Copying Objects
For making identical copies, and for moving objects between documents
Copy and Paste (often called Cut and Paste) is useful for any project which involves many identical pieces: shelves, joists, studs, stairs, fence boards, fence posts.
I hope this isn't a stupid question, but what is Cut and Paste?
Although this is a fundamental computer capability, for those of you who are new to computers, here's a quick overview. Oh, and welcome! We're glad you chose Design Intuition as one of your first programs.
Select the object you wish to replicate. In the Edit menu, select the Cut or the Copy menu item and release the mouse (or you may simply type Control-X or Control-C). In the same menu, select the Paste menu item (or simply type Control-V) for each copy you wish to create.
I want to make three identical shelves. What's the easiest way?
First make one shelf, fine tune it to be exactly what you want, switching views to get it right in all three dimensions. Then select it, copy it (Control-C) and paste it twice (Control-V). You can also Alt-drag an object to copy and move it -- hold down the Alt key and click down on the object and drag the mouse to where you want to move the object and release it. Then, one at a time, move each of the two new copies into the desired position. You don't have to be concerned that they paste one on top of the other: when you select one, and move it, only two will remain on top of each other. Then, select one of the remaining two and move that. Voilá! The final, remaining one will be in the right place.
Hot Tip
Design Intuition will remember and keep track of the position of a pasted object. This can help you evenly space your copied objects. Here's how. Copy an object and paste it. Move the copy (it's still selected) to the where you want the first of several copies. Paste again and the newly pasted object will be placed twice that far from the original. Paste again, three times as far, and so forth.
You can also use the Object Layout Inspector for evenly spacing objects.
