What would cause the same object in an SKP model to be pasted in the same spot many times?

Hello,
We are troubleshooting an issue with multiple models (~40mb file size) with millions and millions of faces/edges.
After some investigating we noticed the same objects in the model are pasted multiple times in the same spot.
Example:
There is a couch with 25.000 faces/edges - but this couch is pasted over 20 times in the same spot.
Same thing with lamps, vases, etc.
When selecting the object and right clicking on ‘erase’ the "Entity info’ Component count goes down by one number. The couch has “19 in model” under Entity info… when I erase this 19 times it finally gets removed from the spot. Each time I select ‘Erase’ the edge/face count goes down.

What would cause this?

What would cause something like this?
This seems to be a wider issue with many models company wide.

Where did the couch component come from? Perhaps it came in as more than 20 copies? I’ve never seen a component replicate itself like that. Seems a user would have to do that. Or perhaps some extension behaving strangely? Would be interesting to see the model file.

Well I’ve seen this, but never 20, more like 5-6.

when you teach the move tool, then the move + copy tool, some people tends to “bring the object back” when they make a mistake.

they start a copy, move a bit, realise they don’t know the distance, click back on the starting point (or almost). and they don’t really realise it.
The extra issue is, if the select by dragging and not direct click, next time they’ll duplicate two. and next time four. and…

I mean, It’s a possibility, especially if someone with a low level worked on the files. Other idea I get is a shortcut, by default paste in place doesn’t have a shortcut, maybe someone added one and uses it without realising ?

It might also be some extension running amok.

I’ve seen people do this quite often, in fact I can remember myself even doing it way back in the early days.
You can accidentally move/copy an object without actually moving it and typing a number of repeats.
This can happen just by mistyping or even having a faulty number key (I currently have issues with 3). You can type 0 as a move/copy distance, follow that with a number and x or * and you have multiple copies in the same place.

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Another possibility is that you want to do Rotate N copies of a group or component going for a full circle around a point of rotation where N the number of copies. Don’t forget to delete the last (or first) instance at 0° since there will be 2 instance there.

For a clock mark at every hour, for example. you would type 360 for the angle and then /12.

If, you type 360 then xN or Nx, (multiplication instead of division) you get N copies on top of each other plus the original instance…