About Copying and Pasting
You can use the
Copy,
Paste, and
Paste Special commands to duplicate and place features or sets of features, geometry, curves, and edge chains within the same model or across models. Using this functionality, you can:
• Create many instances of a feature, a set of features, or geometry, without copying the feature or geometry after each paste operation, as long as the copied feature, feature set, or geometry is available on the clipboard.
• Copy and paste features between two different models or between two different versions of the same part.
• Create independent, partially dependent, or fully dependent instances of the original feature or the set of features.
• Retain or change the references, settings, and dimensions of the original feature in one or all instances of its copy.
• Create dependent copies and vary the dependency of attributes and elements, such as dimensions, sketches, annotations, references, and parameters.
If the original set of features is grouped, the copied instances are also automatically grouped, but features that were not grouped previously are not automatically grouped after a copy-paste operation.
Copying to the Clipboard
When you copy a feature or geometry, it is copied to the clipboard and is available for pasting with its references, settings, and dimensions, by default, until another feature is copied to the clipboard. The features in the clipboard retain their original references, settings, and dimensions when you change the references, settings, and dimensions of any one of the instances or all the instances during a multiple paste operation, without the intermittent copy of the feature. Pasting the feature in a different model also does not affect the references, settings, and dimensions of the copied features in the clipboard.
Repeated pasting of a copied feature or the cancellation of a paste operation does not clear the copied feature from the clipboard. The copied feature is cleared from the clipboard when a feature operation, such as delete, move, or edit, changes the model. The copied feature is also cleared from the clipboard when the model with the copied feature fails regeneration because of invalid or missing references, enters the Resolve Mode, and you then use the Fix Model option on the RESOLVE FEAT menu to replace references.
Accessing Copy-Paste Commands
The
Copy,
Paste, and
Paste Special commands are accessible on the
Model tab.
Paste and
Paste Special are available only if features are available for pasting on the clipboard. Alternatively, you can invoke the copy and paste functions by using the keyboard shortcuts:
• CTRL+ C—Copies the selected items onto the clipboard.
• CTRL+ V—Pastes the selected items. The paste user interface depends on whether you are attempting to paste features, geometry, or a chain.
|  Copy is not available when you select a pattern member. Copy is available only when the pattern header is selected. |
Two Methods for Pasting Features
The following are the two workflows for pasting:
When you use
Model >
Paste, the feature-creation tool opens and allows you to redefine the copied feature.
When you use
Model >
Paste Special, you can:
• Create fully-dependent copies of a feature with their dependency varying on specific elements or attributes of the original feature, such as dimensions, sketch, annotation elements, references, and parameters.
• Create copies of a feature that are only dependent on the dimensions or the sketch, or both, and the annotation elements.
• Retain the references of the original feature or replace the original references with new references in the copied instances.
• Apply move or rotational transformations to the pasted instances.