should object models (e.g. from BILD) be selectable?

[Elaine Meng]

This has many of the same pros and cons as making labels selectable (discussed in ticket #2365). They show up in the Model Panel, and as 3D objects are even more likely for the user to expect selectability. Cons include that wouldn't be able to do much (anything?) with the selection, at least not until commands are changed to handle them. For example, "color" and "view" do not work on these objects. Currently the commands that I know to work on them are show/hide and close.

It might be useful to select them and use the mousemodes to move/rotate selected model.

I didn't put it as high priority, but if labels are going to be selectable maybe it's consistent to make other models selectable too. Feel free to change priority, component, ...

Currently if you click in the Select checkbox in the Model Panel for a BILD object, it just puts a minus sign in the checkbox.

[pett]

From Elaine:

It’s really an open question as to our philosophy rather than an RFE that we’ve agreed would be nice, because it would require adding functionality to a lot of commands, and because there are lots of different formats that give these models (Collada, VRML, OBJ, …)

[Elaine Meng]

Another thought is that when/if we have a “shape” command to make surface models, those would naturally be more integrated with selection and other functionality than the current object models.

[Conrad Huang]

Didn't we talk about associating parts of object models with molecular structure elements. For example, if nucleotides were done the same way as Chimera where there is a separate graphics object, we (Greg and I?) talked about making individual slabs selectable, selecting both the slab and the residue. If we choose to go this way, making graphics objects selectable must work.

I'm not pushing for this approach with BILD objects, but I think shapes should definitely have this capability.

[Elaine Meng]

Yes, you can already associate BILD objects with sets of atoms for 2-way selection purposes (.associate directive).  
<http://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/formats/bild.html>

However, if this is not specified in the file and the object is not associated with atoms, it cannot be selected on its own.  Neither the individual objects within the model nor the entire model can be selected.  I was just thinking of the entire model in that case, not the individual objects within it, but I guess that’s also an open question.

[Elaine Meng]

Apparently "other" (non-BILD) objects can be

• selected with mouse
• selected with Model Panel checkbox

and show the expected green outlines.

Tested in UCSF ChimeraX version: 0.91 (2019-10-03) with STL file.