When selecting objects in AutoCAD, few people take advantage of the window polygon and the crossing window polygon. Isak Mishaeli has submitted two routines that demonstrate the power of these options. These routines run as transparent commands when you are prompted for a selection set, and allow you to select a closed entity in the drawing and use it for the boundary of the selection set, with either the crossing or window option. Isak has even included a toolbar for easy access to these commands.

To get started, extract the files to a new folder, add this folder to your support file search path, and load the file named SSBYOBJ.FAS — this will create the toolbar. To make use of these tools, start an editing command like Move or Copy, then click the toolbar button or use the transparent commands 'SSC (for crossing) or 'SSW (for window). You will then be prompted to select a polyline or circle. At this point, your selection set will be created from all entities inside or touching the closed object (crossing option) or only inside the closed object (window option). One little "gotcha": it looks like this routine only works in WCS (World Coordinate System).