If you’ve ever downloaded an OS Map, or use any Adobe software, chances are you’ve used a marquee selection tool. At Cetopo we’re proud of having a pretty intuitive interface, and I’m not here to over explain basics, but we have some pretty powerful selection tools, and want to make sure you’re getting the most out of them, and getting exactly what you need from your 3D model.

As an example, let’s say you’re developing the area shown in blue below – both area boundaries take less than a minute in Cetopo to select, and are roughly the same size, but the one on the right is much more efficient, and centred on the project. Which would you prefer?

Basic Selection Tools

With Cetopo’s selection tools – it’s possible to select pretty much anything you want. The images below show the ‘standard’ selection tools, and how they can be used. 

Editing Selections

The power in Cetopo’s selection tools comes mainly from our extensive modification tools. You can uniformly enlarge or shrink a selection by holding shift or alt while dragging one of the selection points.

It’s also possible to add to, subtract from, or invert selected areas, as shown below. Combining the property selection with these tools can result in incredibly precise selections that might otherwise take hours!

Selections for Visualisation

Often when working with diagrams and visualisations, our customers like the models to look clean and smooth, which is why we’ve also added the convert to circle, rectangle, and smooth tools.

Complex Selections

Occasionally, we hear from customers who want very specific models, such as every property adjacent to their site, but not the site itself, or a circle with an exact diameter of 1m. By combining the tools described in this post, it’s basically possible to do anything! Let us know if you’ve come up with any novel combinations, or reach out to the team to learn more.