Hey, thank you for the quick response, Zandar!  I just tried it, and it works perfectly!  That's exactly what I wanted.  Yes, it's a hotkey click extra, but the time involved in that is so minimal, you really wouldn't count it.  Considering the same feature in 3dsmax would require you to click a hotkey to enter "element" mode anyway, it balances out in terms of clicks.  That's great to know, because it's a feature I use almost every modelling session.

Ok, while I have your ears, let me ask another one!  Is there no way to rotate the perspective view while in the box-select tool, or must you position, select B, position again, selct B again, etc.?  If you're doing a lot of precision selections with the box-select tool, this can translate into a lot of hotkey pressing.  Seems it would be more convenient to engage the box-select tool, and keep it active, while rotating the view.  I'm thinking I'm missing something here?

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.