Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published October 2009

Paste To Original Coordinates

If you have your Right-Click Customization setup appropriately, you can paste selected objects to their Original Coordinates.

Scenario: You're doing two or more proposals and the customer has finally made a decision (lengthy process as that may be, let's celebrate the small victories).

You used SaveAs to create the drawings you were developing, and now you need to copy the configuration out of the development drawing, into the Proposed (or AsBuilt) drawing.

Preparation: To setup your right-click so this works, go to OptionsUser Preferences, then click Right-Click Customization. Set the buttons as shown in the first figure.

Instructions to Paste to Original Coordinates

1. Open each drawing - the one that has what you want to copy, and the target drawing to which the selection will be copied.

2. Click WindowTile Vertically [Ribbon: ViewWindowsTile Vertically]

3. Select the objects in the source drawing that you want to copy into the target drawing.

   

   Note: Before making your selection, you may want to Lock the layers which are not to be selected. Also, if the selection is comprised of less than 100 objects, you may see the grips.

4. Now you're going to drag 'n' drop: Right-click on a highlighted line segment of the selected objects in the source drawing - but not on a grip - then drag the selection anywhere into the target drawing, and release the mouse button… and you will see a shortcut menu.

5. Click Paste to Orig Coords and a copy of the selected objects will be placed in the target drawing in the same place they came from in the source drawing. (This presumes, of course, you didn't move the walls or other reference objects from the original drawing.)

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