Unlike the standard behavior in Houdini, all Modeler tools in component selection mode treat an empty selection as a command to select the entire geometry. Isolated faces are ignored in the process. This allows to quickly apply tools to the entire model without manually selecting all components.
It is also important to note that if faces are isolated, meaning part of the geometry is hidden, then with an empty selection, the Modeler tool will be applied only to the visible part.
The Drop (Escape) tool is designed for quickly clearing selection or modify highlighted components:
This approach allows you to quickly clear selection, for example, before applying a tool to the entire geometry. In Modeler, an empty selection is equivalent to selecting an entire geometry, which simplifies working with tools.
The primary set of component selection tools is stored in the Select (`, §) radial menu.
This menu offers smart selection mode switching.
How the smart mode switching works: Imagine you applied the Extrude tool to some faces. This activates the Extrude viewer state, highlighting the front part of the extruded faces. Now, if you open the Select radial menu and choose Faces, the viewer will switch to the selection state, and the highlighted components will become selected. Selecting Faces again will clear the selection. If, in the Extrude state, you select Points, the highlighted faces will be converted into points automatically, and selecting Points from menu again will also clear the selection.
