Copy, paste and duplicate

The Edit group on the toolbar has Undo, Redo, Copy and Paste. Its More menu holds the rest: Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste in place, Duplicate, Delete, Select all and Select none, each with its key. A button or menu item that cannot act right now is grayed out; hover over it to read why (for example "nothing copied yet").

Every paste, cut, duplicate and delete is one step: one ⌘ZCtrl+Z takes it all back.

Select several parts

• Click a part to select it. Hold ⇧Shift (or ⌃Ctrl, or ⌘Ctrl) and click more parts to add them; click a selected one the same way to take it out.
• ⌘ACtrl+A or Select all selects every member, connection and footing.
• EscEsc or Select none clears the selection.

With several things selected, the Properties panel is headed "4 selected" (or however many) and lists the members by type, the connections, the footings and the gross steel weight, with Copy, Duplicate and Delete buttons.

Copy

1. Select the members and footings you want.
2. Choose Copy or press ⌘CCtrl+C.

What comes along:

• Each member whole: profile, material, ends, position, rotation, name, holes and copes. A custom profile it uses is copied too.
• Each footing whole: size, concrete, bottom mat and starter bars.
• End plates and base plates, but only when every member a connection joins is copied: a beam's end plate needs the beam and its column. The status bar says how many connections were left out. To leave connections out on purpose, clear Copy end plates and base plates with their members in DetailCraft settings.

A connection on its own cannot be copied; select its members instead. To give other joints the same connection, use Similar (see End plates).

The copy stays in this browser until you copy something else. Another DetailCraft tab or window in the same browser can paste it, so you can copy a frame from one model and paste it into another.

Paste on a grid intersection

1. Choose Paste or press ⌘VCtrl+V.
2. Move the pointer over the view. A dashed outline of the copy follows the grid intersection nearest the pointer.
3. Click an intersection. The copy's base point (its lowest corner: the smallest x, y and z of everything copied) lands there.

The pasted parts are selected afterwards, so you can paste again somewhere else, or change them. EscEsc cancels a paste; the copy stays on the clipboard. Plan and Elevation make the right intersection easier to hit.

Paste from the keyboard

While pasting, the Properties panel shows what is on the clipboard and two forms:

• Paste by offset (mm, from the original): type x, y and z and choose Paste at this offset. It starts with the offset from DetailCraft settings.
• Paste onto a grid intersection: pick a lettered grid, a numbered grid and a level, and choose Paste here. The base point goes there.

Paste in place

Paste in place (⇧⌘VCtrl+Shift+V) puts the copy at exactly the coordinates it was copied from. Use it after Cut, or to bring parts from another model at the same place. If the originals are still there, the copy sits on top of them and the status bar warns you: move the copies by their Start and End in Properties, or undo.

Duplicate

Duplicate (⌘DCtrl+D) copies the selection and pastes it at once, moved by the offset in DetailCraft settings (6000 mm along x to start with). It does not change what is on the clipboard. The copies are selected afterwards, so pressing ⌘DCtrl+D again makes the next one from them.

Cut and delete

• Cut (⌘XCtrl+X) copies the selection, then deletes it. Paste it where it belongs.
• Delete (fn DeleteDelete or DeleteBackspace) deletes the selection. Deleting a member deletes its connections too.

Marks after a paste

Part and assembly marks are never stored; DetailCraft numbers them again from the model after every change (How marks are given). So:

• A copy that is the same piece as its original (same profile, grade, cut length, holes and copes) shares the original's mark, and the count in Part marks and the bill of materials goes up.
• A copy that ends up different gets a mark of its own. A beam pasted without its end plates, for example, is not cut back, so it is a different piece. Marks are numbered again across the whole model, so other parts' numbers can change too.

Every pasted member, hole, cope, connection and footing gets a new id, so nothing in the model is ever shared between a copy and its original.

If the clipboard is refused

What is on the clipboard is checked as carefully as a model file you open: anything that is not a valid DetailCraft part is dropped, and the status bar says what. A clipboard filled by a newer DetailCraft, or by something else, is refused with a message and nothing is pasted. If a private window cannot keep the copy in browser storage, the copy still works in that tab.