Selector

[Kurt Gold]

Roughly how long would it take for you to reliably select all objects that are completely located inside of the light green marked paths in the screenshot below when you are just using any of the default selection tools in Illustrator?

[Bill Silbert]

Are the line segments that are outside of the green lines separate from the ones that are inside of the green lines? If they are separate then you could select them and the green lines first and then lock them (Command/Control-2). Then a simple "Select All" or marquising with the regular selection tool would select all of the rest instantly. Since the posed question only referred to the lines inside of the green lines how long it would take to select the lines that are to be locked would be irrelevant.

[Kurt Gold]

Thank you for your answer, Bill.

Just to clarify: I'm not really asking for advice how to do it with the default selection tools in Illustrator. I'm pretty sure I know how to use them.

I'm merely asking about how long (roughly) it would take for you to do the selection in that specific circular scenario. And it is not meant to be an isolated scenario. There could be countless other (unlocked) objects around in the file that would not be related to the objetcs in question.

[Kurt Gold]

You can download a similar Illustrator file here and try the desired selection:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DU1n1utWQb9BxA5LlMEs46udtU0Dqh_T/view?usp=sharing

The question remains:

About how long does it take for you to reliably select all objects that are completely located inside of paths P1, P2 and P3 (see "Selector" layer in the Layer panel)?

[Doug A Roberts]

At least several annoying minutes, I would expect.

[Bill Silbert]

When you first posted this I thought that it was as a brain teaser of a sort. One in which once a simple procedure (such as locking that which should not be selected first as in my initial post) would lead to a quick resolution. Now that I've downloaded and looked at the actual file I see that all of the little boxes are actually separately drawn and not segmented dotted lines at all. Since they are all the same color it would seem to make a simple way to select only some of them a manual task. Since there are fewer boxes that are to be left unselected I would do a variant version of my first post and manually select the to be ultimately unselected ones first and lock them along with the green lines. Then an instant selection of the rest would actually be possible. I'm not sure what the reason that you're asking how long this would take, however.

[Kurt Gold]

Thank you Doug for your estimation. A couple of minutes are probably realistic in that case, but perhaps other users may say it can be done noticeably faster with Illustrator's default selection tools. That's why I'm asking and hoping to receive some more opinions.

I have something in mind that may accelerate this selection process a bit, but am not quite sure if it may be required and desired at all.

Bill,

thanks for reporting back.

Please be assured that this is not a teaser. I'm only kind of an applicant who would just be interested in knowing how long it takes for you to do the required selection. About how long does it take for you (just in case you may want to try)?

[Bill Silbert]

Honestly, Kurt, I did not proceed to actually go through the whole process. If I had my estimate probably would have been somewhere around three to five minutes following the process I outlined in my last post.

[Kurt Gold]

Thank you very much, Bill. Your feedback is appreciated.

[Doug A Roberts]

I find situations like this not infrequently. If you have a method I'm interested.

[Kurt Gold]

[Doug A Roberts]

Are you prepared to share the 'how' yet, Kurt?

[Kurt Gold]

Perhaps soon. I have a prototype that is currently in beta state.

Was hoping to receive some opinions and ideas from other Illustrator users about rather complex selection scenarios. Specifically, how they handle them typically. Ideally by providing some sample Illustrator files.