copy a cell without its hierarchy

okguy

Hi,

Is there a way to copy and paste a cell without creating a new hierarchy ?
I want 2 cells almost identical, but with a small difference of connection at the top.
I want their hierarchy to be the same in case of changes in the hierarchy underneath.

Thanks, Rgds,
OkGuy

Matthias

Hi OkGuy,

what you need is a "shallow copy" of cells. Such a copy is not available for whole cells yet, but you can emulate it:

• Create a new empty cell, i.e. TOP_COPY
• Go to the cell you want to create a shallow copy of (i.e. TOP)
• Choose "top level selection mode" (View/Select Top Level Objects)
• Select All (Edit/Select/Select All).
• Copy the selected objects. Make sure you choose "Shallow Copy Mode" for the instances!
• Open the empty copy cell
• Paste the clipboard data

You should now have a copy of the original cell using the content of the original cell but sharing their child cells.

There is another way to achieve this using the "Make Variants" function:

• Create a new work cell (i.e. WORK)
• Instantiate the cell you want to copy twice in that cell
• Choose top level selection mode
• Select one of the two instances
• Use "Make Cell Variant" (Edit/Selection). This will create a variant (a shallow copy) of one of the instances.
• Delete the work cell. Make sure you use "Shallow delete".
• You now should have the original cell plus a shallow copy (with $1 suffix). You can rename that copy to the desired name.

The latter method may be feasible if the first method is not applicable (i.e. because of insufficient space on the clipboard).

Regards,

Matthias

okguy

Thank you Matthias for your ideas.

They gave me the idea of a third method :
. Create a new cell
. Instantiate the cell to copy inside this new cell
. Place it at the position 0,0 with 0 angle
. Flatten only the first level

Rgds,
OkGuy

Matthias

Hallo,

You're right. That's a valid method as well. Pick the one you like best :-)

Regards,

Matthias