Duplicating references

The Copy with References, Derive with References, and Create Project Copy commands can duplicate the Meridian references to and from a source document to the new document. Alternatively, the referenced documents themselves can also be copied by the commands. These commands use the Reference Explorer to help you see the documents with references to and from the source document and to decide which references and/or documents to copy. This can be useful if you want to create a new assembly or sub-assembly based on an existing document and want to retain the references to existing subassemblies and parts or copy them also.

The default action of the commands can be either to create and reference copies of the original assembly or to only reference the source assembly documents. This action is configurable by a system administrator for each document type. Your ability to override the default action (for example, by selecting a referenced document for copying when the default action is to reference the source document) is controlled by a security privilege that is part of your security role for the source document folder. Likewise, referenced documents that are under change in a document workflow cannot be copied and will display an error message.

To duplicate references:

1. Select the document that you want to copy.
2. On the Edit ribbon, in the Copy group, click the arrow next to Copy and then click Copy With References or Derive With References. The page refreshes to show only the selected document and its references.
3. If the document that you selected is a CAD assembly, in the Assembly ribbon, select options in the Options group to show additional references as described in the following table. In the Folder Structure group, select the option for how you want a folder structure created for the referenced documents as described in the following table.
4. By default, all of the related documents are selected for the copy operation. If you have the privilege to override the default, you can toggle the selected icon to deselected for any documents that you do not want to copy.
5. When you have finished selecting documents, click Start Copy. The Select copy location dialog appears. The parent folder of the source document is selected by default (indicated by this icon ).
6. Select the destination folder where you want the documents to be copied and then click Next. The Copy with references dialog shows the reference structure of the documents that will be copied. If the document type of the source document or its referenced documents has been configured to show property pages for copy commands, the pages are shown with the original document’s property values as defaults.
7. If necessary, type or change property values for the document that is highlighted in the reference structure view and click Next or Finish. Additional property pages will be shown for each reference to be copied. Documents with completed property pages are indicated with this icon .
8. When all required property pages have been completed, a new document is created in the selected folder with the same file content and references as the original document. If the default action is configured to create copies of referenced documents, copies of them are created also.The Operation Log panel shows the result of the copy process.
9. When you are finished making copies, click Exit.

To duplicate references:

1. Select the document that you want to copy or derive from.
2. Select the appropriate copy command depending on whether or not you want a reference made between the original and new documents or you want to create a project copy. The Select Folder dialog box appears.
3. Select a destination folder for the new document and click OK. The Reference Explorer appears, listing the original document and the other documents that either reference or are referenced by the original document. The entire assembly structure can be displayed by expanding each referenced document. For information on using the Reference Explorer, see Using the Reference Explorer.
4. To configure command options, click the Options button . The Assembly Copy Options dialog box appears.
5. Select options using the descriptions in the following table and click OK.

6. In the Reference Explorer, select (highlight) the documents for which you want to copy references and/or documents and click OK. If you do not have the privilege to override the default action, selected documents will display a red X icon nearby.

   Tip    Hold down the Ctrl key and click to select additional documents. Hold down the Shift key and click to select a range of documents.

7. If the document type of the original document or its referenced documents has been configured to show property pages for the Copy Document command, the pages are shown with the original document’s property values as defaults.
8. If necessary, type or change property values for the new document and click Next or Finish. A new document is created in the selected folder with the same file content and references as the original document. If the default action is configured to create copies of referenced documents, copies of them are created also.

Assembly copy options

Option	Description
Rebuild folder structure relative to the main assembly	Builds a folder structure to contain the referenced documents. It is built in the selected folder relative to the main assembly. This is the default option.
Rebuild folder structure relative to each subassembly	Builds a folder structure to contain the referenced documents. It is built in the selected folder relative to each sub-assembly.
Do not rebuild folder structure	Does not build new folders to contain the referenced documents.
Copy drawing and presentation documents	Copies any Autodesk Inventor presentation documents related to the selected model. Enabled by default.
Include connecting assemblies	Copies the parent and child referenced documents in addition to the selected document. If disabled, references from the selected document remain connected to the master documents. Enabled by default.
Show manual references	Shows references that were created manually as well as those created automatically by the CAD application links.