Shift-Select - Ctrl-Deselect

[Danya358732443p0n]

This is the standard for so much other software, is it possible to implement in Illustrator?

It's extremely useful to be able to select a group of objects by dragging, and then deselect items by dragging - but in Illustrator, you will inevitably include unintended objects, and end up endlessly toggling the selection / deselection status. In CAD, it's very simple - one button to select, another to deselect; drag one way to select all objects inside, dra the other to select all objects partially inside. Even other Adobe software like photoshop has the shift-ctrl difference. I'm confused as to why Illustrator doesn't.

[Monika Gause]

Drag while holding shift to deselect.

You can also only select what's fully enclosed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-tn0-QCJW4 

[Danya358732443p0n]

Thanks, extremely useful on the enclosed selection mode! But the problem with shift-drag to deselect is you will really often end up selecting other things by accident while you're trying to deselect.

[Monika Gause]

That happens when you start the drag on a fill.

3 ways to prevent that:

turn on "Select object by path only" in the Preferences

use the lasso tool

work in Outline view

[Danya358732443p0n]

I'm not sure I understand. I usually work on drawings with a lot of paths, and it just means it's very hard to draw a rectangle selecting exactly what I need - it's much easier to be able to select a group of objects and then deselect from that - that's how all CAD software works and how selection areas work in Photoshop. But in illustrator because shift is both select and deselect, when I drag holding shift, if I accidentally drag over paths I had previously not selected by accident (and this is very common, because of the documents I work on), I end up with random extra selected paths.

[Monika Gause]

I have no idea how selection works in CAD.

You might want to inspect selecting with the layers panel, saving selections for later use and the Select menu.