Duplicating references

The Copy with References and Derive with References 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 subassembly 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 Copy with References and Derive with References 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. Referenced documents that are assigned to a work area cannot be copied, and the new references will be directed to the original revision in the Main area instead. 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 or derive from.
2. On the Edit menu, select Copy with References or Derive with References depending on whether or not you want a reference made between the original and new documents. 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 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.