Need some help doing selections with the node tool

[pigeon]

This is something I've been trying to figure out for a while, maybe someone here can help me.

Typical scenario: I have a detailed svg file and want to select an item/person that i want to group together. Using the node tool I can draw a square around the object, but this usually means a lot of unwanted nodes are selected (If I could use the lasso tool this would not been an issue). After selecting all the nodes, I cannot figure out how to remove the unwanted nodes from the selection - only deleting them.

I'll try to illustrate it in this video where I only want to select George's and remove the nodes around him.

[GarryP]

On Windows, if you Alt+Ctrl+Drag you should be able to lasso-select nodes to remove them from the current selection – see attached video.

The modifier keys might be different on macOS but the functionality should be in there somewhere.

[pigeon]

The thing is that those nodes you have deselected will still be included if you try to make a group of the selection.

[GarryP]

I don’t fully understand what you mean by “make a group of the selection”.

Do you mean that you cannot create a new layer which includes only those nodes that have been selected?

If so, that’s not possible as far as I know, but it's been requested. (But I don’t know how it could work if nodes from different layers have been selected, as you seem to want to do.)

[pigeon]

Yep. That's exactly what I mean.

Ok, so it isn't possible.. Thanks for letting me know, I was going crazy trying to figure it out

[GarryP]

In this case it might be easier to select the Curve(s) layers you don’t want and delete/hide them instead.

From what I can see, you’d be missing parts of the figure – arm, bits of leg/feet – but that would happen anyway if they aren’t actually drawn already.

[pigeon]

Thanks. It seems a bit cumbersome, but it might be easier.

If there was a way to select select and add multiple areas of nodes in multiple steps this could be much easier. But I guess this isn't possible. I'll try to demonstrate what I mean:

[GarryP]

I think that one of the problems here is that the software needs to know which layers you want to select the nodes from, and there’s no way to do that other than by selecting the layers you want to select the nodes from, which (in this case) would be the same as selecting the layers you want anyway.

[pigeon]

Thanks for the help. I hope it will be possible to do this kind of selection with lasso in the future.