Skip to content

Selection Tools

In order to modify graphics, you must first select them. The Select tool is the primary means of selecting objects, but LightBurn also includes several additional options for making selections based on their type, size, layer, and more.

Making Selections

The Select tool is active by default. To reactivate it after using a different tool, click the cursor icon in the Tools Toolbar, or press the Esc key.

Select tool in Tools Toolbar

Click Selection

With the Select tool enabled, click any object in your Workspace to select it.

Tip

To increase or decrease the distance your cursor must be from an object in order to select it when you click, adjust Click-Selection Tolerance in your Settings/Preferences.

Click Selection

Box Selection

Select several shapes at once using one of two box selection options.

Enclosing Selection

With the Select tool enabled, click, hold, and drag to the right to create a red Enclosing Selection box. Release to select all objects that are fully contained within the box.

Enclosing Selection

Crossing Selection

Click, hold, and drag to the left to create a green Crossing Selection box. Release to select all objects that are fully contained or crossed by the lines of the box.

Crossing Selection

Selection Modifiers

To supplement both click and box selection, LightBurn supports the following modifier keys.

While clicking or box-dragging:

  • Hold Shift to add a new object or objects to your current selection.
  • Hold Ctrl / Cmd to toggle the selection status of an object or objects, deselecting selected objects, or selecting unselected objects.
  • Hold both Ctrl / Cmd and Shift to remove an object or obects from your current selection.

Additional keyboard shortcuts:

  • Press the Esc key, or click in any open space in your work area to remove all objects from your selection.
  • Press Tab to cycle your selection sequentially through objects or grouped objects in your Workspace. Sequence is determined by the order in which the objects were created.
  • Press both Tab and Shift to cycle your selection sequentially through objects or grouped objects in your Workspace, in reverse order.

Selection Indicators

Selected objects are drawn with an animated dash pattern instead of solid lines. If you select Grouped objects, you'll see a dot-dot-dash pattern instead.

Ungrouped Objects Selected

Ungrouped Objects Selected

Grouped Objects Selected

Grouped Objects Selected

Several options for modifying or manipulating objects are available once they are selected:

Additional Selection Tools

Several other selection options are available in the Edit Menu.

Select All

Ctrl / Cmd + A

Selects all graphics in your project.

Invert Selection

Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + I

Deselects all objects that are currently selected and selects all objects that are not currently selected.

Select Open Shapes

Selects all shapes in your project that are open, meaning they are not paths that form a closed, continuous loop. See Open vs. Closed Shapes for more information on open shapes.

Select Open Shapes Set to Fill

Selects all shapes in your project that are open, and assigned to a layer set to Fill or Offset Fill mode. LightBurn is unable to fill open shapes — this tool is a useful option for identifying them.

Additional Selection options

Select All Shapes in Current Layer

Selects all shapes assigned to the active layer in the Cuts / Layers window.

You can perform the same action by holding Shift while clicking on a layer in the Cuts / Layers window.

Select Contained Shapes

Selects all shapes contained by the currently selected shape. To use this tool, the selected shape must be closed — a path that forms a continuous loop. The containing object remains in the resulting selection.

Select Shapes Smaller Than Selected

Selects all shapes that are smaller than the currently selected object. The currently selected object remains in the resulting selection.

Troubleshooting

  • Grouped objects are treated as single objects when using click or box selection, and any selection modifiers. All objects in a group must be entirely contained by an Enclosing Selection in order to be selected, and if any object in a group is crossed by a Crossing Selection, the entire group will be selected.

  • There are a handful of exceptions to the behavior of grouped objects with the additional selection tools:

    • Select contained shapes does not select any contained shapes that are grouped.
    • When using Select shapes smaller than selected, any grouped objects that are smaller than the selected shape will be selected, and automatically removed from their group. The objects they were grouped with will not be selected.
    • When using Select open shapes or Select open shapes set to Fill, any grouped objects that are open will be selected, and automatically removed from their group. The objects they were grouped with will not be selected.

  • If you find that you're getting odd flashing instead of the expected pattern when selecting objects, the most likely problem is overlapping geometry. This is often the result of importing the same file twice, or other design software exporting paths improperly.

    To solve this problem, try deleting duplicate shapes using Edit → Delete Duplicates (Alt + D).

    For more manual control, you can also try Ungrouping(Ctrl/Cmd+U) and deleting individual shapes.

For more help using LightBurn, please visit our forum to talk with LightBurn staff and users, or email support.