and then select all, or drag select everything, I get what I expect, everything highlighted blue and nothing else. But if I individually shift-click on the wires and pots, some of the vertices get marked with small brown squares:
Which vertices get marked and which don’t seems to vary, perhaps depending on the selection order or exactly where I click? I never get squares on the top pot, but always get them on the bottom two. A square appears on one end of a wire if I click near the other end of the wire. In the second and third pots above, some of the wires are so short that clicking on them always results in a brown square.
If I then enter x I get an unexpected and unuseful result:
Theory I don’t know, but…
If I point the wire with mouse and hit hotkey G to drag the segment I get these squares at points that are fixed (not dragged).
I think it is because there your wire has 2 segments and all other have 3 segments, May be if it have 2 segments than both are fixed to symbol and can’t be dragged.
It don’t work that way for me, but may be it depends on some settings.
I also do not know what it is exactly. However, some time ago I was experimenting a bit with net classes and colors for them (and for labels) and I noticed that sometimes the labels had strange colors. I never investigated this further, but it may be related.
I tried it from a different user account, one where I have not changed any of the default settings. I do get the brown squares there too, and in fact I got one on the top pot.
If the end of a wire is included in a selection it receives a blue square. If the end of the wire (or a change in the wire direction) is not included in the selection, it receives a brown square.
When you Drag, if it is surrounded by a blue square it will move. If it is surrounded by a brown square, it will not move.
These indicators cannot be removed. They show what is to be altered.
The X hotkey will mirror a selection (or symbol) about the vertical axis. The Y hotkey will mirror the selection about the horizontal axis. Find the definitions in the Hotkey list in Preferences.
I know of course what the x hotkey does, that’s what I was trying to do — reflect the selection. But with unselected ends, it doesn’t reflect in the way I intended or, to my thinking, a way that is useful at all.
Well, yes, they can, for wires that aren’t too short. If there is a selected wire with an unselected end, I’ve discovered you can click it again (or shift click it as appropriate) in the center of the wire to select both ends, or click near the unselected end to make the other end be the unselected one. So that’s fine, but it only works with wires that are sufficiently long. For wires that are short (like one grid length) it seems clicking anywhere counts as being near an end and the other end is unselected; you can’t get both ends selected unless you drag select. Which I think is a design deficiency, but at least I now know how to cope with longer wires.
The brown squares are mysterious, though, if you haven’t found wherever in the documentation it is they’re explained. If there is such a place. It’d be nice if their function and behavior were made more evident somehow.
I’m not sure if you know, but there are two ways to create a selection.
Drag mouse L to R gives only totally included items.
Drag mouse R to L gives totally included and partially included.
The second choice is usually better for X & Y use.
I don’t think there is any documentation for the Blue squares either. I suppose the developers and document writers decided we need to work a few things out for ourselves
On still further trial and error, it does appear there is a direct way to select the unselected end (without dragging): shift-click on the brown square. So I still can’t click on a short wire and get both ends selected, but I can fix that with a second click. Good enough I guess, but very mysterious user interface.
