Lock & Dim Lock

Click the Lock Unselected button to cause all currently unselected items to stay unselected and be visually removed from the current model view. This is useful when you are editing or printing a portion of a model and need to clear the model view of all items not involved. For example in a multistory building when working on one floor you can lock the other floors. Just unselect the entire model, then use box select to select the floor you would like to work on, then press the Lock Unselected button and the rest of the model will stay unselected until you press the button again to turn it off. This tool is also helpful when trying to select an item that is behind other items.

To Unlock the unselected members in the model view, click the Unlock Unselected button and the unselected items that were previously "removed" from the model view will be returned to the view in the unselected state.

Clicking the Dim Lock button causes all currently unselected elements to become visually dim or greyed out. While in the dim lock state, you will not be able to click on these dimmed elements nor will they graphically show any labels or results. This is useful for when you want to keep a portion of your structure for visual reference only but also have it stay out of your way when modeling or reporting graphical results.

Click on image to enlarge it

Click on image to enlarge it

To unlock the Dim Lock state, simply click the button and the dimmed elements will return back to their original state