Using AutoCAD Filter

We have discuss about using Quick Select before. QSELECT is very useful if you just use it occasionally and not many properties to FILTER. There is one more utility that we can use, very powerful even it’s not as pretty as QSELECT.

FILTER tool may be not popular because there’s no button/icon to activate it. At least when I check in help file, I can’t find anything about it. You have to type it in command line. QSELECT has it on ribbon, utilities panel. FILTER dialog box might also scary when you first see it. But after you use it for a while, you may don’t want to use QSELECT anymore.

The advantages of using FILTER are:

1. You can set multiple conditional filters at once. QSELECT only allow you to apply one conditional filter at a time. Then you need to apply another filter to your selection.
2. You can save the filter setting and use it again later.

Let’s see how it works.

Using Conditional

Open a sample AutoCAD drawing (or your drawing). Type FILTER then [enter]. Filter dialog box is loaded.
Now let’s imagine that we want to select all objects that the color defined other than by layer. We can simply add this line.

Sometimes I do this to select all objects that’s not using ‘ByLayer’ color, and change them to ByLayer.
You can add more conditional for complex objects. Let’s say you want to quickly select all circle and lines, and the color must be red. We know that the conditional supposed to be:

(Circle or Line) and have to be red.

Or in filter, it will be:

Saving Filter

The beauty of filter is it can be saved. If you defined many conditional filters, then it would be ridiculous if we have to set it every time we want to use it. Type the filter name in Named Filters group and click save as.

Now, after you save some filters, you can quickly select your objects with selective properties in just a few clicks!

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