Inspiring

Answered

Select an object behind another object

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
October 30, 2018
12 replies
29661 views

I used to be able to hold down Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) and click on overlapping objects to select objects underneath. It is not working for me in Illustrator CC 2019. Has this changed in Illustrator CC 2019?

Correct answer barbara_a7746676

Illustrator is quite fussy when using this technique.

Looking into this further, it works best if you move the mouse a little between the first and second click. Also, you may need to release the mouse in order to see the bounding box displayed so that you can identify which object is actually selected.

J

Jessica274900604ibj

Participating Frequently

I am sadly not surprised that this issue is still present in 27.9. The "Command+click" option automatically switches the cursor to a direct selection. Why can't Adobe fix it to function like inDesign that keeps the regular selection tool while holding command? It shouldn't come as a surprise that the object we are trying to select underneath could be a group (especially outlined text), so trying to select it with the direct selection tool is impossible.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

It doesn't switch to Direct selection. It only shows a hollow selection cursor with a little triangle.

M

Magic Plants

Participating Frequently

Just hold CTRL/CMD and click an exposed part of the layer. Works great. No more clicking a ton of times. (Illustrator Beta 28.1 2)

schroef

Inspiring

That makes no sense to the question!

D

DimitriB82C

Known Participant

This is unbelievable. Any other CAD, drawing or layout tool has the option to select or list underlying objects. Even Photoshop and InDesign does it. It feels like the Illustrator devs abandoned their projct a while ago.

I'm cleaning up some CAD drawing exports and things like these drive me crazy (there is no way to select that single anchor point behind that other path than browsing the layers list):

Monika Gause

Community Expert

This is unbelievable. Any other CAD, drawing or layout tool has the option to select or list underlying objects. Even Photoshop and InDesign does it. It feels like the Illustrator devs abandoned their projct a while ago.

I'm cleaning up some CAD drawing exports and things like these drive me crazy (there is no way to select that single anchor point behind that other path than browsing the layers list):

By @DimitriB82C

How about drawing a selection rectanlge around it and then deselecting what you don't want selected?

schroef

Inspiring

I find using the lock command faster when doing this kind of work. Fuzing around with that shortcut which is a bit buggy. Locking it and unlocking is faster

PacoD

Known Participant

@jay fresno
Hello. FWIW—today is November 2nd, 2020. I am on the latest AiCC, v25.0—and the command to select and underlying (hidden) object does not work for me either.
I'm here 'cause I just found myself attempting to select an object (hidden) under another (visible) object, and none of the umpteen combinations of tools, keys, and/or commands I tried will work to only select the underlying (hidden) object.
Only option is to go on a hunt'n'search in the layers panel ... [insert eye-roll here] So anyway, that's that, and g'day.

AdobeJohnny

Participant

Use the layers panel and select object you want to work on.

schroef

Inspiring

By fuzzy you probably mean its buggy. The feature is nice, but why is the movement needed and not documented?

schroef

Inspiring

Yeah it works like crap, never works right from the start. Always need to press CMD LBM a couple times before it really starts doing anything.

barbara_a7746676

Correct answer

Community Expert

Illustrator is quite fussy when using this technique.

Looking into this further, it works best if you move the mouse a little between the first and second click. Also, you may need to release the mouse in order to see the bounding box displayed so that you can identify which object is actually selected.

barbara_a7746676

Community Expert

Adobe will soon release 23.0.1 to fix some of the bugs in release 23. However, I noticed that this particular issue is not fixed.

J

jay fresnoAuthor

Inspiring

I uninstalled and reinstalled Illustrator. Still buggy and inconsistent with this feature.