Selecting objects hidden behind each other

One of the most common problems in modeling is how to quickly switch to an object (select it) if the object is hidden behind another object. In most cases, this requires a number of actions, for example – switching to the wireframe display mode, selecting the hidden object, with accurately hitting the edge by the mouse, and, finally, returning to the solid display mode.

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Or we need to change the “view” direction in the viewport, select the object hidden behind others, and return the viewport to its original position so that markers, guides, or snaps do not get lost.

Blender has several selection tools that help solve this problem and reduce the amount of manipulation required to select objects hidden behind other objects.

1. Selection by choosing from a list (Alt + click)

For example, we have several objects (default cubes) standing on one line and our 3D viewport is set to “front view” so that only one plane of one cube, the first in the chain, is visually displayed to us.

If we hold down the Alt key on the keyboard and click on the visible cube, a drop-down menu will open with a list of all the cubes that are located behind it and are not visible to us.

From this menu, we can easily select the cube we need without changing the viewport direction.

2. Selection by centers (Ctrl + click)

This selection method is suitable if the cubes of different sizes hidden behind the first one and are not located on the same axis.

If in this case we click on the first cube with the Ctrl key held down, the hidden cube behind it, the center of which is closest to the cursor position, will be selected.

When the cube centers in the viewport coincide, the selection will switch between the “first” and “second” cubes with each click while holding down Ctrl.

3. Switching selection by depth (custom Ctrl + click)

This mode is not included in the default settings, but it can be enabled very easily.

Open the User Preferences area and switch to the KeyMap tab.

In the search field, type in: view3d.select

Scroll down the list to the “3D View” section and expand the “Select” element, which is assigned to the “Ctrl Left Mouse” key combination.

And uncheck the “Center” checkbox.

Now, when we will click on the front cube while holding down the Ctrl key, with each click the selection will sequentially switch to the object located further by the viewport depth.

4. Programmatic selection of objects

Also remember that selecting any object in the scene, regardless of its visibility on the screen, can be done using the Blender Python API.

To make the desired object selected, we need to call its API function select_get().

For example, for an object named “Cube.004”, we need to execut the following command in the Python console:

The cube with the specified name will be added to the current selection.

To remove the selection from the cube, we need to specify the “False” value in the function parameters.