The SSX Command

William Forty
William Forty

As this is my first post on HowToAutoCAD.com of 2013, I'd firstly like to wish you all a (somewhat belated...) Happy New Year!

Here's a tip that was forwarded to me recently, by a chap named Santiago. I've used variations of this tool, which I have found to be very useful, and this one is equally so - the SSX command.

It's essentially one of those really useful selection tools. Selecting things one by one is pretty cumbersome, and rarely are the changes we want to make only applicable to one entity. So if only there were a way to select a certain type of entity... You guessed it - that's what SSX does. It allows you to select similar entities to the one entity you specify. So lets say you want to select all LINE entities on the very standards-compliant layer named "BOB". All you'd have to do is type SSX followed by ENTER. Then, select a LINE entity that is on the layer you want (in this case, the "BOB" layer...), and AutoCAD® will add all relevant entities to the active selection set. Then, just manipulate the entities the way you want (such as forming the word "UNCLE"), and well, Bob's your uncle.

See what I did there... ?

:-)

Depending on your AutoCAD® setup your selection may be cancelled after running this command. In which case, you can just invoke the command you want to use like MOVE for example, and then just use "p" for PREVIOUS.

Hopefully you will all find this useful - it's just one of those commands that when used in the right place at the right time work wonders.

That's all for now, and many thanks to Santiago for sharing this with us. If you have a tip that you think is useful, please please do get in touch. I very much appreciate all your contributions.

Equally, if there is any subject in particular that you want covered in a post, I'm always open to suggestions.

Will

P.S. For those that haven't already subscribed, please do so below. I can't believe I'm up to over 500!


Comments

Al Paca
2013-06-21 13:55:39

You can also enter "(SSX)" at the "Select objects:" prompt within a command (e.g.- ERASE or MOVE) and that will build the selection set and then immediately resume the command function.