How to select a single component in Altium Designer using the PCB filter?

Question

Using the PCB Filter, how can I select a single component easily (not its primivites)?

Every now and then I have a complex component (such as an on-board PCB antenna which consists of copper traces, pads, keep-out regions, etc.) that I need to select by itself in order to lock/unlock primitives, for example. The problem I run into is once I've unlocked primitives, selecting the component again becomes a challenge due to non-component items (vias, polygons, etc.) scattered around that prevent selecting with a rectangle or lasso easily. Shelving polygons, hiding objects such as vias, and so on works, but is time-consuming.

(IsComponent Or IsComponentBody) and InComponent('AE1') is an expression that worked, but is there a simpler one?

(Altium Designer 20.1)

Answer 1

Option 1:

In the properties tab, when nothing is selected, you can change the selection filter:

Enable selection of components and disable all other selections. (Apparently this doesn't work well in single-layer mode --- disable single-layer mode before selecting a part)

Option 2:

In the PCB panel, find the component you want to select and double-click it. This will select the part and zoom the PCB view to the part.

Answer 2

One method I use when Altium is irritating me like that is to hide all the layers except the ones you're interested in. That usually makes it easier to select areas of interest.

Another option is to make your components actual 'components'. I.e. instead of laying out a PCB antennea directly on your board, you make a PCB antenna part in a library. Then it's trivial to select it, no more difficult than selecting a transistor.

Altium has a well-monitored forum for asking questions. You'd probably get far more and better responses there.