How to Remove the Purple Funnel from My Cursor in SOLIDWORKS

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You’re working away in SOLIDWORKS when suddenly your cursor grows a strange little purple (or pink) funnel icon… and now your selections feel broken. You click on parts, edges, or dimensions and nothing behaves the way you expect.

Good news: nothing is corrupted, and your install is fine. That purple funnel means one thing:

A SOLIDWORKS Selection Filter is turned on.

Once you know what it is and how it works, it goes from “infuriating bug” to a genuinely useful tool.

Quick Answer – How to Get Rid of the Purple Funnel

If you want the fastest possible fix and don’t care about the details right now, do this:

Click once in the graphics area (so SOLIDWORKS has focus).
Press F6 on your keyboard (on some laptops: Fn + F6).
Move your mouse slightly – the purple funnel should disappear.

That’s it. F6 toggles the active Selection Filters on and off. When all filters are off, the funnel icon vanishes and your cursor behaves normally again.

If that doesn’t work (or you want to understand what happened), keep reading.

What Is the Purple Funnel Icon in SOLIDWORKS?

The purple / pink funnel next to your cursor indicates that the Selection Filter tool is active. When it is on, SOLIDWORKS restricts what you can select in the graphics area or drawing sheet. For example, you might only be able to pick faces, or only edges, or only vertices.

Typical symptoms when a selection filter is active:

The cursor shows a small purple or pink funnel beside it.
Clicks in the graphics area only pick certain entity types (for example, edges only).
Window or box selections ignore most of what you drag over.

This is all intentional behavior. The Selection Filter is designed to make it easier to work on crowded models or drawings – but when it turns on by accident, it feels like SOLIDWORKS is broken.

Image 1: Purple funnel beside cursor

Method 1 – Use F6 to Toggle Selection Filters (Fastest Fix)

As mentioned above, the quickest way to remove the purple funnel is:

Click in the graphics area.
Press F6 (or Fn + F6 on some laptops).
Move the cursor – the funnel should be gone.

What F6 actually does under the hood:

F6 toggles all currently selected filters on or off.
If any filters are active, pressing F6 turns them off and returns your cursor to normal selection behavior.
If you press F6 again, the same filters are re-enabled and the funnel will reappear.

If F6 doesn’t appear to do anything:

Check if your keyboard has an Fn lock or function key mode that changes what F6 sends.
In SOLIDWORKS, go to Tools > Customize > Keyboard and confirm that F6 is still assigned to the Selection Filter toggle (more on this later).

Method 2 – Turn Off Filters Using the Selection Filter Toolbar (F5)

If you want to see exactly which filters are active, use the Selection Filter toolbar.

Press F5 to show or hide the Selection Filter toolbar at the bottom of the graphics window.
(Alternatively: View > Toolbars > Selection Filter.)
In that toolbar, you’ll see a row of small icons such as:
- Filter Faces
- Filter Edges
- Filter Vertices
- Filter Sketch Entities
- Filter Annotations / Dimensions
- etc.
Any icon that is pressed in (highlighted) is an active filter.
Either:
- Click the “Clear All Filters” button (funnel with a red X or multiple white funnels in newer versions), or
- Manually click each highlighted filter icon to turn it off.

Once all selection filters are cleared, the purple funnel disappears from your cursor and you can select anything again.

Image 2: Filter selection toolbar

Which Shortcut Did I Press by Accident?

Most people turn on the purple funnel by hitting one of the selection hotkeys without realizing it. The most common ones are:

F5 – Show / hide the Selection Filter toolbar.
F6 – Toggle currently selected filters on/off (this is what usually makes the funnel appear or disappear).
E – Toggle Filter Edges on/off.
X – Toggle Filter Faces on/off.
V – Toggle Filter Vertices on/off.

If, for example, you accidentally press X and then F6, you’ve effectively told SOLIDWORKS: “only let me select faces, and activate filtering now” – which is exactly what that purple funnel is trying to tell you.

How to Stop This from Happening All the Time

If you keep turning the Selection Filter on by accident, you can reduce the chances in a couple of ways.

Option 1 – Leave the Selection Filter Toolbar Visible

Many users dock the Selection Filter toolbar permanently at the bottom of the screen:

Press F5 to show the toolbar.
Drag it to a convenient location (bottom or side of the graphics area).
When the purple funnel appears, you can immediately see which icons are active and click Clear All Filters.

Option 2 – Customize or Remove the Filter Keyboard Shortcuts

If you never want to see the funnel by accident again, you can change or remove the keyboard shortcuts that control it:

Go to Tools > Customize > Keyboard.
In the search box, type “Filter”.
Look for commands like:
- Toggle Selection Filter Toolbar
- Toggle Selection Filters
- Filter Edges, Filter Faces, Filter Vertices, etc.
Either:
- Assign them to more deliberate key combinations (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+E), or
- Remove the shortcuts entirely if you never plan to use them.

This way, brushing the E, X, V, F5, or F6 keys by accident is far less likely to trigger filters.

When the Purple Funnel Is Actually Useful

Once you understand what’s going on, the Selection Filter becomes a powerful tool instead of a nuisance. Here are some practical examples where turning that funnel on on purpose can save a lot of time:

Adding fillets to complex geometry – Turn on Filter Edges so you can drag a selection box and grab only edges, without picking faces or bodies by mistake.
Working in busy assemblies – Filter by faces or bodies so you can easily select specific components without grabbing sketch entities or annotations.
Cleaning up drawings – Filter for dimensions or annotations only, then window-select and move or delete just those items.
Troubleshooting surface vs. solid bodies – Use the solid or surface body filters to select only one type and see what’s actually present in a model.

The key is to turn filters on intentionally, do your selection work, and then hit F6 again to return to normal selection.

FAQ – Purple / Pink Funnel Cursor in SOLIDWORKS

“F6 doesn’t remove the funnel. What now?”

Make sure the SOLIDWORKS window is active and the cursor is in the graphics area.
Check if your keyboard is using alternate function key modes – you may need to press Fn + F6.
Open Tools > Customize > Keyboard and confirm that F6 is still assigned to the Selection Filter toggle.
If necessary, use F5 to open the Selection Filter toolbar and click Clear All Filters manually.

“Does this only happen in parts?”

No. The Selection Filter works in parts, assemblies, and drawings. The purple funnel icon can appear in any document type if a filter is active.

“Can I completely disable Selection Filters?”

You can’t remove the feature itself, but you can:

Remove or change the keyboard shortcuts so it’s never triggered by accident.
Hide the toolbar if you don’t want to see it, using F5 or View > Toolbars > Selection Filter.

Wrap-Up

To summarize:

The purple funnel icon means a Selection Filter is active.
Press F6 to toggle filters off and remove the icon.
Press F5 to show the Selection Filter toolbar and clear filters manually.
You can customize or remove the filter hotkeys if they cause trouble too often.

These “little disasters” show up in SOLIDWORKS from time to time, but once you understand what’s going on, they’re easy to control. Mastering tools like the Selection Filter will make you faster, more accurate, and a lot less frustrated.

If you found this helpful, explore our other SOLIDWORKS tips and guides to build even stronger command over the software.