Duplicating an Existing Document

The Design Copy command in SmarTeam enables you to duplicate a design of an existing product, to be used as the design base for a new product. It also enables you to duplicate an existing document and its direct or reverse dependencies. It is a key function for re-using components and creating a new design which results in significant design phase productivity.

  1. Right-click on the document from which you want to create a copy and select Design Copy.
    The Design Copy dialog box appears, displaying all documents linked to the document you selected.

    When there are contextual links, if an object is linked to the parent object with a tree link and also with one of CATIA links, these two objects will have the same status of checked/not checked. If the status of one of them is changed then the other one will be automatically changed. For example, if the CATIA Product contains a CATIA Part, which is also designed in the context of the CATIA Product (contextual link to product exists), then checking/not checking the CATIA Part will automatically check/not check the CATIA Product. This ensures the integrity of the design and prevents cross-references between CATIA Parts and CATIA Products.

  2. Check the documents you wish to copy, if not already done.
    In our example, the user wants to copy a CATProduct document as well as the three CATPart documents it references.

  3. To override the default setting for file names, you can type a new file name for the document selected for copying: just highlight the selected object and enter the new name in the lower text field.

  4. After selecting and checking all files and options required to copy to the new assembly structure, click the Copy button to perform the copy operation.
    A new SmarTeam - Editor window appears, displaying the new copied document.

    Select All

    Clicking the Select All button selects all objects to copy to the new structure. When several designs share the same components, the Design Copy feature will copy the shared components only one time. The newly copied component will be the same in all designs.

    Options

  5. Click Options.
    The Design Copy Options window appears.

  6. In the Show options area check the relevant options:

    • Check Show profile card on Copy to get a profile card for each new object. This profile card can be modified before creating new objects.

    • Check Show "Project Manager" to link a new design to the project and set as a desk top object (Note: Design copy does not support Project Security and the user will not be able to set Project Security during the design copy.

    • Check Show CFO's to display Common File Objects (CFO) in the Design Copy. When a member of a CFO is checked/not checked then all the other members of the CFO will also be checked/not checked. In the Design Copy window you can not set a different status for different members of a CFO. For example, if you check the CATIA Drawing, then all CATIA Sheets of the drawing will be checked automatically.

  7. Select one of the following radio buttons:

    • Name all files automatically using sequences in order to generate all the files names automatically.

    • Add a prefix and/or suffix to the original file name in order to add a prefix and/or suffix to all original file names. If you select this option add the required prefix and/or suffix to the Prefix of all file names and/or Suffix of all file names fields.

    The file is copied to the destination entered in the Copy to field.

    Administrator Options...

    The Administrator Options is disabled. It is only enabled if you are an administrator. If so, see Customizing Design Copy in the Administration Task section for further details.

    Legend

    Clicking the Legend...  button displays the Design Copy Legend window. This informative window identifies dependent object types according to colors set in the Tree Properties, Visual Setting dialog box.

Design Copy is described in greater detail in the SmarTeam Editor documentation.