Groups, sets and isolate

A group keeps several items together in one container, so you can select, move and copy them as one. A set is a rule for moving several items together. Isolate lets you work on one item and set everything else aside.

#Create a group

Select the items you want to group (parts, free shapes, groups, or a mix). There are three equivalent ways to group them:

• Press Ctrl + G
• Click the Group badge, when several items are selected
• Click the New group button at the top of the design tree

Grouping doesn't move anything. All the selected items must come from the same level: either all outside any group, or all inside the same group.

#A group is one item

• In the design tree, a group is a single row, with everything inside it listed beneath it.
• It moves and rotates like a set, and it takes the Position (absolute, relative to axis), Rotation (absolute), Move (relative), Rotate (relative) and Hidden properties. Groups don't have a material.
• Hover over anything inside a group and the whole group highlights; a click or a box selects the whole group. This holds in every view, even when you click the edge banding of a board inside the group.
• As with a sub-assembly, points inside a group can't be picked individually; Ctrl picks either the whole group or nothing.
• Moving a group, alone or with other items, also carries its gizmo along.
• Groups can be nested, but each item has only one parent. Moving the outer group moves everything inside it.

#Enter a group

Double-click a group to enter it. Entering a group is the same as isolating it:

• The rest of the scene is dimmed and locked: it provides snaps, but it can't be selected and its points can't be picked. Use the lock button in the isolate box to hide the rest instead.
• The isolate box shows the path back, for example "Model › Group 1 › …". Click any part of the path to go there.
• Inside a group, a click selects the individual part, and Ctrl + G creates the new group right there.

#Exit a group

• Esc, when nothing is selected, takes you up one level.
• Clicking empty space, or an item outside the group, exits the group completely.

#From the design tree

• Click the row of an item inside a group, and Atrium enters that group and selects the item.
• Click the row of an item outside any group, and you leave the open group.

#Create inside a group

Anything you create inside an open group (parts, shapes, lines, copies, text) goes into that group automatically. A new line joins only with lines at the same level.

#Drag in the design tree

• Drag the row of a part, shape or group onto a group's row (or onto anything inside that group) to move it into that group.
• Drag it anywhere else to take it out of the group.
• Several selected rows are dragged together.
• Moving items into or out of a group doesn't move anything in the scene.

#Ungroup and remove

#Delete and copy

• The trash icon on a group's row in the design tree, or Delete, deletes the group and everything in it. A single undo brings it all back.
• Copying a group also copies the groups inside it.

#Arrays and copies

A group copies just like a part: in the gizmo number box, click Copy.

• Count as a number: You get separate copies, each one a new group.
• Count or spacing as a formula: You get a live array on the group itself. Its count and spacing are in the Array box under the group's row in the design tree.

#Sets

A set is different from a group. A group is a container, and each item can belong to only one group. A set is a rule that moves several items together, and an item can belong to several sets. (Sets used to be called "group sets.")

• Members of a set move together and rotate around the set's frame.
• Alt + dragging the gizmo copies all of them; the set itself is copied along with its shapes and points.
• Delete deletes all members.
• A formula on the gizmo sticks only to a set, not to a temporary selection.

#Isolate

Isolate shows only what you choose, so you can work on it without distractions.

1. Select an item and click the Isolate badge, or click the isolate button next to the eye icon on its row in the design tree.
2. Only that item is visible, along with anything you create afterward.
3. The Isolate box appears below the top bar.