Does the order I select vectors in matter? (Alignment, trimming, and welding surprises)

The rule most beginners never learn

Several tools in the software treat your selection as ordered: the FIRST or LAST thing you clicked plays a special role. When a tool "does the wrong thing," the order you clicked is usually why.

Where it bites:

1. Align to Selection (Alignment Tools, F10): objects align to the LAST-selected item. Click the moving pieces first, hold Shift and click the anchor LAST, or everything jumps to the wrong reference.
2. Subtract Vectors and Overlap Vectors: the last selected shape is the one that acts on the others. Subtract cuts the last shape away from the others wherever they overlap. Overlap Vectors keeps only the parts of the first-selected shapes that lie inside the last-selected shape. Reverse the click order and you keep the wrong half. (Weld Vectors merges everything into one outline, so order does not change its result.)
3. Copy Along Vectors: the first vector or group you select is the object that gets copied; the other selected vectors are the curves it is copied along.
4. Text on a Curve: select the text, then Shift-click the curve.

Click deliberately, and treat the last item you click as the one that matters.

The recovery habit

Wrong result? Ctrl+Z, reselect in the other order, apply again. That is the whole fix most of the time.

Pro tips

• Shift-click adds to a selection in order. A drag-box selection does not give you a deliberate "last" item, so for order-sensitive tools, click deliberately.
• Grouped vectors count as one object. Ungroup when a tool needs to see the individual vectors.
• When alignment matters to a fixed element (a border, the material center), remember that F9 (Center in Material) and the Align to Selection tools are different tools. Check which one you actually want.