Random objects appear with paste

[kylewrep]

I'm having an issue with multiple drawings where when I copy drawing elements from one file to another a bunch of random elements are pasted into the destination drawing that were not present or selected in the source drawing.  Most of the unwanted elements appear to be block references. In the attached images, I am copying the highlighted center group of elements and pasting it into the drawing in the second drawing.  You can see the scattering of objects that appear around the pasted object.  This has happened with multiple unrelated drawings in the past two weeks.  I have tried cmd-c/cmd-v pasting, Edit--Copy/Edit--Paste, and Copy/Paste With Base Point, all of which have the same result.  The same thing also happens if saving the objects as a block and importing the block into the new drawing. 

I'm using AutoCAD Mac 2023 on a MacBook Pro M1. 

[maxim_k]

Welcome to Autodesk Forums!

Hi Kyle,

@kylewrep 

Please verify that:

- none of the objects selected in the original drawing are part of group and group selection is enabled

- selection in the original drawing doesn't contain blocks with objects on turned off layer 

Can you share the original drawing here?

I'll try to look at it closer.

[kylewrep]

Hi @maxim_k 

Thanks for the reply!  My group selection is turned on, none of the selected objects appear to be part of a group, and all layers in the original drawing are turned on.  

Attached is the original drawing.  I really appreciate your help. 

[maxim_k]

Sorry, but this is not an original drawing, as I see from your screenshot.

Copy-paste from the drawing you shared works fine, without any additional objects.

[kylewrep]

@maxim_k 

My apologies, that was a selection of the original.  Now attached is the original drawing ("Locomotion Final 7.24.dwg").   I am trying to copy the portion in the top right corner that is inside the green rectangle.  

Do you think it has something to do with the destination drawing that I'm trying to copy the selection into?  I have a couple of "base template" drawings that I use and copy drawing elements that I'm given into them with I start a project so that my layers, layouts, etc are all in my project.  I tried with two different of my usual "base" drawings and the same thing is happening.  I also tried copying into a brand new drawing (File--New) and the issue did NOT happen, which makes me think that maybe it's the destination drawing. But the weird thing is that it is happening in multiple unrelated drawings.  Right now, I'm specifically trying to get the selection in the green rectangle in the first drawing into the second attached drawing ("universal.dwg"). 

[maxim_k · Accepted solution]

>>>>>Do you think it has something to do with the destination drawing that I'm trying to copy the selection into?

Yes, exactly!

You have a lot of blocks in the destination drawing (universal.dwg) with the same name as in the source drawing.

These names are Group-XX and they are inside blocks you copied from the source drawing.

When you insert them into universal.dwg, their definitions are taken from universal.dwg, but not from the source drawing.

For example - there is Group-72 block which looks in the source drawing as:

and in the destination drawing - as:

That is why you have such unpredictable result in the destination drawing.

[kylewrep]

Excellent, thank you for confirming! I'm glad I was on the right track. I will try to clean up the drawings and maybe get rid of the blocks that I don't need I think that should help.

[maxim_k]

>>>>I will try to clean up the drawings and maybe get rid of the blocks that I don't need I think that should help.

Or, maybe, you need to explode all blocks with the name "Group-XX" in the part you copying from the source drawing....