Copy, paste and duplicate library items

What you'll do

Put more copies of an item you already placed: a second work table, a row of sinks. Copy and paste work on placed library items, the elements BimCraft wrote into the model. For any other element (a wall, a door, a space) Copy puts its name and properties on your clipboard as text, to paste into a spreadsheet or an e-mail. Copying building elements themselves is not built yet.

The commands are in the toolbar above the model: Undo, Redo, Copy, Paste and More, a menu with Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste in place, Duplicate, Delete, Select all and Select none. A command that cannot act right now is greyed out; point at it to read why, or click it and the status line says why.

Steps

1. Open an IFC model with a library item in it, or place one first. See Place equipment and furniture from the library.
2. Click the item in the 3D view. Its properties show a Library item box.
3. Click Copy or press ⌘CCtrl+C.
4. Click Paste or press ⌘VCtrl+V. The placing bar opens and a see-through box follows the pointer, turned like the original.
5. Press RR to turn it 90°, TabTab to snap its back to a wall, or type X and Y in the placing bar.
6. Click where the copy goes. Each click places another copy; press EscEsc to stop.
7. Click Save as IFC to download the edited copy of the model.

Paste in place

More, Paste in place or ⇧⌘VCtrl+Shift+V pastes with no clicking, at the same X and Y and turned the same way:

• Into the same model, on the same storey: two items in exactly one spot would be no use, so the copy goes right beside the original, one item width plus 100 mm along the item's own width. Paste in place again from the new copy to make a row.
• Onto another storey or into another model: exactly the same X, Y and turn. BimCraft uses the storey with the same name; if there is none, the one at the nearest height. The status line says which.

Duplicate

More, Duplicate or ⌘DCtrl+D copies the picked item and starts pasting it straight away: one step instead of two.

Into another model or another tab

What you copy is kept in this browser, so you can open another IFC model, or BimCraft in another tab, and paste there. The other model needs the library item itself: BimCraft has it when the item was placed, swapped in or updated in this tab. An item placed in an earlier session can be pasted again in its own model only; in another model, place it from the Library tab.

What you should see

• The copy in the model, picked, with the same library item, license, equipment data, quantity and note as the original, and the next free item number. Change the number in Properties, under CadCraft_Placement.
• "Placed: item (item n)" in the change list. ⌘ZCtrl+Z takes it back; ⌘YCtrl+Y puts it back again.

Good to know

• Copies share the original's type, so all of them use one set of geometry, as placing the same item twice does.
• Undo and Redo cover every change: values you edited, placements, pastes, swaps and updates. Redo puts a placement back at the same place; a new change clears what could be redone.
• In the 2D view of a drawing there is nothing to select, so there is nothing to copy. Use Edit in CadCraft to change the drawing, when it shows.

Common mistakes

• Paste says copying building elements is not built yet. The last thing you copied was not a library item. Pick a placed library item and copy it.
• Paste says the copy came from another model without its library item. Place the item from the Library tab once in this tab, then copy and paste it.
• ⌘CCtrl+C copies page text instead. Text was selected on the page. Click the model first.

Related

• Keys and mouse
• BimCraft settings