Select right click erase

When we select multiple items and then want to right click to delete them, for this method to work the cursor must be on one of the selected items otherwise the selection is lost. This is not necessary extra work.
In autocad you can Select multiple items and when you right click to Select delete the cursor can be anywhere and this is more convenient.
Can’t Sketchup imitate autocad in this particular point?

I usually just use the delete key on the keyboard.

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It is fine when you want to delete just a few items but what if you Select many items with the window or crossing method? Why does the cursor have to be on an item otherwise you lose the selection? What is the point of this?

It allows you to select and pull up a contextual menu in a single click instead of a two step operation. It allows the user to change selections immediately. If you want to delete multiple things, just select them and hit the delete key.

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If you ant to reach the context menu without changing selection you can find the same menu under Edit.

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I am aware that there are many ways of doing this but I find most convenient to left click, select window or select crossing and then right click and select delete and I am saying that this doesn’t work and you lose the selection if the cursor is not on one of the selected items when you press the delete in the context menu.

It’s the way it is. Get used to it.

If it didn’t work this way, many other tools and controls wouldn’t work at all.

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Correction: if the cursor is not on one of the selected items when you right click to invoke the context menu .

I cannot Imagine which tools you have in mind that would not work.

If right click didn’t also select you would have to click twice every time you wanted to open the context menu. Also it would be inconsistent to how the context menu operates in Windows.

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Please read my posting carefully because I think that you have not understood it.

In Windows, click and releasing the right button would pop-up the context-menu, in SketchUp it immedialtely pops up. Either way, the context is always about the underlying area of the cursor…

I always have a problem with selecting and right-clicking when I import .dwg that has only linework and no faces. Zooming out makes it easier to right-click, though

Everyone here understands your question and how SketchUp works very well, actually. You received clear and direct responses with the logic to back them up from seasoned users. Right click is also a select/deselect which provides an efficient workflow. You aren’t pointing out a fault in the software, you’re pointing out a feature, so it’s in your best interest to embrace that right click is also a select/deselect and that delete key is the best and most efficient way to delete whatever is selected.

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I apologize for suggesting that you did not understand my posting.
I will insist however that the feature is only useful for deleting one item and not many.
This is coming from someone who has spent countless hours in SU in the last fifteen years or so.
I also reserve my human right to embrace what I want in life and try to change what I don’t like so please let me be the judge of what is in my best interest and what not.

I am also insisting that right click is good for only selecting and deleting one object. That is precisely why it isn’t a good idea to even try using it to delete several. Of course you can share your preferences, but in this case you’re still not pointing out an actual problem. Instead you’re showing how a major operating feature doesn’t allow you to use the program in the wrong way. If it worked the way you expect, then it would make the software not work as expected for almost all other instances when one wants and needs to right click, which is almost never to erase.

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Why would you use the context menu to delete? There is a delete key on your keyboard.

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I wonder if you are an autocad user. If you are then you should know how perfectly smoothly this process works.

The strength of SketchUp is that it doesn’t behave like these other programs, but in a more predictable and easy to use way. Take Rhino for instance where right click repeats the last command. It’s probably useful for hardcore users to have such quick access to it, but not at all intuitive as right click means context menu to most people. SketchUp is the program you can start using without having to first unlearn widespread UI conventions. A context menu is supposed to be related to whatever you clicked; that’s what a context menu is. You could even argue that the menu opened on right click in AC isn’t a true context menu, if it isn’t related to what you right clicked.

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Here is a compromise that would give mlombardeas the requested feature, without breaking anything else:

If you right-click on the screen, and it’s on an object that has a contextual menu, first make sure that object is selected. If it was already part of a multiple selection, keep that multiple selection. If it was not part of an existing selection, deselect everything else before selecting that object.

You might be thinking, well, that’s how it works already! The key difference is that it would only do those things if the object has a contextual menu. The background and sky in SketchUp don’t have a contextual menu, and so it would be quite reasonable to leave the existing selection as it stands, and show the contextual menu that you would get when right-clicking on one of those selected objects.

If your intention was to deselect everything, you would have done a left mouse click.

Many thanks Colin for describing exactly what I have been trying to say in a better and analytical way!!
It is exactly how it should be!