Box Select lets you draw a box around part of your layout to select multiple shapes at once, instead of tapping each line one by one. Use it to quickly choose what the FieldPrinter prints next.

When to Use Box Select

Use Box Select when you want to:

• Select a group of lines, points, or shapes in one action rather than tapping them individually.
• Print one area of the slab at a time.
• Print a single trade's layout or a single layer without picking up nearby geometry.

Before You Start

• Open your layout in the Printing Layout view in the Dusty App on the iPad.
• Make sure you are stationed and ready to print the area you want to select.

How Box Select Works

To use Box Select, press the Select button, then draw a box by dragging your finger across the canvas. Box Select picks up multiple shapes inside the box in one action. By default it selects across all layers, so anything the box captures — including geometry from other trades or layers — gets selected.

The direction you draw the box changes what gets selected:

• Left to right: only objects that fall completely inside the box are selected.
• Right to left: any object the box touches is selected, even if it is only partly inside.

To select only one layer or trade at a time, restrict the selection to a single layer first (see the next section).

Select Shapes Within a Single Layer

If you only want to print one layer or one trade's geometry:

1. Open the Layer panel

Tap the Layer panel in the Printing Layout view.

2. Select the layer you want to print

Selecting a layer in the Layer panel restricts selection to that layer. Background objects from other layers are grayed out and cannot be selected.

3. Draw the box around the area you want

Only shapes on the selected layer are selectable. Geometry on other layers is ignored, so you can print one object type or one trade's layout at a time.

Add Your Selection to the Print Queue

Once your shapes are selected, add them to the print queue:

• Long-tap anywhere on the layout canvas to open the context menu, then choose Add to Print Queue, or
• Tap the Add to Print Queue button in the Settings panel.

You can add new shapes to the print queue even while the robot is actively printing.

Clearing or Changing Your Selection

• To deselect shapes, use Box Select again over objects that are already selected — drawing the box over selected objects deselects them.
• Stop ends printing and clears the print queue. After a Stop, you must select shapes again before printing.
• Pause stops printing but keeps the print queue, so you can resume by tapping Continue.

Verify It Worked

• The shapes you boxed appear highlighted/selected on the canvas.
• When a layer is selected, only that layer's geometry highlights; other layers stay grayed out.
• Your selection appears in the print queue before you start printing.