Subject: Understanding when to select entities

You can select entities before or after you choose a command.

Selecting entities first

When you select entities and then issue a command, the program immediately acts on the entities you’ve selected. For example, you can select an entity and its properties automatically display in the Properties pane or you can right-click the selection set to display a prompt box with various options to choose from.

After you select one or more entities, you can choose an entity-modification com­mand, such as the Copy or Move command or use grips to modify the entities. You can also click the right mouse button to display a shortcut menu containing the entity-modification commands appropriate for the selected entities, and then choose the command from the menu.

You can control whether selection is allowed before using commands.
Choose Tools > Drawing Settings, click the Coordinate Input tab then the Entity Selection tab, and mark Pre-pick to allow selection before using commands.

If grips are turned on, grips also display for entities that are selected before issuing a command. For more information about grips, see Using grips.

Choosing a command first    

When you choose an entity-modification tool or command first, the program prompts you to select entities and displays a prompt box from which you can choose a selec­tion method. You can select individual entities or use other techniques such as selec­tion windows to select multiple entities.

When you select entities, you add them to the selection set. After you select at least one entity, you can remove entities from the selection set. To finish adding entities to the selection set, press Enter. Most entity-modification commands then act on the entire selection set.