Overview
The Edit - Paste tool in Impact CAD copies entities from the Impact clipboard into the current block. First use Edit - Cut or Edit - Copy to place entities on the clipboard. Before activating Edit - Paste, move to the drawing, layer and current block where you want to paste them.
Edit Bar controls: Use Existing Blocks, Scale, Rotate, About X, About Y, Origin and Reset.
Block Insertions in the Clipboard
When the clipboard contains block insertions, Impact CAD must decide whether each insertion should refer to a block that already exists in the destination drawing or to a new copy of the block from the clipboard.
Use Existing Blocks controls this for ordinary blocks, but only when pasting into the same layer of the same drawing that the entities were copied from:
- Checked: An insertion of block Name refers to the existing block Name in the current layer rather than creating a copy. Use this when moving or duplicating insertions within a layer to avoid accumulating renamed duplicates.
- Unchecked (default): A new copy of the block is created from the clipboard. If a block of the same name already exists, the copy is given a new name, such as Name_1.
The option has no effect when pasting into a different layer or drawing. In those cases, a new copy of each ordinary block is always created and renamed if necessary.
Layer insertions in the clipboard are pasted as ordinary sub-blocks. The link to the original layer is not retained.
Symbols are handled differently and are not affected by Use Existing Blocks. Impact CAD matches symbol insertions against the destination drawing using the symbol name and database key:
- Same name and same key: The insertion uses the symbol block already in the destination drawing. The clipboard copy is not used, even if its version differs. A warning is written to the log when the versions differ.
- Same name but different key: A new symbol block is created from the clipboard under a new name, such as Name_1.
- No symbol with that name: A new symbol block is created from the clipboard, retaining its name, key and version.
When pasting between projects, the first symbol of a particular name to arrive in the destination drawing is used by later pastes with the same name and database key. Pasting a correct copy from another project will not replace a matching destination symbol that is out of date or has lost its geometry.
To refresh such a symbol, use Database - Update Project Items or re-insert it from the database before pasting.
Visibility of Pasted Entities
If any entities pasted directly into the current block would be invisible in the current view because of their palette, palette type or entity type, Impact CAD asks whether to make them visible.
This check does not inspect entities inside pasted block or symbol insertions. Those entities retain the visibility of their palettes and types in the destination drawing.
If part of a pasted block does not appear, check the Visibility settings for the relevant palettes, palette types, entity types and symbols, or use Visibility Explorer.
Position and Orientation
You can adjust Scale, Rotate and the mirror/flip settings on the Edit Bar before placing the entities. Reset restores the Edit Bar controls to their default values.
Choose an Origin position from the drop-down list: Bottom/Left, Bottom/Right, Centre, Origin, Top/Left or Top/Right. This determines the cursor position relative to the pasted entities.
Paste the Entities
- Move to the destination drawing, layer and current block.
- Activate Edit - Paste and set Use Existing Blocks as required.
- Adjust the scale, rotation, mirroring and origin settings if needed.
- Pick the point where you want to paste the entities.
All entities in the clipboard are copied into the current block. Their relative positions are retained from when they were cut or copied, and the pasted entities are automatically added to the selection set.
Pasting does not remove entities from the clipboard, so you can paste the same entities multiple times, including into different layers or drawings.