click this mode on and then pick the desired connector entity from the graphics area.
Isolate
Displays only the selected entities which match the view option toggles, turning their display state to on and turning all other entities of the same type off. Isolate works locally within a specific entity type, for example, if component(s) are isolated, then all display states of other displayable entities, such as load collectors, remain untouched.
Isolate Only
Works like Isolate, except that it also affects entity types different from the matching, selected entities. Thus, it turns off ALL displayable entities (regardless of type) except for the selected one(s) that match the view option settings.
Note: Unlike the normal isolate button, when used in the graphics area, this button only works on visible connectors.