Newcomer to Solidworks question

Does the Property manager come up when you CTRL-LMB on the parent plane? If not, are you sure you are on the edge of the parent plane?

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The only thing I can think of is that you have a selection filter enabled. If you press F5 it will bring up the filters toolbar and you can see if plane selections are currently disallowed.

Another, although far less likely, is that you are using a kvm switch. On my computer if you press ctrl twice it places the KVM switch into listening mode. When this happens the ctrl key stops functioning.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I am sorry to have to bother you talented draftsmen with a seemingly simple problem such as this. No prompt manager window comes up, and can you tell me what does LMB stand for in the CTRL-LMB phrase that you used? Yes, I am on edge of parent plane. Assuming that the "KVM switch is in listening mode, is there a method to disengage it? If I invoke F-5 and the selection filter tells me that the plane is currently dissallowed,what would be the reasons, and what step do I take to allow? Thank you all again Karen

Hey Karen, LMB = Left Mouse Button. This is normally the select button.

Reaper.

You can press escape to exit listening mode on a kvm switch. For those that don't know what a kvm switch is - it lets use multiple computers with a single set of keyboard/mouse/monitor.

Reasons selection would be disallowed are most likely because the current command you are using does not allow it. For example if you are in the sweep property manager then plane selections will be disallowed by SolidWorks, as this would not make sense.

The other reason would be because you have enabled a selection filter yourself. For example, if you press the v key it will set your selection filter to only pick vertices.

And the symptoms of having the selection filter on is a funnel shaped cursor. The symptoms of being in a command context is some kind of transparent check box in the upper right corner of the graphics screen.