Copy and Pasting features

[cmmguy]

Looking for how others do this.

Many times when I copy and paste a feature to a point later in the program and immediately rename it(the new pasted feature), it will also automatically rename earlier references to the copied feature.

For example:
Measure a circle called Circ1
Set some alignment on it.

Copy Circ1 to a step later in the program.
Immediately rename the feature to Circ2.

PCDMIS will(many times) also rename the Circ1 in the alignment to Circ2 even though the alignment happens before the step in the program where Circ2 is located.

Is there a setting that prevents this, or is there a better way?

[kmcmm]

You can copy and paste with pattern, just make sure there are no details in the pattern, i.e. degrees, number of times to paste, alignments...
When you paste with pattern it automatically renames the feature the next consecutive number.

[William Johnson]

CMMGUY I do what you do all the time and I have never had that happen to me? Try going to edit, graphics display, feature appearance. If you double click a feature it will let you rename it. I know this is a pain to do it this way, but I was wondering if this would make any differance for you. I do it in the edit window normally. As far as a setting I don't know of one.

[cmmguy]

You can copy and paste with pattern, just make sure there are no details in the pattern, i.e. degrees, number of times to paste, alignments...
When you paste with pattern it automatically renames the feature the next consecutive number.

I'll try that again. It always seem to complicated when I just wanted to do a bunch of C&P's. But maybe it will help with the name changing. I wish PCDMIS would give me an option for rename the features with a simple paste.

CMMGUY I do what you do all the time and I have never had that happen to me? Try going to edit, graphics display, feature appearance. If you double click a feature it will let you rename it. I know this is a pain to do it this way, but I was wondering if this would make any differance for you. I do it in the edit window normally. As far as a setting I don't know of one.

I'll try that. When I copy, it is usually a few steps that include features, moves, variables, etc.... I guess I was thinking the paste with pattern didnt do well with that.

[cmmguy]

Here is an example. I used a read point and then a move based on this Read Point.
I copied this with the PASTE WITH PATTERN and it does the same thing with the names of the previous references.

The blue box is the section copied.
The green shows the new names and how it changed the names of the references of steps earlier in the program. This is just a simple example to illustrate.

[Lee Johnson]

One thing I have noticed when you copy and paste. If the feature is being used as part of an alignment and you change the name it will change the name in the Alignment if the copied section of the program is pasted before the old feature.