Moving and Copying Entities Graphically

The sculpt move and copy commands operate similarly. Both can operate on nodes, elements or members. Both operate by shifting, rotating or reflecting the selected items. The amount of shift can be specified by a polyline.

When moving nodes, the selected nodes are moved. When moving other entities, the associated nodes are moved if they are associated only with entities that are being moved; if the associated nodes also have entities (of the same type) attached that are not being moved then new nodes are created at the new topology positions.

When copying nodes, only copies of the nodes are created. When copying other entities, copies of the entities and attached nodes are created.

When copying, the option is given to copy references to the copied entities to result in constraints and loading etc. being copied.

Existing entities can be moved and copied using the “Sculpt | Move Selection” and “Sculpt | Copy Selection” menu commands, respectively. The procedure is as follows.

1. If the shift vector is to be specified by a polyline:
   1. Set the cursor mode to Polyline.
   2. Form a polyline to define the shift vector; – the vector from the first point to the second point is used.
2. Set the cursor mode to the required selection mode.
3. Select the items to be moved or copied.
4. Give the “Move Selection” or “Copy Selection” command.
5. Specify the action to be taken in the respective Move or Copy dialog box.

Note that bizarre modifications to the topology of the model will occur if coincident nodes are collapsed during the operation and the coincidence tolerance is too coarse.