Copying objects from one drawing to another is a common task. You can use the Windows Clipboard and the drag-and-drop methods.
When working with 2 drawings open, choose View tab> Windows panel> Tile Vertically (or Horizontally) to view both drawings at the same time.
Note: You can use these techniques within a drawing as well, but the COPY command provides more options and accuracy.
Use the Windows Clipboard to copy objects between drawings
Most people know that they can copy objects in a drawing to the Windows Clipboard and then paste those objects in another drawing. But there are a couple of tricks to this process that can make your work go more quickly and provide more accurate results.
Of course, you can use the common Windows keyboard shortcuts:
- Ctrl+C to copy
- Ctrl+V to paste
When you use the simple copy-and-paste procedure, you don’t have much control over the placement of your object in the second drawing. That’s because this process uses the lower-left corner of the extents of the object as the base point, which may not be useful. For example, here you see this process with a circle.
As you can see, the base point isn’t on the circle, making it difficult to place the circle accurately.
Therefore, AutoCAD provides you with 2 special tools for copying and pasting.
The first is Copy with Basepoint. Follow these steps:
- Hover the cursor over the object and right-click to display the shortcut menu. For multiple objects, select them first, and then right-click.
- Choose (Clipboard,) Copy with Base Point. This is the COPYBASE command. As you can see in the figure, you can also press Ctrl+Shift+C.
- At the Specify base point: prompt, use an object snap to specify the base point.
- Click in the other drawing.
- Paste, using Ctrl+V, or by clicking Paste on the Standard toolbar. You can also right-click and choose (Clipboard,) Paste from the shortcut menu.
- Your cursor is now at the base point you specified, so you can accurately place the object. Specify the insertion point you want.
Here, the base point was set to the center of the circle.
The 2nd tool is Paste to Original Coordinates. If you have two drawings that are very similar, you can use this feature to place the object at the same coordinates as in the original drawing.
Just copy the object(s) to the Clipboard, and activate the 2nd drawing. Then right-click and choose (Clipboard,) Paste to Original Coordinates.
If those coordinates are not in the current display, do a Zoom Extents to see the pasted object.
Use drag-and-drop to copy objects between drawings
Drag-and-drop doesn’t give you the same control over placement, but it’s a quick way to copy objects. Note that AutoCAD automatically copies objects from drawing to drawing, so that you don’t need to press Ctrl as you drag.
To copy, select the object or objects. Then click the object and hold down the mouse button until you see the drag-and-drop cursor. The only gotcha is that you need to make sure that you don’t click on a grip, because that will just make the grip hot.
Then drag the cursor to the other drawing and release the mouse button to place the object. You’ll probably need to adjust the placement, using the MOVE command, or by using grip-editing.
Updated with AutoCAD 2012
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I enjoyed this post (tip) It was explained in easy-to-understand writing and I learned sth new on the insertion point of copy-paste command which I didn’t know. Thanks and keep posing.
I have a request. Is it possible to put a user friendly print button for your tips?
I will investigate a printer-friendly plug-in. Glad you enjoyed the post!
Thanks for the Tut. the instructions seem to relate exactly to the ACad 2000 I have been using but I cant find the commands in ACad 2011. HEEEELP
When you right-click, choose Clipboard and then you’ll see the Copy with Base Point option. I’ll update the blog post.
Is this possible with AutoCAD 2012 for Mac? The copy and paste commands don’t seem to work between drawings.
Is there a quick solution to copying and pasting to original coordinates, when you have a drawing from another user or office but you do not have the third part software that created the drawing? Without saving back to R12 to strip the data links from the drawing then opening the drawing again and saving to the current format. I do realize that if I had an object enabler that this would solve my problem but my question is what if I don’t have the object enabler?
Your thoughts and suggestions would be appericated
Sorry, I don’t know. It would also depend on the specifics of the programs used.
Hi.how can i use the copy and paste command if the drawing has different scales?thanks!
All drawings should be drawn to real-life scale. So, for example, copying a refrigerator from one drawing to another would work. You should scale down a drawing only in paper space, in a viewport on a layout. But, you can certainly use the SCALE command to change the size of objects, if you need to.
Hi, I installed Autocad 2011 for mac and I can’t find the command “paste to original coordinates”…maybe it’s called with another name, I don’t know…any suggestion?
Try the shortcut menu. If you have a 2-button mouse, right click. If not, perhaps Shift + right click?
when I use the cursor select method to move one object to another dwg the object changes to a white drawing border outline and the object does not paste into the 2nd dwg. I can’t copy object between dwgs. 2nd dwg was created from 1st dwg. I can’t find what is switched on or off in the dwg. I normally can copy between other dwgs.
I need an another command for copy in autocad please sugget me.
What are you trying to accomplish?
Hi Ellen
Paste to Original co-ordinates is always greyed out in 2012 (Acad MAP 3D). I’ve ssen this complaint often on the web. Any ideas please. Great blog, thanks.
I just tried it and it wasn’t grayed out. But it will certainly be grayed out if you haven’t first copied something to the clipboard. Try selecting an object in one drawing and pressing Ctrl + C. Then go to another drawing and see if Paste to Original Coordinates is available.
Hi Ellen I’m trying to copy/paste some points (X,Y,Z) but when I paste it has copied only (X,Y) Z=0.How I can copy all 3 dimensions?
Try using an object snap to select the from point and make sure that the OSNAPZ system variable is at it’s default setting of 0 so it picks up the Z value.
Thanks Ellen, for the tips. It helped me to copy an object from one of my Cad Dwg to another. Originally there was no common base point, but I created a common base then copy pasted. Thanks again !
Regards
Abdul
PasteToOriginalCoordinates do not work in ACAD 2011 MAC VERSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s a shame!
1000 thanks for your tuts. Made a lot of things much much easier and faster!!! for me.
Is there a way to paste the objects into a different layer in the new drawing?