Hi,
I am trying to figure out how to copy paste a group, or folder as they are now called?
If I do a transform + copy on a folder with bodies, all the new bodies are included in the same folder. I am using a folder as if it was a “component” that I can copy paste, but maybe I have misunderstood the concept?
How should I go about copying my “stairs” to a different location on my patio, so it becomes its own “instance”?
Hello, please can you go through our great short article on how to navigate the updated Items(folder) feature and then let me know if still have any further questions:
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Thanks,
I have read the help several times so I must be a little “slow” :-).
If I want to copy a folder I would like to know the neat way to do it.
FolderStairsInstance1
- body beam1
- body beam 2
- body beam 3
My first thought is to do a transform with copy and tap the folder. This copies all contents in the “FolderStairsInstance1” to the same folder.
It is not possible to direct these copies to a new folder. Even when I have entered the target folder during the transform, the copies remain in the source folder.
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Hi Damcify,
I get your point.
This is how it works now:
If a folder’s item is selected, it is represented on the folder by showing a blue line.
If a folder’s all items are selected, it is represented as the full folder is selected so the full folder is highlightened.
We do not distinguish the way how you have selected the elements, separately - item by item - or together with folder selection. And that’s the problem here. Because if you select the items separately and copy, you expect them to place them into the same folder. But if you select a folder from the items panel, then you expect it to copy as a new folder.
We’ll have a context action menu for all the items later for ex.: “Duplicate”, which will help you out, but I’ll think how to handle these cases until then. Probably entering the target folder during the transform could be the solution, I’ll ask devs if we can do that.
Thanks for your feedback.
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Thanks for the good reply! Let’s hope this is improved later then. Previously I just created a new Group and added the copied elements to the group by tapping on them. Now I have to drag the bodies up a folder and down into the new folder - not so easy and a little tedious.
I feel I am maybe asking too much from shapr3d - but the concept of components, layers and groups is still missing a little I think. Hope it will become more clear / robust in the near future.
Needless to say that Formit has many of these concepts, but I prefer the usability experience offered by Shapr3d more. Shapr3d may be aimed at a different audience than the Formit audience though ,so please say if this is the case.
Thanks for the support. Keep the great answers and great work going!
Did this topic come to a solution?
Not yet, but we will certainly address it, hopefully sooner than later.
something I’d like to see addressed in an update, not quite on topic for this, but I don’t want to start a whole new thread. I’d to have a Hide option on the screen somewhere. When you’re working with a large number of items, it’s a pain to scroll through them all trying to find that one component you need to hide. Perhaps also in the same menu with objects and sketches have another menu with all hidden items.
Hi again!
I’m quite new working with this program. Maybe I found an easy way to copy groups with lots of bodies and other things to a new group:
- select the group you want to copy
- Export this group to somewhere (cloud or whatever) in the „Shapr3D“-Format.
- Rename the original Group
- Import the group again
- Then you have two groups with different names.
- Repeat it if necessary
It seems so easy! Am I wrong?
Best wishes
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This is certainly a good workaround 
@Damcify
There is already some improvement regarding:
Now I have to drag the bodies up a folder and down into the new folder - not so easy and a little tedious.
After copying the Objects they appear in the Folder with ‘copy’ appended to their respective names prior to the copy process.
You can Add a New Folder at this point if necessary.
Choose an empty Folder and hit the Icon:
Toward the bottom of the Fly Out click:
Choose > Add the selected to this Folder.
This greatly reduces the drag and drop situation.
@Hux83
It is too easy to get carried away making rapid progress into a project and overlook the need to keep things in order.
I ‘try’ to Name Bodies right from the off, new additions appear at the top of the Items List and Bodies are dragged together in a logical order.
When things get really complex Sketches, Planes and Axis are treated similarly.
Keeping things organised seems to be best practice in my view.
@Joho
I have not tried this since the latest S3D Update.
This used to be my MO, but I found that the results were not as expected.
E.g., ‘Names’ reverted to System versions and added to the overall steps involved it proved more difficult than following the above mentioned routines.
Of course if it works for you that is all that matters.
There are likely to be changes to all of this with the upcoming Apple move to iPadOS.
Has there been any update on the capability of duplicating objects by group? This is the only tedious part about using this product. When I have many similar products to make, each with slight variations, I end up creating a temp folder just to upload portions of the , just to turn around and import them again. I know it puts the (copy) next to the new item, which helps locate them, but when you have many items being copied… you end up spending large portions of time just selecting copied bodies, moving them into a folder, and then putting that folder where you wanted it to begin with.
One option would be to have a setting like --> “place all new bodies in current folder”.
If I select 5 arbitrary bodies (by clicking on the folder or selecting them seperately), and select the little + icon to create a copy as I move, all 5 would end up in the folder I was currently in. This would maintain the current design of “not distinguish the way how you have selected the elements” while allowing new bodies to be easily organized on the fly while making copies.
Hi @kmuchmore Welcome to the Forum.
When in your position, and require minimal alterations to a Design, it is easier to navigate to the Design Thumbnails page [4 Rectangles Icon] and use the Duplicate Feature [at top right].
Select the Name of the ‘copy’ version and alter it appropriately to avoid errors.
Then modify the newly named Design.
Just shout if you need more.
Happy S3Ding
This is the process I have taken thus far, but this is only useful for macro parts. For example, take an antenna, where you have a central bar, and then many perpendicular bars. Each of the perpendicular bars have multiple parts on the inside (usually between 10-30 pieces) but they are essentially the same just different lengths. Making each of the bars in its own design is not very useful or time effective. So we end up making one, exporting it, importing it, modifying it, exporting that, importing again, rinse, repeat.
Being able to duplicate multiple bodies into other organized groups would be a time saving and beneficial feature. I hope my previous post helps in at least providing an idea on how to implement this without much interruption in the current design.
Thanks
Copy / Paste Folders would be very very useful and a big time saver when dealing with multiple bodies which are identical within the same project…
This is an “old request” from several users.
Is this subject on the priority list of improvements or not ?
Thanks.
I use the mirror function on folders quite often and I wish that the mirrored duplicate bodies were placed into a new folder instead of just mirroring a copy of all bodies into the same folder. For fast iteration of designing symmetrical models this would be very helpful.
Hello
Is there any progress on the copy folder function
I have 2 requirements to help on this
- Having a duplicate function directly in the item menu since other methods (export or move© object) are too complicated from my opinion
- When duplicating, the tool add a (« number ») on all objects of all hierarchy levels of the folder => I spend hours to rename all of this.
I would prefer to have the (« number ») added to the top of the folder only or at least having an option to select between the existing method and my proposed one in the preferences
Best regards