Vectorworks Tip 458 – How to Select Objects With Similar Record Information

I have been running a course for landscapers this week and I had a question about selecting objects with a specific record format attached, or with a specific field value.
One method is to use the Select Similar tool.

This tool is designed to select objects that are somehow similar.

The tool preferences control how similar the objects should be.

• Go to the Tool bar.
• Click on the Select Similar Tool Preferences.

• Edit the preferences to activate Database.

• When you click on an object, Vectorworks will look at the record formats attached to the object.

• Vectorworks selects all the other objects that have the same record format attached, regardless of the field values of the objects.

Selecting all the objects with the same record can be useful, but it does not allow you to select the objects by the value of a record format.
Another option is the Custom Selection command. This command has been around for a long time. It is not used very much because the Select Similar tool does a lot of the same functions. However, this is a powerful technique, allowing you to select objects based on a much larger set of criteria.

• Go to the Menu bar.
• Choose Tools > Custom Selection…

• If you only want to select these objects once, choose Execute Immediately. If you want to save this selection to use again, choose Create VectorScript or Create Python Script.
• Click on the Criteria button.

• You can choose to look by Record. That would give you the same results as the Select Similar tool.

• A more detailed approach is to use Field Value. This allows you to choose specific objects based on the value of the chosen record format field.
• Choose the Field Value option and enter the required value.

• Save the script to a palette. Scripts and palettes can be copied from file to file with the Resource Manager.

• Name the script.

• Double click on the script to activate it.

• All the objects that have the correct field value are selected.