Copying Objects from One Document to Another -- NOT WORKING

[Anonymous]

I want to copy and paste a ground plan from one document (created by someone else on an educational version of cad) to another (AutoCAD Architecture 2014) and it's not working.

I have tried everything listed here:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2013-2014-2015-2016-2017/copying-items-from-one-drawing-to-ano...

I.e. I have tried:

• CTRL+C/CTRL+V
• Using COPYCLIP/COPYPASTE
• Creating a block with the objects using the WBlock command and inserting that.
• Tiling Drawings 1 and 2, and dragging the objects from Drawing 1 to Drawing 2. (The circle w a slash symbol comes up, I believe because Drawing 1 was created in an educational version.)

In all of these cases, I can successfully begin the pasting into DRAWING 2. DRAWING 2 displays these messages:

• THIS DRAWING WAS PRODUCED BY AN EDUCATION PRODUCT (ETC. ETC.) DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE? (I click continue)
• AN EDUCATIONAL PLOT STAMP WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR DRAWING. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE? (I click continue)

After this, nothing shows up. All the layers are on (unfrozen, lightbulbs "lit," etc.). When I zoom extents, the drawing "zooms" around a handful of template components I have drawn (scale bars, figures, labels, etc.) So it would seem that nothing is getting copied from Drawing 1 at all.

EDIT: I CAN copy from Drawing 2 into Drawing 1 with no problem using any of the methods described above. Drawing 2 is opened as a template, and displays on my monitor as Drawing2.dwg. (I can draw on Drawing2.dwg and save without problem as well.)

To recap: I copy something from Drawing 1. I paste into Drawing 2 using any number of commands. The objects appears to "start" pasting (b/c prompts come up making sure I'll accept the educational stamp). And nothing pastes. This is only a problem copying from 1 to 2, not 2 to 1.

Any ideas? I am tearing my hair out.

[neaton]

Hmm... A few more things to try.

- In drawing 2 after you copy is there something unique you can search for from drawing 1 to see if it exists?

- Can you drag and drop the file from Windows Explorer instead of copy and paste?

- Is it really, really small like the insertion was done at 1/1000 scale?

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> created by someone else on an educational version of cad

Which cad-product (and version)?

>> Creating a block with the objects using the WBlock command and inserting that.

That should be the most secure way, as long as the drawing was created with either the same product you are now using or with plain AutoCAD (Vanilla).

Upload drawing1 and we can try to copy & paste it using our environment.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hmm...I don't think it's a units issue, but I could be wrong? (I.e. I don't think his objects are very small?)

I uploaded his document if you have time to give it a crack!

I found a workaround for now (copying into his doc and editing there, for the time being), but I'm stumped on this one...

[Anonymous]

Also, I'm sorry--not sure what he's using, but I can try to track that down.

(It's a file passed to me through a few channels, and mine to parse now!)

[Darin.Green]

@Anonymous,

First, when I opened your drawing, I received the following message:

This drawing could've came from any number of applications that can produce DWG files.

Second, you're seeing a message about an educational stamp which exists in 2015 and prior versions. This message went away with 2015 SP1. Anyway, you could be getting this message if you DRAWING 2 was created from an educational template file which could be interfering with the paste.

That being the case, try creating a new file from a different template, then paste the geometry into the file.

Hope that make sense... 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I uploaded his document if you have time to give it a crack!

Well, you do have a lot of block-definitions which are created in a (for AutoCAD) very unusual way. The geometry of the block definition is far away from it's base-point. Or with other words: the block-insertion has it's insertion-point far away from it's geometry.

That happens often when you get drawing files (DXF or DWG) created from a converter (from CAD systems working different to AutoCAD's block technology).

Now what can happen. As you see the block-unit is "Inches", if you insert that geometry into a drawing with different units-setting the complete geometry gets scaled (that nothing new, that's what units make), but in this drawing the block will not be just scaled around it's geometry position, it gets scaled based on a point that is far away from the geometry ... and as not all your block-insertions are inserted at 0,0,0 the complete pasted geometry (into other units) seems to be something like exploded into all directions (exploded is not meant as AutoCAD's _EXPLODE).

To make sure that the units setting is ignored when you insert new geometry you can use command -DWGUNITS, one of the last questions is if inserted geometry should be scaled by units ... here you can turn that automatic scaling off and then insert your geometry from the other drawing, hopefully that helps.

Be careful: this -DWGUNITS setting to ignore units-scaling should not be deactivated by default.

Besides of your base drawing it might also be interesting to get the drawing that was your result after you did the copy & paste or insert.

- alfred -

[RobDraw]

Use Drawing TrueView to convert the drawing to an earlier version. That should strip out anything that could be causing errors.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

The others are correct in that your drawing, not being native AutoCAD, is likely the problem. I ran -EXPORTTOAUTOCAD to create a new file. Please try copy/paste and let me know if it is now behaving.