How do I move more than one thing at a time?

[the mood]

I noticed how I can select more than one ship part at a time.

However,
I have no idea how to manipulate more than one ship part at a time.

I.e. Selecting a group of items (e.g. an engine control room and the engines attached to it) then to move all of those as a group in a single move action.

Am I stupid? Or is this possible somehow?

[joemama1512]

Yeah you can. Switch to the rectangle mode and you can grab whole chunks of parts. This is in construction area right next to the wrench and stuff that you click to start the construction process. Theres a delete I think, a rectangle, then the regular cursor.

[Cryten]

Its a bit janky. but after you select multiple parts your need to use the cut command. control x, and now it will attach to your controller. Unfortunately the UI is not intelligent enough to allow you to grab a selection after you make a selection. Trying to will revert to moving 1 object sadly.

It makes expanding a ship by moving parts of it apart just a bit too unnatural and annoying.

[Walt Destler]

Originally posted by Cryten:

Unfortunately the UI is not intelligent enough to allow you to grab a selection after you make a selection. Trying to will revert to moving 1 object sadly.

?? This should work fine. If not, then it's bugged.

[Cryten]

No it doesnt. Make a selection and if you click again you make a new selection, even though it shows a hand that you would think would indicate being able to move the selection. Make a selection and choose the grab tool and the selection goes away. The only way to actually manipulate the selection is by making a selection and clicking cut or using the cut shortcut. The normal intuitive way to work a selection is not the way the game works normally.

[the mood]

Originally posted by Walt Destler:

?? This should work fine. If not, then it's bugged.

It doesn't work that way. I have to Ctrl+X to "grab" the selection. If I try to make a selection then grab it with my mouse, it just grabs that one piece I happen to be pointing at.

Ctrl+x works great, but it seems intuitive that I should be able to grab the entire set of selection. If that was the intention, then it's a bug right now, yes.

[MyUrp1]

Oh, *that* is interesting...
I did a little testing. The mechanic is as follows:

1) Left-click on the "Select Tool" (box with arrow)
2) Left-click-hold and drag to select the items you want.
3) Release and the "Grab Tool" hand cursor appears
4) Left-click and *release* again (don't hold the button down)
5) Your selected items are now cut and move with the cursor to where you want them to go. Left-click and release to drop them.

It's a little counterintuitive. Your expectation at #4 is that you have to hold the mouse button down. That doesn't actually work.