When you are selecting objects from the viewport and you stop moving the cursor, ABAQUS/CAE highlights the object that would be selected at the cursor position. This behavior, called “preselection,” allows you to see exactly which object would be selected before you make the selection. If the current selection options make more than one object available, ABAQUS/CAE changes the cursor, adding ellipsis marks (...) to the right of the arrow, and highlights all the possible selections. The position and type filtering that you choose for selection also applies to preselection.

When you click on the selection options tool , ABAQUS/CAE displays the Options toolbox. Toggle off the Allow Preselection During Picking tool to turn off preselection highlighting. This tool is toggled on by default.