ctrl D, V of compound objects - buggy

[Brooke]

Ctrl D, V of compound objects seems quite buggy; single objects work fine. Compound, e.g., walls with doors, are displaced contrary to 0 offset setting and remain in the clipboard after they should have been replaced, and may come with/replaced by random text clips.

[Pat Stanford]

Ctrl D is duplicate. If you use that, you don't need to paste (ctrl-V). I am not even sure if a duplicate puts the object in the clipboard. It doesn't seem to on my machine.

Depending on the setting of Offset Duplication in the VectorWorks Preferences, Ctrl-D should either duplicate the object in place, or shifted up and to the right.

If you mean copy (Ctrl-C) and Paste (Ctrl-V), it will either paste at the insertion point (last point clicked) or at the center of the screen. Paste In Place (Ctrl-Option-V/Ctrl-Alt-V) will put the object at the same location.

Your random text clips are due to the fact that the duplicate does not go to the clipboard and you are pasting whatever was there previously.

Pat

[Brooke]

Thanks, Pat. That also clears up my being unable to figure the funcional difference between the normally semantically identical 'copy' and 'duplicate.'

[Pat Stanford]

It sounds like you have it now, but a different way to phrase what is happening:

When you Duplicate an object, it make a new object in basically the same place as the first (depending on the setting for Offset Duplication).

When you Copy an object, it makes a new object in the systems "clipboard". When you then Paste the object from the clipboard in placed into the active document (either in VectorWorks or another compatible application (Word, Pages, etc.). If you Paste into VectorWorks, the paste is either at the center of the current view (screen) or if you use the 2D selection tool and click in the drawing, it will paste at that point.

If you use Paste In Place, the object will be placed in the same coordinate location as the original in VectorWorks. This makes it easy to move things between layers (or into/out of groups) and keep the alignment with other objects.

Glad to help.

Pat

[Brooke]

Well, you helped a bunch with that further explication. Thanks.

Now I'll try to get the diff between dupe (in place) and paste in place.

[Pat Stanford]

Duplicate always leaves the object on the same layer. I use this when I want to move a copy of the object relative to the position of the original.

Paste In Place lets you move the object to a different Layer and keep the registration. I use this especially when I want to put the same thing on multiple Layers in tyhe same place on each one.

But you could use Duplicate and then change the Layer in the OIP to achieve the same thing I use Paste in Place for.

Pat

[Brooke]

Thank you. I have been struggling with getting just that functionality (word choice?).