Group Entities

Groups are entities that can hold other entities. Groups are commonly used to combine several entities as a single entity for the purposes of performing a quick operation with the combination (such as a copy). Use the Make Group menu item from the Edit menu to create a group from the currently selected entities.

Creating a Group

Groups are useful for combining entities to perform a quick operation such as copy or move operations. To create a group:

1. Select the Select Tool. The will change to an arrow.
2. Click and hold the mouse button a short distance away from the entities you want to select to start a selection box.
3. Drag the mouse to the opposite corner of the selection starting point.
4. Release the mouse button when all of the elements are either partially included (left-to-right selection) or fully included (right-to-left selection) in the selection box.

5. Select the Make Group menu item from the Edit Menu. Alternatively, context-click on the currently selected entities and select Make Group from the context menu. The geometry you selected appears grouped within a highlighted bounding box.

Note - The Make Group operation disconnects any geometry that was connected to the grouped geometry prior to placing the geometry in the group. The disconnected geometry is maintained outside of the group's context.

Note - You can make group hierarchies by grouping other Group entities within a group. Additionally, you can mix your hierarchies by including components and groups within other components and groups.

Exploding (Ungrouping) a Group

You can explode (ungroup) a Group entity to break it back into its original entities. To explode a group:

1. Select the Select Tool. The will change to an arrow.
2. Select the group you want to explode.
3. Select the Group > Explode command from the Edit Menu. Alternatively, context- click on the currently selected group and select Explode from the context menu. The Group will be split back into its entities.

Elements within groups that were placed adjacent to other geometry might become joined to elements exterior to the group when the group is exploded.

Editing a Group

Groups can be opened for editing, placing you in the Group's context. To edit a group:

1. Select the Group > Edit Group command from the Edit Menu to edit the group. Alternatively, context-click on the currently selected group and select Edit Group from the context menu. An edit bounding box will surround the group and entities exterior to the group will turn grey.

Tip - Double-click on the group to edit the group.

2. Make changes to entities within the group. Any changes while in the context of the group only affects the Group entity. You can, however, perform inference alignments to geometry outside of the group while you are editing the group.
3. Select the Close Group / Component command from the Edit Menu to end the edit session. Alternatively, context-click on the currently selected group's bounding box and select Close Group from the context menu.

Tip - Click outside of the group to close the Group.

Applying Materials to Groups

Any geometry inside a group that is painted with the default material will be painted when you paint an unexploded group. Therefore, you can have entities within a group painted individually while other elements painted using the material assigned to the entire group. The following image contains four cars all enclosed in groups. The tires, bumper, and windshield have been painted black when editing the group.

Each entire Group entity was then painted after being edited, turning each of the faces with the default material to the color applied on the group (green, blue, red, and yellow from left to right):