Not sure why this is but sometimes I can use the Control Key to copy a component in an assembly and sometimes it does not work. When I select the component and the control key and try to drag the component I get a circle with a line inside the circle and the component does not copy. Any ideas??
Thanks Wayne for your suggestion
The only difference I did here from other assemblies is this assembly was created like top down assembly. The parts were already in the top assembly and I created a sub assembly and moved the components to the sub assembly. Not sure if is the reason. The work around I've done is to use the edit > Copy & Paste.
You should still be able to Ctrl-drag a copy of a part in the sub. Do you see a difference if you do it in the graphics area vs. the tree area?
Or, this may be your issue - if you let go of the Ctrl before you let up on the mouse button you will get the circle/line cursor. Hold the Ctrl until you let go of the mouse button. Otherwise the action is seen as trying to grab and move that instance rather than making a copy.
WT
If I select from the tree, I can create a copy by control key and left click and drag. If I do the same thing using the same procedure but select the component from the graphic screen, I get the circle with line.
And you are holding the Ctrl key all the way? I just tried a few things and I can't make it misbehave. You might try starting SW through Rx with the options bypassed. If the problem goes away it's a reg issue.
WT
Wayne,
Yes, my procedure is correct since I can copy by selecting from the feature manager tree. I get the circle even as I have the control key and Left mouse button both depressed at the same time. Not sure what you mean by starting Solidworks with Rx
Go to your start menu and inside the SW/Tools you will find Rx. Start that and on the Home tab you will see an option at the very bottom to start SW in bypass mode.
WT
Wayne,
Thanks for all your input - I found the problem. The part I'm trying to copy is an imported model that was downloaded from a vendor website and there are lots of unstiched surfaces in the model so when I left click, SW thinks I want to move/copy just that surface thus preventing the operation. When I do a window select I was able to select the complete model and the copy operation was successful. Also this is the reason I was able to copy the model by selecting from the feature tree because when selecting from the tree you get the complete model - Thanks again - at least I learned to start SW using Rx mode. This is good information to know.
Mukesh!!!
Try to Lock all the references of the part which you are trying to copy and follow Ctrl+Left Click to copy that part.
One thing that comes to mind is that if you left-click and hold the button, then press Ctrl, then drag, you don't get the copy, but you also don't get the circle/line. So you might watch the order in which you are clicking and holding stuff and see if you spot a pattern.
WT