How is mouse drag behavior (edge vs select) decided when clicking in a group?

Question

When I click drag on a group with nothing selected, sometimes I am able to select nodes, but sometimes it creates an edge. What is the rule for governing this behavior?

Answer 1

When you start your mouse drag inside the group node's default label or within 10 space units of the group node's border, then edge creation is started. (In this context, space units are zoom-dependent. I.e. at zoom 1.0, it means 10 pixel; at zoom 2.0, it means 20 pixel; at zoom 0.5, it means 5 pixel; etc.) Otherwise, marquee selection is started.

Comments

OK, thanks. Is there a way to disable the edge creation (via keypress or menu maybe)? If, for example, I have four nodes in a square inside a group, with not much border around them, how would I drag select them without triggering the edge creation (in this example all four corners of my selection box would be near the group border is the problem)?

I guess this issue closely relates to a similar problem I had earlier:
http://yed.yworks.com/support/qa/2685/there-option-change-behavior-move-group-clicking-background

I guess in both cases, a really elegant fix would be to have the option of only the titlebar of the group being clickable to interact with the group as an object.