Universal Selection is a powerful set of tools for selecting and comparing objects in all the three main views of a project (Photographs, 3D Views, and Tables).
You can select, by using the mouse, points, edges, curves, lines, surfaces, Bent Tubes, and cylinders in photographs and in the 3D Viewer. In the Point Table you can select only Object Points.
An important notion to understand when dealing with Universal Selection is the difference between an Object and a Mark. A Mark is something that appears on a photograph only and must be referenced between photographs. The types of Marks in PhotoModeler are the Marked Point, the Edge Mark, the Curve Mark, the Bent Tube Mark, the Cylinder Mark, the Silhouette Mark, and the Shape mark. An Object is something that exists globally to all photographs. The Objects in PhotoModeler are Object Point, Edge, Curve, Cylinder, Line, Silhouette, Surface and Shape.
Every Mark is associated with one Object (for instance every Marked Point on a photograph has one underlying 3D Object Point). Some Objects are not associated with Marks (Lines and Surfaces) and appear on all photographs and some Objects are associated with multiple Marks (Object Point, Edge, Curve, Silhouette, Bent Tube, Cylinder, Shape).
Photographs display these Marks: Marked Point, Edge Mark, Curve Mark, Silhouette Mark, Bent Tube Mark, Cylinder Mark, Shape Mark and these Objects: Line and Surface (3D projections). All of these can be selected.
3D Viewer windows display these Objects: Object Point, Edge, Curve, Bent Tube, Cylinder, Line, Silhouette, Surface, Shape. All of these can be selected.
Point Table windows display Object Points only. Object Points can be selected. Point Mark Table windows display Marked Point (also indicate their associated Object Point).
A special menu item in ribbon toolbar’s View Tab‘s Selection group’s expand menu works with Universal Selection to move selections around. It is called "Expand Selection to all windows". When you select Marks in photographs, this menu item moves the selection to all marks associated with the same underlying Object on all open photos and the Object in the 3D Viewer and Table. When you select Object Points in the 3D Viewer or Point Table this tool will select all associated Marked Points on all open photographs. The same applies to edges, Bent Tubes, cylinders, curves, and silhouettes. See also Sub-selection Highlighting.
For example, if you have a Photograph, 3D Viewer, and a Point Table open and you select one Marked Point in the photo and then choose "Expand Selection to all windows", the associated 3D Point/Object Point will be selected and will appear red in the 3D Viewer and outlined in the Point Table.
Another example: if you have a Photograph and a 3D Viewer open and you select one Cylinder in the 3D Viewer and then choose this menu item, the associated Cylinder Mark will be selected in the Photograph (if the cylinder appears on this photo).
Features:
• When you select an Object (Object Point, Edge, Curve, Line, Surface, Silhouette, Bent Tube or Cylinder) in a 3D Viewer or Point Table the selection automatically appears in all other open 3D Viewers, Point Tables, and Photographs as appropriate. This is a great way to do auditing on your Lines and Surfaces to make sure they appear in the photographs you expect.
• When you select a Mark (Marked Point, Edge Mark, Curve Mark, Silhouette Mark, Bent Tube Mark or Cylinder Mark) the selection (red color) appears only in the photograph that it was selected on because Marks are associated with one photograph only.
• Operations that act on selected objects (e.g. measure, delete, layers, materials, tag, point audit, etc.) can be done by selecting objects in 3D Viewer, Table and Photograph windows.
• You can create new Surfaces and new Lines by selecting points in 3D Viewer, Point Table and Photograph windows.
• You can mark new Surfaces and new Lines across photographs and between photographs, 3D Viewers and Point Tables (for example you could create a new triangular Surface by marking one point in a Photo window, one point in a Point Table window, and the last point in a 3D Viewer window).
• During referencing only Marked Points, Edge Marks, Curve Marks, Silhouette Marks, Bent Tube Mark, and Cylinder Marks select in the Reference View. You can select a Line but it is immediately converted into its end points.
• You can select Lines and Surfaces in a 3D Viewer or other photograph and when going into reference mode all Marked Points associated with those features will be selected in the reference view.