Basic cut/copy/paste operations are supported, and there are some additions you’ll want to know about especially for sequencing the design, as we’ll discuss shortly.
When you cut, you are removing items from the design page. Pasting them puts them back, and keeps a copy in memory so you can paste multiple times, even on multiple design pages.
As we have discussed, there are Designs, and there are Objects. Designs contain objects, so when you cut, copy or paste a design, you are doing it to an entire design including all the objects within it. Pasting a design will place it at the end of the sequence on the design page (visually at the bottom of the Object View list.)
Pasting objects will place them at the bottom of the last design in the sequence, unless you immediately precede the paste with a menu->Create->Design->Set Current Design.
When you cut or copy something for a paste, its location on the design page is stored with it. When you paste, either on the same page or another, that location is used for the paste – it will paste in the same place. However, if you have a new location in view, say you are zoomed to a new area of work, and the original location is not visible, the center of the current view is where the paste will occur. This helps minimize the amount of moving-around of pasted items you will need to perform. Simply zoom in comfortably to the location where you would like the items pasted, and Paste (or ‘Ctrl-v’).
You can decide where to paste objects by selecting a ‘target’ object, and then right-clicking on it in the Main View. You will have the option to ‘Paste Under’, ‘Paste Over’ or ‘Paste Replace’.
Pasting Under will paste the cut/copied items before the first selected item in the sequence (the pasted items will sew first). Pasting After will add them after the last selected item in the sequence.
Paste replace is a special feature. If you have a design element that’s being used repeatedly, you may have pasted it into multiple places. But what happens if you later discover that you need to edit that element? Perhaps the stitching needed to be changed, or a connective run was missing from the original. You can fix this by copying the revised element, then selecting an item it is to replace, and Paste Replace will remove the item selected and replace it with the copied one. It will be centered where the original was, and it will be in the sequence in the same place as the original item.
This is also useful for placeholders while you are creating. Suppose you know you’ll need a flower, “Here, there and there.” You can simply insert an object to mark the locations of those, and Paste Replace them later.
An especially useful feature to help with this is ‘Grouping.’ If the element contains multiple objects, group them using the Edit menu or ‘Ctrl-G’. When pasting the first time, paste the grouped objects. Later, when you perform a ‘Paste Replace’, you will first select the destination group by clicking on it in the Main View and perform the ‘Paste Replace.’ This selects the entire group and will remove that entire group when you Paste Replace.