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Little Bits: Nested Copy from Reference

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Frequently while working with externally referenced drawings, various entities within the referenced drawing may need to be copied into the current working drawing. Instead of opening the referenced drawing and copying with base point, there's a fun command that allows you to copy elements from the referenced drawing directly into your working drawing. The NCopy command, also referred to as nested copy, will copy lines and drawing elements into your current drawing.

 

Enter ncopy into the command and follow the prompt to select the entities to copy from the referenced drawing. You can select multiple items at a time to copy. In the image below, I selected the interior curbline from my referenced drawing.

 

Ncopy: Select nested objects.Ncopy: Select nested objects.

 

At this point, you can either type "s" or click on Settings to modify the command settings. If you do not desire to change or toggle the command settings, you can simply press Enter or Spacebar.

 

Command settings available.Command settings available.

 

After selecting the objects to nested copy, the prompt will ask for the displacement or base point. Typically, I accept the displacement default settings of 0,0,0, however, you could choose a basepoint such as the endpoint of a polyline. Refer to the images below.

 

Command line: Base Point or Displacement PromptCommand line: Base Point or Displacement Prompt

 

Ncopy with 0,0,0 Displacement.Ncopy with 0,0,0 Displacement.

 

Once the displacement or basepoint have been executed, the object(s) will insert into your drawing from the referenced file. In the example, I edited the polyline boundaries to fit within the window. The object is now a part of my working drawing.

 

Polyline copied into drawing & edited.Polyline copied into drawing & edited.

 

Note: If you hit Esc after selecting the object(s), the command will still complete and copy the object(s) into your drawing.

Comments

Thank you @shelby_l_smith I love this workflow 😃

I did not know that !