v7.2

Sneak preview: Select and edit selection

Shannon Turner

Nov 25, 2025 — 4 min read

Soon, you'll be able to change the line width, station style, and orientation of your selection instead of the entire map. See below for a demonstration.

In my last sneak preview on the Select tool, I showed how in Metro Map Maker v7.2 you'll be able to select a portion of the map and move just that portion, instead of moving the entire map at once.

But the Select tool (keyboard shortcut: T) can do so much more! Let's take a look.

While you have a selection active, drawing only works inside the selection. This means it's easier than ever to flood fill just the parts you want!

If you try to draw outside of the selection while the guide is on, you'll see that the guide is drawn in red instead of blue.

Drawing with the guide on and a selection active — The guide still limits which squares you can draw/erase, even with a selection. Red portions of the guide can't be drawn on.

If you don't have the guide turned on, the entire map will be shaded in red except for your selection to remind you that you can't draw outside of the selection.

Drawing without the guide on and a selection active — If the guide wasn't on and you forgot about your selection, it would be very frustrating to not be able to draw or erase anything, and would look like a bug. Turning the rest of the map red except for your selection is a helpful reminder that you can only draw within the selection.

I'm considering shading the entire unselected portion of the map red whether or not you have the guide on, just to make it extra clear. If you have strong opinions either way, you can reply to this email and tell me which one you'd prefer.

Erasing works the same way: while a selection is active, the eraser only works inside of the selection. Similarly, you can flood fill erase only the portion that's inside the selection box.

Maybe the most interesting thing is being able to use the Style menu (keyboard shortcut: Y) on your selection. Without a selection, the Style menu applies to the entire map.

But when you have a selection active, you can change the selection's line width, station styles, and/or station orientations, without affecting the rest of your map.

Using the Style menu options with a selection — Notice how only the lines and stations within the selection change their line width, station shapes, and station orientations.

Some features are (mostly) unchanged

Some features stay mostly the same even when using the Select tool. For example, the Station tool works as normal even when a selection is active, and won't stop you from adding, editing, or moving stations. In other words, you aren't limited to only adding/editing/moving stations within the selection.

Other notable features that completely ignore selections are:

Resize map
Stretch map
Eyedropper

The Ruler tool is also disabled when using the Select tool, and vice-versa, because I thought it would just get in the way to have both enabled at once.

Finally, in some limited cases, Undo and Redo will remember your selections. This is most useful when moving a selection and wanting to go back to its previous position.

I hope this serves as a helpful guide for how to use the Select tool! If you missed it, be sure to check out my last post, a sneak preview on how the Select tool and Move map work together, and happy map making!

I've been testing a lot and haven't found any new bugs, so I'm probably going to release v7.2 next week. I think I also want to make a new video showing off the new features.

I'm really excited about v7.2, and think being able to move and edit selections will make map making much, much faster, and hope you'll enjoy it!