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Reference

COPYCLIP in AutoCAD

How AutoCAD's COPYCLIP (Ctrl+C) works with CUTCLIP, COPYBASE and PASTECLIP: copy objects to the clipboard and paste them at a point. Try it free online.

COPYCLIP copies the objects you select to the clipboard, with the layers, styles and blocks they use; the drawing does not change, and objects selected before it stay selected. Ctrl+C runs it, cancelling a command that is running. PASTECLIP, Ctrl+V, then asks for an insertion point: the objects follow the cursor and land with the lower-left corner of their extents at the point, in the current UCS, all in one step that U takes back. Paste into the same drawing or another one: the clipboard is the system's, so a drawing in another tab can read it, if the browser lets the page read the clipboard. Where a pasted layer, style or block has the name of one the drawing already has, the drawing's own is used.

CUTCLIP, Ctrl+X, copies the objects and erases them, as ERASE does. COPYBASE, Ctrl+Shift+C, asks for a base point first, and PASTECLIP then places the objects by that point instead of their corner, so they land exactly where you mean. Ctrl+A selects every object in the drawing.

At the command line

The engine draws it and writes its history as you would type it: the prompts in AutoCAD 2027's order, with the same option letters.

COPYCLIP of a plate's hole, then PASTECLIP at 65,20: the copy laid there by its lower-left corner, a second hole.
  1. Command: COPYCLIP
  2. Select objects: 1 found
  3. Select objects:
  4. Command: PASTECLIP
  5. Specify insertion point: 65,20
COPYCLIP of a plate's hole, then PASTECLIP at 65,20: the copy laid there by its lower-left corner, a second hole.

What it does not do yet

PASTEBLOCK and CUTBASE, and so Ctrl+Shift+V and Ctrl+Shift+X, which are left to the browser, as is Ctrl+Shift+A. PASTEORIG, PASTESPEC, dragging objects between windows, and text from another program pasted as multiline text. PASTECLIP's hidden INSERT options at its point, so a paste cannot be scaled, turned or exploded as it lands.

What it does and still lacks, in detail (in English)

Questions

What is the difference between COPY and COPYCLIP?

COPY places copies in the same drawing, from a base point to a second point. COPYCLIP puts the objects on the clipboard, to paste with PASTECLIP into this drawing or another.

How do I copy with a base point?

Press Ctrl+Shift+C, or type COPYBASE, give the base point and select the objects. Ctrl+V then places them by that point.

How do I copy objects from one drawing to another?

Select them and press Ctrl+C, open the other drawing and press Ctrl+V, then pick the insertion point. Their layers, styles and blocks come with them.

Why does paste not work?

The browser may ask whether the page can read the clipboard: allow it. If it refuses, PASTECLIP pastes what was last copied in the same page. With nothing copied, it pastes nothing.

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