point select not working

Version 2.1.2
Ubuntu 18.04

In a particular drawing the pointer select will not work anymore.
I can pre-select entities with a left swiping window, but cannot pick them with the mouse pointer.
Works  in other drawings of the same type.
Stopped during work on the drawing.

What did I do, so it can be reversed?

I have experienced difficulties selecting entities with single mouse click on very large drawings. It seemed to help to zoom in very close to be able to precisely target an element, or to reduce the types of snaps activated.
You may try and delete part of the drawing experimentally to see if this helps, or copy the complete contents into a new drawing, or cut them out and reinsert into the same drawing again. Could help if something has been screwed up.

dellus: Thank you for the suggestions.

Interpreting your suggestions, it would seem the drawing had gotten corrupted.
There are 8 architectural drawings that all have the same layers.
The mouse pointer select could be used on the elements of drawings larger than the problematic one.

Following your helpful advice, half of the problematic drawing was deleted and the mouse pointer select then worked on remaining lines.
Undoing the delete (re-establishing the deleted elements), they too could now be selected with a single click.
Strange, but effective.

Thank you very much

Not as successful as I had thought.
Because i tested on the wrong drawing (sigh)

The initially offending drawing still has the problem and it is in the dimensions.
Somehow the angle dimension lines and numbers got linked to other elements.
If I click on any element, a single angle dimension will be highlighted (becomes dashed) rather than the element.

Deleting and re-inserting the dimensions or other elements does not change the situation.
Deleting the particular angle dimension does not release the other elements.
They just highlighted the next angle dimension.
So that one was deleted and then the other elements could be highlighted with a single mouse select.

The angle dimensions could not be redrafted. The new versions would cause the same problem.

I faintly remember there already a similar issue with angle dimensions has been mentioned here. So I searched for it, and it has been you!  https://forum.librecad.org/Can-no-longer-select-most-objects-with-mouse-pointer-tp5717668p5717672.html

So still the same problem! Sorry, I don't know a solution.

You could make a very much cut down version of the drawing with most deleted and just keep one entity and the angle dimension it affects. If you provide this tiny file here LordofBikes might be inclined to have a look under the hood. Maybe it can be seen what happened.

Okay. I will create the smaller file.
for the record, every entity is affected:. lines, dimensions, fills, text.
The file will have an example of each type.

shop_west_dimensions_2021-03-09b_lambertus.dxf
Okay. Here is a very cut down version of the offending drawing.

Thanks. I have cut down the file further, removed all blocks, empty layers and the hatch, to be more easily readable as text, in case LordofBikes would have a look on it. shop_test_noblock_noemptylayers_nohatch.dxf
It seemed to me now you can more often get a reaction to selection than before, but the issue persists.
If you switch off the dimensions layer, all is fine.
I have tried and moved the angular dimension to a new virgin layer, but to no avail.
Newly made angular dimensions have the same fault.
I already wanted to give up, but then I had another idea. I selected all, and copied and pasted into a new empty drawing. Now selection seemed to work as it should. I had to adjust the Current Drawings Preferences to get the same look. Couldn't test thoroughly, as I have to go out now.
So the basic file indeed seems to be corrupted somehow.  

Thank you very much for your work on this.
Your test of copying the material to a new file is essentially what I had to do last time; though then, I just started over and redrew the whole thing starting with a drawing of the opposite wall of the building.
It would be a help to know how this happens with the angle dimension, so it can be prevented. It causes considerable disruption.

In the meantime I will find a saved version of this drawing that does not have the issue and start again with that one. Because of issues with using the program, I now save each day's work as a new file, and archive all older ones.

All the best.

Found a version of the drawing that did not have the select problem.
And re-created the problem by setting the Drawing Preferences > Arrow size to 0
Setting the Arrow size to 0.01 made the problem disappear again.

Tried it in the cut down version you made and that also solves the issue.

Strangely the same Arrow size preferences choices in any of my other drawings of the same type do not create the select problem. So it seems there is still something unique about that one drawing.

Yes indeed, Arrow size 0 induces the problem.
That's also why it helped to reinsert the contents to a pristine new file. Out of the box the Arrow size is 2.5, Tick size 0. When adjusting the Drawing Preferences I didn't bother to set Arrow size to 0 as it is enough if Tick size is more than 0 to activate tick.
So it's easy to avoid the problem, now that we know about it, but the problem will stick forever to that particular drawing.
A weird thing also is that when you click anywhere in the screen to ask for "Properties" it will always say "Dimension" on layer "Dimensions". As if that angular dimension is omnipresent, everywhere.

Maybe LordofBikes can enlighten us.  

New finding: With an angular dimension present and Arrow size 0 it always happens. So Arrow size must not be 0. Looks like a real bug.
But you say you don't have this in your other drawings?

dellus:

Thank you!

What you discovered explains why the point select does not work on other elements, since the angle dimension is everywhere and on top.
It might not explain why it does not affect my other drawing with an angle dimension and Arrow size set to 0, Tonight i will cut that one down to a few elements and post it, in case it helps to diagnose the issue.

All the best

shop_east_dimensions_2021-03-10_lambertus.dxf

Included is the stripped file that has two angle dimensions and Arrow size set to 0.
It does not have a point selection problem.

Sorry, the angular dimensions in that drawing are just arcs and text. If you insert a true angular dimension the problem recurs.
Did you want to test me?
Or maybe you have resorted to that solution when you originally made the drawing some time ago and didn't remember.
So bug confirmed. There have been a number of complaints here in the past about sudden no response to point selection with no explanation found. Maybe we have found it now.

Good detective work!
Too bad I did not notice that I had made that change.
Sorry to have made more work for you.
Thank you very much for helping me through this.

All the best

Many thanks to both of you for this excellent forensic bug examination.

It's not only angular dimensions, it affects all except radial dimensions.
The cause is indeed the arrow size 0.
This leads to invalid arrow objects which always return 0 distance when searching for the nearest entity to the click position.

I can fix this soon.

Possibly using a very small arrow size, like 0.001 or even smaller, should achieve the same without the selection issue.
This will create small, hardly visible arrow objects which will not affect single click selection.

Armin

@ LordOfBikes: in what respect does it affect all dimensions, except radial? To me it seems to happen only with angular dimensions existing.

Probably in most cases arrow size is set to 0 by users who think they have to do so when wanting a tick instead. You may not know it as you probably never use ticks (an architectural standard), but simply having a value other than 0 for the tick automatically deactivates the arrow.
In the long term it might be better to change the UI to using a selection tick box.
But it will do for now to eliminate the bug.

dellus

It affects all dimensions when tick size is zero AND arrow size is zero.
Except for radial dimensions, where arrow size is explicitly checked for zero.
This is probably not the intention of dimensions, but it leads to unexpected behavior and should be prevented too.

When tick size is not zero, only angular dimensions are affected, because they do not support ticks.
That may be the real culprit and the reason why arrow size was set to zero at least.
So maybe implementing ticks in radial dimension is the best solution.