Hidden Copy Options

As designs get more and more complex, and the need to separate things into multiple drawings becomes more important, so does the need to copy things between those drawings. As a result many of you are probably as addicted to the “Ctrl” + “C” shortcut as I am. Although “Ctrl” + “C” is a wonderful shortcut, it has one fatal flaw. It doesn’t allow you, the user, to specify a base point.

Of course did you know about pressing “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “C” (all at the same time)? That will evoke the “Copy with Basepoint” command, and allow you to specify a point such as “0,0”.

Using the “Copy with Basepoint” command of course requires that you have a second drawing open, and that you flip between drawings. There is a little known copy command that, if you can keep a secret I will share with you.

The mysterious copy command I speak of is the “NCOPY” command, or “Copy Nested Objects”. As you may have suspected it is an Express Tool that will allow you to copy an entity from a block or XREF into your current drawing space. The command works much the same as the standard issue ACAD COPY command.