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The Selection Bar is used to select entities in Mastercam for use in different functions. Let's look at how to use this effectively.

The Selection Bar is found at the top of the graphics screen in Mastercam and is used to determine how you select entities in the graphics area. 

The first icon is the AutoCursor lock. This is used in conjuction with the pulldown menu to its right. When a selection method other than AutoCursor is selected, use the Lock to lock in the newly selected method.

AutoCursor. The default mode allows many different selection types such as Origin, Line Endpoint, Intersection, Midpoint, etc. The allows selections can be adjusted in the Selection Settings menu. If you want to limit the selection you can select one of the other modes from the pulldown. Some of the options in the pulldown are not available when in the AutoCursor mode, such as Face Center. 

AutoCursor Fast Point is used to define XYZ coordinates in geometry creation. 

Standard Selection/Solid Selection, which ever mode is active, it will be greyed out. Not all functions allow switching between the two. When in Solid Selection mode you will have additional switches for selection, Edges, Face, Body, and From Back. These are pretty self explanatory except for From Back. From Back selects the face behind the face you are clicking. Useful for those faces that are hard to get to. Turning the solid shading to Translucent can be helpful here.

Selection Method allows you to choose several different way to choose items. Automatic allows several methods to be used within just that mode. Single, Chain, and Window can all be access when in Automatic. To use Area, Polygon or Vector, they must be selected from the pulldown.

Selection Mode works in conjunction with Window and Polygon. Options include In, In+, Out, Out+, and Intersection. Have a look at the Entity Selection blog for more info...

Entity Selection

Temporary Center point creates a useable center location of the selected items when using any of the Transform function. 

Verify Selection prompts you to confirm before an item is selected. Useful when many objects are close together or on top of each other.

Invert Selection reverses the currently selected objects. Whatever is selected becomes unselected and whatever is unselected becomes selected.

Select Last is used to reselect geometry that was previously selected. This works even is the function fails.

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