Improving Selection Tools

Currently, the selection tools (in the toolbar) and the selection commands (hotkeys) don't work the same way. When you hold Shift down when using the Box Selection tool , you add to the selection, but when you hold Shift while using the Box Selection via the B hotkey , you subtract from the selection.

I like 2.8, and having selection tools in the Toolbar is a very welcome addition. They need a bit more polish, though. Some of the polish is easy - for example, the selection commands are called Box Select, Circle Select and so on, but in the Toolbar, they're called Select Box, Select Circle and so on. Other stuff might require changing how the old selection tools work.

Also, sorry for the wall of text.

TL;DR: Using Box select with Shift down sometimes adds to selection, sometimes subtracts from selection. This is very bad and should be fixed. The best fix I figured is changing all the old selection hotkeys (e.g. B for Box Select, then hold down Ctrl to subtract from selection). If there's a better option, I'd be very happy, but I didn't find one.

The problem

When you use selection tools (Selection, Box Selection, Circle Selection, Lasso Selection), they can replace the old selection, add to it, or subtract from it. For certain selections, intersect and difference are also available, but let's ignore them for now - they're special cases and are not well suited for hotkeys. All the examples below are written assuming you're using the default left-click selection mode.

Currently, the hotkeys for these different options are all over the place. Sometimes, you add to selection by using LMB, sometimes you use Shift + LMB, or Ctrl + LMB. Sometimes, you subtract from selection by using Shift + LMB, or Ctrl+LMB, or even MMB or Shift+Ctrl+RMB. This is confusing, and far from ideal.

This is how way the various Selection tools currently work (Blender 2.8, daily build Dec. 7th 2018):

Using hotkeys

When using the hotkeys, default behaviour (LMB) is to add , and holding Shift changes this to subtract .

Box Select - B

• add with LMB
• subtract with Shift + LMB
• subtract with MMB

Circle Select - C

• add with LMB
• subtract with Shift + LMB
• subtract with MMB

Lasso Select

• add with Ctrl + RMB (using LMB select!)
• subtract with Ctrl + Shift + RMB

Using tools

When using tools from the toolbar, the default behaviour for Select, Box and Lasso is to replace . Shift modifies this to add , while Ctrl modifies this to subtract .

There are two exceptions. The Select (click to select) tool lack a way to subtract from selection, and the Circle Select tool can't replace the selection, only add to it or remove from it.

Select

• replace with LMB
• add or subtract , with Shift + LMB
• No way to directly subtract a non-active object from selection (without making it the active object first)

Box Select

• replace with LMB
• add with Shift + LMB
• subtract with Ctrl + LMB

Circle Select

• add with LMB
• subtract with Ctrl + LMB

Lasso Select

• replace with LMB
• add with Shift + LMB
• subtract with Ctrl + LMB

I'm using the abbreviations LMB for left, MMB for middle, and RMB for right mouse button.

Possible fixes and tweaks

Below, you can find various big and small tweaks I've had when I was pondering this problem.

I'm not a user interface expert. I'm here to start a discussion, not to offer answers. However, I have a few things to say, to hopefully start the discussion.

The big one:

1 - Make Shift the universal "Add to selection" key, and Ctrl the universal "Remove from selection" key This would change how the C and B hotkeys work, and cause confusion and annoyance for us veteran Blender users.

It would change the click-to-select (Ctrl+click would now subtract clicked object from selection), Box and Circle select hotkeys (Ctrl to subtract, instead of Shift), and so on.

Also, It might influence Mac users - I think they use the CMD key instead of CTRL, but I'm not sure if it's positioned in the same place as the Ctrl key of most Windows keyboards.

This is the best fix I could figure out. Hopefully someone else can figure out something else. However, this is a problem that has to be addressed at some point, and there's no better time than now. 2.8 is the User Interface update, and if things are to change (left-click select, etc), it's better to do all of them at once.

The rest

2 - Use the same naming convention for all selection tools The selection tools in the Toolbar are currently named Select, Select Box, Select Circle and Select Lasso. In the header's Select menu, they're called Box Select and Circle Select. Lasso Select doesn't appear in the menu, but when searched for, it is called Lasso Select.

The tools should be renamed to Box Select, Circle Select or Lasso Select. If the names of tools need to be kept separate from the selection commands, they can be renamed Selection Tool, Box Selection Tool, Circle Selection Tool and Lasso Selection Tool instead.

3 - When using Left-click select, change Lasso hotkey to LMB instead of RMB Since Lasso is a selection tool is a selection tool, it should be activated with the same mouse button as general selections.

4 - Make the Lasso hotkey Shift + xMB, instead of Ctrl + xMB Regardless of which mouse button is used for Lasso selection, it should be activated with the Shift key, not the Ctrl key. Since I suggest using Shift key as the universal "add to selection" hotkey and the Lasso selection command adds to selection by default, it makes more sense to activate it by holding down Shift instead of Ctrl. Using "remove from selection" lasso tool would be activated with Ctrl+Shift+xMB, since the Ctrl key would now be used to subtract from selection.

5 - Give all the selection tools in the toolbar better options in the top bar The Box and Lasso Selection tools have a set of selection mode toggles in the top bar - New/Add/Subtract/Difference/Intersect. This, or a similar set, should also be added to the other tools.

5 A) The Select tool (the default click-to-select one) should have the New (replace selection), Add and Subtract modes.

5 B) The Circle Select tool should have Add and Subtract selection modes. When you change its radius, there should be an interactive preview showing the size of the brush.

6 - Add an Inverse Selection option to the Tool Options row If it's ok to have buttons in the Tool Options row, an Inverse Selection button might also be worth considering.

7 - Make Circle selection tool visible in all 3D View regions/areas When using the Circle Selection tool (from the toolbar, not the hotkey), it's only visible in the region the mouse is in. I'm not sure if I'm using the right word, but when the mouse is over the Toolbar, the circle selection tool is only visible in the area of the Toolbar. The same goes for the Header, and for the Sidebar, for the Adjust Last Operator pop-up, and so on.