Folders and plans can be copied within a project as well as between projects and even between different clients. To do so, the folders and/or plans to be copied must be selected in the project navigator. Then you choose "Copy" from the context menu or press the keyboard short cut 'Ctrl'+'C'. Afterwards the target folder must be selected - this can also be the project, if you want to insert the copy on root level. Then you choose "Paste" from the context menu or press the keyboard short cut 'Ctrl'+'V'.
If folders are copied, then all the contents of the folders are copied together with the folders. If plans are copied, then all unique elements shown on the plan are copied together with the plan. Even the links to project data (info links) are restored when pasting, provided that the project data items can be retrieved in the target project by their id.
If pasting is possible without any conflicts, then it is carried out immediately. However, if any conflicts are detected, like plans or folders with the same name existing in the target folder, already, then a merge dialogue is opened, which can be used to resolve these conflicts.
On the left side the objects to be inserted are listed distributed over several tabs. On the one hand there are tabs which show the objects grouped by type. In the screenshot above there are two such tabs. One for folders and plans (1) and one for unique elements (2). On the other hand, there is one tab, which only shows those objects which have conflicts (3).
On the right side of the dialogue the settings for the object are shown, which has been selected on the left side by clicking it.
For each object to be imported there is a check box to the left of its icon (4), which can be used to determine whether the object is actually to be inserted (checked) or should be ignored during paste (unchecked). If an object is ignored, this is the same as if it wouldn't have been copied at all, before.
If an object is actually to be inserted, then there are two ways to do so. Either it is inserted as a new object or it is used to overwrite or update the attribute values of an existing object. The second possibility is only available if a matching object can be found in the target project. In the case of plans and folders matching objects are plans and folders in the target project, which are in the same folder into which the plan or folder in question is to be inserted and which have the same name. For unique elements a matching object is a unique element in the target project with the same name. Which of the two possibilities is to be used for a certain object, can be determined on top of the right side of the dialogue (6). The currently selected possibility is visualised by a small icon overlay in the lower right corner of the object icon (5). The yellow + means "insert as new object" and the black * means "update an existing object".
In the main part of the right side of the dialogue the attributes of an object are listed one below the other. This attribute list is splitted into two columns. In the left column (7) the imported attribute values are displayed (light blue). In the case, that an existing object is to be updated, the left column can additionally be switched to show the attribute values of the existing object (grey). The right column (8) shows the attribute values that are actually to be set for the object, when pasting is executed after pressing the "OK" button. By default, the imported attribute values are set here. But it is possible to arbitrarily modify these values. To save typing effort, a value from the left column - no matter whether it is an imported value or a value from an existing object - can be copied to the right column by pressing the little yellow arrow between the columns.
At the end of each attribute row, an icon can be displayed showing that conflicts exist
concerning this attribute. (9). Conflicts are grouped into three
categories.
An error, displayed by a red cross icon, is a conflict which prevents pasting. This is the case, e.g.,
if a plan is to be pasted as new object while another plan with the same name exists in the target
folder. The existence of an error in at least one object will cause the "OK" button to be greyed
and disabled.
A warning, displayed by a yellow attention icon, is a conflict, which causes current data from the
project to be lost, e.g. because it is overwritten by pasted data. A special case of warnings is
the attribute value modification. This special case has its own icon, a black modification asterisk icon.
An information, displayed by a blue info icon, is a conflict, which indicates that the paste result
might not match the expectations of the user. E.g., if links from unique elements to project data can
not be restored, because the linked project data items do not exist in the target project.
On the right side of the dialogue, in the upper right corner, the conflict status for the whole object is summarised by showing the most severe conflict category for which conflicts exist and the number of conflicts existing in this category (10). If you click this conflict status, then more detailed descriptions of all conflicts of the object are shown.
The icon of the most severe conflict category for which conflicts exist is additionally shown as an overlay in the object's icon in the lower left corner (5).
For unique elements, in addition to the attribute list, there is a second tab on the right side of the dialogue showing the settings for the info links:
In the screenshot the three cases are shown, which can happen when pasting unique elements with info
links.
In the first case, the info link exists already for the unique element which is to be updated with
the pasted unique element. In this case the info link is greyed in the dialogue and will be preserved
when executing the paste operation.
In the second case, the info link does not yet exist in the target project and the linked project data
item has been retrieved in the target project by its id. In this case the info link is tagged with the
yellow label "New" and a check box is shown on the left which can be used to determine, whether the
info link is to be restored. By default, info links are restored if possible.
In the third case, the info link does not exist in the target project and the project data item linked
to the unique element in the source project can not be retrieved in the target project. In this case, the
name of the info link is struck through to indicate that it will be lost.