Interacting with the Object Tree
This section gives guidance on how to work with and navigate around object trees.
A folder (
) icon indicates that the node is a “manager” or “collection” of several nodes of the same type. For example, the
node is a manager for several individual scene nodes.
You can expand or collapse nodes by clicking the handle to the left of the node icon. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides keyboard shortcuts for the same actions: <Left> arrow closes nodes, <Right> arrow opens nodes. Adding <Ctrl> to either action applies the command to all child nodes and their descendants.
If a tree node has any associated actions, right-clicking the node opens a pop-up menu. If multiple nodes are selected and the actions do not apply to all selected nodes, some menu items are grayed.
Drag-and-Drop
You can drag-and-drop objects in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to perform copy operations.
The mouse cursor changes to indicate whether a drop is valid.
Move the mouse cursor near the top or bottom of the tree window. If necessary, move slightly outside the border to start scrolling.
Hold the mouse over the node for a second or so, and the node opens.
Navigating the Selection History of the Tree
After selecting a variety of nodes in the tree, you can navigate the selection history as you would navigate the browsing history in a web browser: moving forward or backward in the range of selections.
| Note | If you go back in the selection history and then make a different selection, that selection becomes the end of the selection history. The selections through which you moved back are lost. |
The available navigation techniques are as follows:
| Workspace Context | Previous Selection | Next Selection |
|---|---|---|
| Edit menu | Previous Tree Selection | Next Tree Selection |
| Edit toolbar |  (Previous Selection)
|
 (Next Selection)
|
| Keyboard shortcuts | <Alt>+<Shift>+<Left> arrow key | <Alt>+<Shift>+<Right> arrow key |
| Note | If you are at the beginning or end of the selection history, or if you delete an object somewhere within the selection history, these options can be unavailable, and the affected menu item and toolbar button are grayed out. |
Additionally, this feature has the following characteristics:
- It works with custom tree views in addition to the main simulation tree.
- Each tree view has its own selection history.
- Multi-selection of objects is treated as a single selection step. When you navigate to that action, all nodes in the multi-selection will appear selected.
Searching the Tree
You can search the tree using keystrokes.
If the focus is on the tree, that is, on one of its nodes, pressing an alphanumeric key (lower case only) has the following effects:
- Moving the focus to a node beginning with the typed character (if one exists)
- Opening a search edit box with that character
If no match is found, then no node is selected.
The search facility is not case-sensitive.