Selecting Objects

When you are analyzing and customizing the dependency diagram, you will need to select objects.

Selecting an object in the Diagram pane also selects it in the Objects in Project pane. The object and its first-level dependencies are highlighted in the diagram. A full, hierarchical list of the dependencies is shown in the Dependencies pane.

Similarly, selecting a visible object in the Objects in Project pane also selects the object in the Diagram pane and displays its dependencies in the Dependencies pane. If appropriate, the diagram is panned and zoomed so that all the (unhidden) selected objects are shown. Selecting a hidden object only displays its dependencies in the Dependencies pane.

To select an individual object (and clear any current selection):

click the object in the diagram
in the Objects in Project pane, click the object
You can use the search feature to filter the list to help you find the object. If the object you require is not listed, it is not included in the project; use Add Objects to Project to add it to the project.
if it is listed in the Dependencies pane, double-click the object

To select more than one object, use the Shift and Ctrl keys and click the required objects, in the usual way. Alternatively, to select consecutive objects in the diagram, press Shift and drag the mouse pointer across the objects that you want to select. To select consecutive objects in the Objects in Project pane, drag your mouse pointer over the list.

The following selection features are provided on the toolbar:

To select all objects shown in the diagram, click All
To select all objects that are directly connected to the selected objects on the diagram, click Connected Objects
This is not available if no objects are selected.
To reverse the current selection, so that selected objects are cleared, and unselected objects are selected, click Invert
This is not available if no objects are selected.
To clear the object selection, click None
This is not available if no objects are selected.

To access these toolbar selection features directly from the diagram, right-click an object, click Select, and then click the option you require.

To access these selection features from the Objects in Project pane, right-click, click Select, and then click the option you require. Note that if you select All or Invert, objects that are not shown in the diagram are not selected in the list.

Some further selection features are provided on the menus:

To select all objects that are the same object type:
- in the diagram, right-click an object of that object type, click Select, and then click Same Type
- in the Objects in Project pane, click the menu to the right of the filter text box, and click the object type
To select all objects with the same owner, in the diagram right-click an object with that owner, click Select, and then click Same Owner
To select all objects that belong to the same database, in the diagram right-click an object from that database, click Select, and then click Same Database
To select all objects that have no connection to any other object shown on the diagram, in the diagram right-click an object, click Select, and then click Independent Objects
You can use this feature to find objects that have no dependencies. To do this:
- add all the objects to the diagram
- ensure that there are no hidden objects
- ensure Filegroup and System Object Dependencies is selected
- ensure Constraints as Objects is selected
- in the diagram right-click an object, click Select, and then click Independent Objects