How to copy and paste a sketch

[Anonymous]

Hey there, I am very new to Fusion 360 and still trying to find my way around. This one has really got me scratching my head. How do you copy a basic 2D sketch? I am selecting the shape, let's say a center point circle, using CTRL + C and then CTRL + V. Nothing happens. If I right click on the circle it gives me the option to redo paste, but it does not create a 2nd shape. 

How can I achieve this? In the more basic offering of 123D, when I hit copy and paste, even with a 2D sketch, it pops up the new shape and provides the move tool. 

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous

You might not be aware, but Fusion has recently improved copy and paste for sketch.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/june-20-2017-update-whats-new/

You can find the related information close to the top of the post.

Copy and paste for Sketch objects works like a text document. You select and copy the stuff you want to copy, and then you paste it into a destination, which should be an open sketch. Kind of like copying a paragraph from one open text file to another open text file. 

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have more questions.

Thanks,

[nikkwong0]

I can confirm that this is not working in parametric mode. Lame. 

[daniel_lyall]

@nikkwong0 Are you pasteing into an active sketch

[Phil.E]

@nikkwong0

Here is copy and paste sketch between designs.

Here is copy and paste sketch objects within a single design.

Please let me know if you have more questions.

Thanks,

[larryreader]

Constantly struggling with the paste command being nowhere. It works fine in the laboratory, very weak in the real world. Like occasionally, whoo hoo! It works but despite taking notes I guess I'm just not smart enough to understand why so often the paste command is nowhere.

[smallfavor]

Hi Phil.  So I gather from the first vid that one must use a component folder to move a sketch to another drawing?  ONe can't simply copy the sketch itself and paste?

[Phil.E]

@smallfavor Yes that is correct. 

@larryreader Please tell me about your workflows that aren't covered by the two videos above. Are you copying sketch information or something else? I'm happy to make more videos!

Thanks,

[larryreader]

It started working. I don't know why

[Anonymous]

Suggestion..make the move/copy tool work on sketches. It's surprising it only seems to work on bodies.

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous

Thanks for the suggestion. Is there something that is not working in the current workflow? You should be able to copy sketch objects from one sketch to another. Please let me know if you have questions about it.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Hi 
As a new user coming from many thousands of Rhino hours I have to agree this is infuriating. I have gone through hours of videos to learn the basics (and discover there is not a simple way to print a scale sketch out ....arrrg!). I have fought through lots of seemingly overly complicated methods to do the simplest things but this has me flummoxed.

I have a simple 2d sketch with 60 odd items, edit the sketch, drag a box to select everything, hit "M" - dialogue box title says "move/copy" BUT no option to copy, no tick box nothing, hunt around for some magical key combo, still nothing and here I am.  

I noticed in your video it creates yet another sketch - I don't want to do that I just want the same set of object a second time in the same sketch.

Cant find a "print screen" to show it either

Please tell me it is something really obvious!

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous

For your situation:

Steps to copy and paste sketch objects within a single sketch:

1. Select the items you want to copy and paste.

2. Right click, pick Copy (or use hotkeys for copy)

3. Right click, pick Paste (or use hotkeys for paste).

Please let me know if that doesn't work for you, or if you have more questions.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thanks Phil

I had tried this but now I can see why it may or may not work at any one time - as it will copy from all visible sketches but you must have a sketch in edit mode to paste, then it paste's on top of the original - not where the cursor is. So you have to make sure you don't accidentally hit enter after you paste or you have duplicated everything - (but  you cant tell as it is on top) and you can't just select what you just pasted (unless there is a "select last" option like Rhino that I have not found yet!) to move it.

So happy my word processing program does not work like this!

[Phil.E]

Yes you are correct.

When you say " I just want the same set of object a second time in the same sketch.", this means you must be editing the sketch. Any additional sketch geometry can only be made in "edit" mode for a sketch. 

The one surprising thing, at least to me, was when I found you could copy visible sketch objects that aren't in the sketch you are editing. This makes more sense when you realize Fusion is designed to allow some sketch edits while the sketch lines or dimensions are visible, but not necessarily "active". But those would be edit workflows, not creation, such as paste would do.

Regarding any parallels to other editing softwares: A word processor would not paste a paragraph into a text document unless you were editing it, for instance. Or AutoCAD won't paste geometry into a .dwg file unless it's open. Thus, Fusion does all create workflows for Sketch while the sketch is active. How does Rhino do it?

The reason Fusion pastes bodies, components, and sketch objects directly in place is to allow workflows where copies are placed in relationship to their original location. The only way to do that is to paste in place, and then immediately launch Move to allow a precise transform of the pasted objects to a position relative to the original position.

Thanks for the discussion, and if you have more questions please let me know.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Rhino doesn't (at least when I was using it) have multiple sketches, you just group as required or use layers for visibility and colour etc and there is a lock option (ie not selectable) if required - but that applies to all geometry as there is not the hard line between 2D and 3D as there is in 360.

In fact I find sketches very confusing in 360 - at the moment if I have 2 sketches visible when I edit one of them the other one disappears from the list and the view rotates. When I edit the other one the first one stays visible and stays in the list. Makes no sense. 

I don't really understand why the need to have more than one sketch anyway - since it does not affect select-ability what is the benefit? It seems pointless  - and annoying to find you have inadvertently started yet another new sketch because you wanted to draw a line but forgot to say you were editing a specific sketch. There are already lots of other grouping tools.

Not sure your analogy holds up for WP.  It is more like selecting some text from a paragraph then having to say that you want to edit the paragraph where you want to put it rather than just positioning the cursor and paste.

Why not paste the object where the cursor is then activate Move with the distances from the original pre-filled? Easy enough to point to point move should for some very strange reason you require a sketch directly on top of the other one!  Also why not Ctrl during a  drag to copy like many other programs?

[Anonymous]

Just gone back to my sketches only to find that there is indeed another copy on top of one of the copies I made - no idea when it was made and no way to select the parts to get rid of them, so I will have to delete it and start again. 

[Phil.E]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I'll try to answer your questions.

The reason one sketch "disappears" is because you are using History, i.e. timeline, i.e. parametric modeling. This is standard for parametric modeling. The model is built as a set of features that depends on everything before them, and when you "compute" the model it builds it in the order of the timeline.

So when that happens, you are editing a sketch that exists earlier in time than the one you see disappearing. You went back in time to do the edit.

The view of the timeline when editing an early sketch

(note, you can turn off the rotation effect in preferences)

The reason you might have more than one sketch is you may want to sketch on geometry that is created by using 3D tools on the initial sketch. If you edit the 3D feature in a way that changes the location or shape of the second sketch, you'd want the second sketch to respond by changing shape or location. That is history based parametric modeling.

All but the first sketch depend on 3D geometry

"Why not paste the object where the cursor is then activate Move with the distances from the original pre-filled? " This is not the case because a random click and location is typically useless for parametric design. Random is not useful, so why start off the workflow with random location information. For instance, if your original is at 0,0,0, and you paste a copy of it that needs to be at 15,0,0, but when you clicked it randomly filled out the values -3.5568459,2.65948984,0, it would be less convenient to remove the random information and replace it with the correct information.

What I'm going to suggest for you is Direct Modeling in Fusion 360. Go to preferences, and set your design history preference to "do not capture design history". I think you'll find a lot more familiarity when history is turned off. Please let me know what you think.

Turning off history in your new designs

Here is a link to more information.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?learn=foundational-concepts

Please let me know if you have more questions.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestion and the explanation, I will give that a go.

re the Move thing - that is exactly the way drawing a circle / other shape works in 360 though - drag it out to roughly where you want it and type over the numbers. Can't see it taking any more time.

[Anonymous]

What do you think about adding a 'Duplicate' command when right-clicking on a sketch name in the browser?

[chrisplyler]

I've got to agree with @Anonymous on this one.

When the user hits Control+C he ought to be asked to click on a source point. When the user hits Control+V  the copied items ought to attach to the cursor at that source point, still unplaced, with floating X,Y values. Then the user can move his cursor around with the elements and either click to place them or type the X,Y values desired

This is how Revit handles copy/paste things, for example. Basically, it's a copy/paste "from here, to here" procedure. Now, the user can certainly place the copy right on top of the original if he wants, but there is less chance that this is just going to happen without the users understanding. As soon as he hits Control+V he's presented with a visual preview attached to his cursor position, and as he moves around it becomes intuitive that he needs to click (or type the X,Y values) to place the copy.

I do think it would be a good idea to still have the Move tool pop up after the user places the copy, since it is more full featured and would allow another drag/rotate (especially useful when the copy was into a different sketch that may be on a different plane and the default pasted orientation may not be as desired) whereupon a final click of the Okay button in that tool will finalize the paste.

I'm comfortable with the current procedure(s) required, but I do believe the above would be a bit more intuitive and natural to less experienced users. It isn't true to say that the current "paste in same place" procedure is the only possible way to allow a controlled transition.