The logic behind copy-paste

[SlaveCam]

Sometimes it works, sometimes (most times) it doesn't = clicking paste does nothing. What is the logic behind this feature? Or is it just so incomprehensibly bug-ridden that I shouldn't even bother. I'm talking about copy-pasteing between two files (but not two mastercam instances).

[SlaveCam]

Well it didn't want to paste to an already existing layer. Renumbered it and paste worked. 

Edit: again, not working. I'm losing my head...

Edit2: Because it simply refuses to paste to my existing project, here's a working process:

1. Copy the desired entities into clipboard

2. Create a new file

3. Click paste, if nothing happens, close and restart Mastercam. Repeat until successful. Save as dummy file.

4. Open the existing project and merge the dummy file.

Hooray!

[Colin Gilchrist]

I think you need to have a file already written to disk.

Try opening a new (empty) file, then savingthe file. Then, open another instance of Mastercam, copy the entities, and paste them into the other Mastercam instance.

My preference is to use the Merge/Pattern command to bring in geometry from other files. But in that case, you get the whole file. With copy/paste, you have freedom to choose just the geometry you want.

For copying or moving Operations in an existing file, I always use the 'Right-click and Drag' method, since this will give you a menu with "copy before, move before, copy after, move after, and cancel". The 'cancel' option being the most important, since it gives you the chance to start over, if you happen to "mess up" whilst dragging the aforementioned operations.

[nickbe10]

Another option is the Save Some, followed by Merge/Pattern if you don't want the whole file. Always been bullet proof for me, and checks for duplicates too......

[SlaveCam]

There should not need to be the need to turn to an alternative - copy/paste is a core feature of any program that incorporates editing of any kind. It worked perfectly up to X9 or 2017, and then suddenly stopped working. I recall it even worked in X7 between instances. What changed? Except the interface *grin*

[nickbe10]

15 minutes ago, SlaveCam said:

There should not need to be the need to turn to an alternative - copy/paste is a core feature of any program that incorporates editing of any kind.

That maybe so, and you could also say the same for dragging and dropping (or copy / paste) source programs from one folder to another. However I now NEVER do that. Open the File and do a Save As......because it is the safe and reliable way to do it, as I found out when it reversed an entry on me and scrapped an expensive part.....

Of course it is a pain when something you have relied upon stops working......my sympathies. I guess I was spared the heartache because the guy's who taught me Mastercam always emphasized reliability and safety, so a lot of things that some people use I have never really adopted because of warnings (and hard knocks as above).