to paste, or not to paste

[prettygoodnotbad]

I having an issue, which I encounter constantly. The "paste" or "paste new" concept.

Is there no easy way of making the copied component unique after having used the "paste" method?

Frequently as I work I use the paste method assuming that the copied components will be stay exactly the same, then eventually I realize "hey that second copied component needs an extra detail". What am I suppose to do then? all the components at this point have dependencies on each other, it's a project I've been working on for weeks. It really isn't practical to go back and redo everything.

I'm pretty certain the answer to this is there is no easy fix, but then it brings me to the question, is there something I'm missing in my work flow? Should I never use "paste" just in case? that seems silly.

Anyway the frustration is real! There has to be something eluding me here.

[TrippyLighting]

Nope, that isn't possible with the timeline enabled.

If you disable the timeline then you can make copy/pasted components unique, but obviously you'll loose the parametric nature of the design.

[prettygoodnotbad]

Thanks, that's sort of what I assumed, but it brings me to my second question.

I'm wondering if I should be approaching my designs differently or if there's something I'm not considering in my workflow. How would you approach this scenario, or I guess is there a better way of working that would avoid me running into this problem all the time? Is it just a matter of always using the paste new command unless it's something that obviously won't change, like a piece of hardware for instance.

I'm not looking for definite answers but opinions on the topic would be great!

[lichtzeichenanlage]

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@prettygoodnotbad wrote:

... Is it just a matter of always using the paste new command unless it's something that obviously won't change, like a piece of hardware for instance.

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Always paste new components would be a bad practice, because it would mess up you BOM in the drawings. In addition patterning stuff would mess up this practice anyway, because they (unfortunately) always past components. 

The solution would be, that AD adds a break link for pasted and patterned components. 

[prettygoodnotbad]

@lichtzeichenanlage  Ah couldn't agree more.

As it stands then, it sounds like the common practice would be just anticipate as best as possible if the component might need altered in the future, and if you miss judged then take the long way around and replace it with a new instance and fix all the broken dependencies?

[lichtzeichenanlage]

As a hobbyist I would say yes. But smarter people might have better advice. 

[TrippyLighting]

Yep. This is a current limitation of the tool. One can only anticipate so much ...