Question

Using the WildTOOLs Magic Wand Tool, the screen displays bounding boxes or highlights as move my mouse over objects. Typically, I click the mouse before the highlights disappear and I have selected the wrong object. Is there any method to turn this feature off or improve performance with it on?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6.0.8 (or newer) , WildTools v7.0.8 (or newer)

Background

The concept of Live Selection was introduced with introduction of Quartz and Mac OSi X. In general terms, Live Selection provides additional visual feedback to confirm which objects will be acted upon with the currently selected WildTOOL. The feedback is typically in the form of a bounding box or highlight color on screen. The same Live Selection issues may also be evident using other WildTOOLs features such as the Needle or Tornado Tools.

On older computers running Mac OS X or computers with video boards which don't support Apple's Quartz Extreme technology, there can be a performance lag which can make the Live Selection feedback awkward to use. Users running older Mac's and video boards may also want to review this article from Low End Mac for some helpful additional information.

What to do

Unfortunately there is no specific WildTOOLs preference setting to enable or disable the Live Selection feature. If computer or video board upgrades aren't practical, here a few things to try to increase performance:

Latest Version of WildTOOLs
Improvements are constantly being made so make sure you're running the latest version of WildTOOLs (version 7.0.8 at the time this article was written). The latest version of WildTOOLs (and PowerCADD) can always be found at Engineered Software on the download page .

Adjust Quick Click Preferences:
Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Tools. Adjusting the slider control (faster or slower) may work in some cases or simply turn off Quick Click entirely.

Turn off Quartz Imaging:
Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View and uncheck the Quartz Imaging check box.

The down side to this solution is the screen image is no longer rendered with Quartz's anti-aliasing technology which might be your preferred working environment. While Live Selection will continue to work, the lower quality (non Quartz) screen image may provide some additional processor time making the Live Selection feature feel more crisp and responsive in performance.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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