Selecting Issue

[ndl]

Hi Robert,

I'm really having a challenge with Stella4d where I click on an item and the program selects a different item instead. I believe I posted this issue before, but the problem is getting worse. It now comes up in all modes (measurement, selection) pretty consistently. I've had this issue on two different computers and it suddenly seems to be now all the time. Is there any way you can troubleshoot this with me?

Thanks

[robertw]

I tested it myself on my high pixel density laptop, and I can replicate the issue in the current release of Stella. I can also confirm that it no longer happens in my development build. So should be fixed in next major release, but as before, that will still be a while.

A workaround for now seems to be as someone suggested in the previous thread about this. Display vertices/edges as spheres/cylinders rather than dots/lines. Then it seems to work.

[ndl]

Thank you for confirming the issue. Your suggestion for workaround does not seem to help for my device. Maybe you could release a patch that would just fix this issue?

[robertw]

OK, a couple of things I found:

• It's not enough to use cylinders for edges, you also have to make sure the edges are displayed. If you don't display them at all, then it will always be using lines rather than cylinders for selection, which causes the issue
• Some other linework also causes the issue, eg showing symmetry axes or reflection planes

Unfortunately I can't patch the old version now. It was made with development tools from last century, which no longer even work on Windows 10, so I can't even build the old version (by which I mean the current release). It's forward only from here, so I'm afraid a fix will have to wait till the next major release.

[ndl]

I'm not experiencing a solution even with displaying the cylinder edges. I'm working with 4D - maybe there's something else there? That's besides for the fact that the program is unbearably slow when the sphere/cylinders are used.

[robertw]

One thing that might help is to be specific about what you want to select in 4D:

• Shift+Left-click: will select vertices, edges, or cells. But if you know what you want to select, one of the following may work better
• Shift+Right-click: select vertex
• Ctrl+Left-click: select face
• Ctrl+Right-click: select edge

There's no combo specifically for selecting cells though.

Note: if you forget these combinations, the bottom right corner of Stella shows what the mouse buttons do at any time, and will change accordingly when holding down Shift, Ctrl or both.

[ndl]

Yes, that has helped in certain situations. The workaround I'm using now is showing the diagnostics and then selecting with the ctrl-F hotkey the specific cell.

[robertw]

Even better: you can select an entity type in the Info panel to select the first entity of that type in the main window. You need to hit the "+" next to the line about number of cells, faces, edges or vertices, and then select one of the types underneath. No need for Ctrl+F.

This will work as long as you don't mind which specific cell/face/edge/vertex is selected, and just want to select one of a specific type.