I just use the laser for cutting door hangers and similar items that can be large or small at the same cut, I fill the sheet (my laser will cut a 48" wide by 96" tall sheet, with pass throw). I also etch some of the items. So, my usage method is to import the cut file (*.dxf) which because I have a CNC router also, I lay everting out with Vcarve Pro. In light burn I select everything on the job for cutting, then go back and select the object lines I need etched and change to etching settings. What I have a problem with is I will get too close to another object when I right click on job and try to highlight the object I want to etch. Now the other object is dragged across the screen. It is fixable by undoing it, but it takes valuable time to do. What I I’m looking to do is to turn off the grabbing, I’m not sure what it is called when causer grabs onto an object like this.
Perhaps holding the Ctrl key down to disable snapping will do what you want:
You can also disable Object Snapping in Edit → Settings → Display & Units, in which case the Ctrl key will enable snapping.
Tweaking the various snap distances may also help.
I have snapping turned off in main menu from the start
OK, then it’s not snapping.
You probably know the difference between drag-selecting from the right vs. left:
Dragging left selects everything the rectangle touches, which is only rarely what I want.
Although it’s awkward, you can roll the mouse wheel while dragging with the mouse button held down to zoom in and out. I have a pair of trackballs, so it’s possible to drag-select with my right hand while zooming with my left, but … it’s a good thing I’m sitting down while I do it.
Perhaps you can tweak the selection by adding or removing a few objects from the rectangle selection:
I have trouble remembering the difference between Ctrl + click and Ctrl + Shift + click, but it generally doesn’t matter because Ctrl + click flips whatever the selection state is right now.
It might be faster than undoing the entire selection and starting over.
That’s a lot of laser! 
Would it be feasible to duplicate the entire layout, delete all the Cut shapes from one copy and the Fill shapes from the other, assign them to the layers, then run them sequentially? I don’t know if you ever run the same job twice, but that would amortize the tedium of separating the items over multiple runs.
I left click and hold down the button and drag left and down to select an area. I have created a video of the problem but could not attach it here.
Dragging left selects everything the rectangle touches, not just the objects that are totally enclosed within it.
Dragging right is closer to what you want: objects partially within the rectangle are not selected.
Try dragging the other way and see if that improves the results.
thank you but I know how to select an object. problem is when I start selecting I will snag something I don’t want… I did send to your email a video of what is happing.
Hasn’t arrived, so it may have been punched out of the bitstream along the way.
Videos seem to work better when uploaded to, say, Youtube, where a simple link will suffice. Other folks may have more to offer when they see what’s going on.
Alas, I have nothing further to suggest.
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