Pick

When a placement step has more than one discrete geometric solution, all are shown simultaneously as jagged numbered alternatives. pick selects one by index.

pick b 2

Index is 1-based. The default (no pick) renders all solutions — useful for exploring which variant you want before committing.

When does this happen?

Two cases produce multiple discrete solutions:

Circle ∩ circle — a vertex fully determined by distances to two placed neighbors (e.g. the third vertex of a triangle). The two solutions are mirror images across the baseline.

• Solution 1 — left-of-baseline (CCW winding)
• Solution 2 — right-of-baseline (CW winding)

Circle ∩ line — a vertex on a named line with a known distance to one placed neighbor.

• Solution 1 — higher y value
• Solution 2 — lower y value

Example

Without pick, both solutions are shown jagged:

click to pan & zoom

line l = (1, 0, -3) point a = (0, 0) b on l ab = 5

With pick b 2:

click to pan & zoom

line l = (1, 0, -3) point a = (0, 0) b on l ab = 5 pick b 2

Multiple ambiguous vertices

Each vertex's pick is independent. For a triangle where c has two solutions:

triangle abc with ab = 3 and bc = 4 and ca = 5
pick c 1    # selects the upper solution

More than two solutions

In principle, each ambiguous placement doubles the total solution count — a figure with three ambiguous vertices has up to 2³ = 8 total configurations. Each pick statement resolves one vertex independently.