Copy command (or lack of it)

I love using SU but there is one thing above all else that irritates me and that is the lack of a dedicated copy command. I know I will be told that it is not so hard to hit the Alt key when using the move command. It wouldn’t be if the command was only needed occasionally, but for me it is a command I use constantly. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could create a single key shortcut but you can’t. It’s not just the fact that you have to hit the Alt key but you also have to do it repeatedly for multiple copies. I expect there are plugins that assist with that but how much simpler it would be to have the same system that almost every other CAD system has using a dedicated key. It seems perverse NOT to have it!

Am I a lone voice on this?

I’m at a loss here too, there is a copy button on a tool bar, you can hit the Mac equivalent of ctrl+c or set your own single key shortcut.
At no time is it essential for you to use the move tool.

Maybe I’m going nuts.

DaveR and Box seem to be referring to different commands. By the looks of DaveR’s GIF, he is using the Move command as I would expect. I have just tried copying something. As usual, I hit M for move. Then I have to hit Alt to invoke copy. If I want to make another copy I have to hit Alt again, otherwise the first copy gets moved. So that’s repeated keystrokes.

Box seems to be talking about using Command-C, which is another way to do it but again requires use of multiple keys. Also, I have not seen a Copy icon in any native toolbar.

When you want to move something, you hit the M shortcut and can then move it as many times as you like without ever having to hit another key. That is what I am after for Copy. I haven’t missed it, have I?

Try the toolbar called standard.
Move the copy then type how many you want and hit return.

I attach a screenshot of my Large Toolset toolbar. Are you saying there is a Copy command there? Which?

As for type number, that surely assumes a standard offset. I don’t often need to create arrays, I usually have to position copies of things in many different places.

@simoncbevans

Is the way you want a copy feature to work similar to the way the Layout scrapbook tool works?

CD

Did I mention the large toolset.
It sounds like you want a repeat for paste, not copy.
There is a paste icon on the same toolbar.

Er, no. It works exactly the same way in Layout (M + Alt to copy etc). Same problem.

If I could, I would re-programme the C key for copy. That’s how I had it when I used Autocad. That key is dedicated by default to Circle at present but I only draw circles infrequently, whereas I have to copy things all the time. You can’t make it the shortcut to copy because there is no native copy command to attach it to.

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Could you upload an image of the icon you mean for Copy please?

Guys

I attach an extract from the SU online Help Center. It does refer to both methods of copying but it acknowledges it means multiple keystrokes. It even refers to “secret keystrokes”. Surely an admission that it’s a lot harder than it should be!

It sounds as if I am indeed a lone voice as no one that has commented so far finds the SU method a chore. I feel sure that a time and motion study would demonstrate what a difference it would make to productivity. One of my pet gripes about all things tech is that developers find adding “functionality” much more sexy than improving productivity. I don’t want to harp on that too much as SU is actually very intuitive on the whole.

No. I’m on my phone.
There is a toolbar called Standard, it has cut, copy, paste, delete and various other Standard Icons.

You can set a shortcut for copy by having something selected when you go the shortcut settings, many context related options only appear when the workspace is ready to perform the function that you want to set the shortcut for.

DaveR, I think you are referring to creating an array of sorts. That’s not what I want. I rarely create arrays but I often have to copy the same thing to different and irregularly spaced positions.

If you keep hitting paste, the thing you copied will appear attached to your cursor, then you only need to click to place it wherever you want. Therefore making multiple random copies wherever you click rather than an array.

Box, when you say “keep hitting paste”, are you referring to a context sensitive command, an icon on the “standard” toolbar (whatever that may be), or Command-V? I ask because:

  1. Context sensitive selection is long-winded compared to hitting a single key on the keyboard;

  2. I cannot find such an icon;

  3. Command-V is a two key stroke and one that has to keep being repeated.

I still feel I must be missing something obvious here…

Okay, I admit I hadn’t tried keeping Command-V pressed whilst making copies. That certainly helps. BUT…

There is still a problem. When you use Command-C you cannot choose the handle like you can with Move (or indeed the Copy command in Autocad). So it looks like you would have to move/copy to the approximate position and then move to the precise location. If so, it’s still too long-winded.

Do you think I am wrong with this assertion: productivity is improved by using the keyboard for shortcuts and the fewer keystrokes the better (whether in combination like Command-C or by having to repeat strokes)? No amount of context sensitive scrolling or selecting icons really comes close to keyboard shortcuts.

Interesting. Never seen that icon before. Is it just on Windows versions (I am on a Mac)?

If you have an icon, I imagine you also have a related command. If you do, you could map a key to it.

It’s looking like a quirk of the Mac version that it doesn’t have a native Copy command or related icon. Bummer!

Simon is this what you’re trying to do?

I pressed C once for each of these copies. Or you could just hold the c key down.

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