Cut Objects

Cutting deletes selected objects from the drawing and stores them on the Clipboard. The objects are now available to be pasted into other Microsoft^® Windows^® documents.

Copy Objects

You can use the Clipboard to copy part or all of a drawing into a document created by another application. The objects are copied in vector format, which retains the high resolution in other applications. These objects are stored in WMF (Windows metafile) format in the Clipboard. The information stored in the Clipboard can then be embedded in the other document. Updating the original drawing does not update the copy embedded in the other application.

Paste Objects

Applications use different internal formats to store Clipboard information. When you copy objects to the Clipboard, information is stored in all available formats. When you paste the Clipboard contents into a drawing, the format that retains the most information is used. However, you can override this setting and convert pasted information to AutoCAD format.

Because it is the easiest format to edit, the AutoCAD format is the preferred format for copying objects to and from AutoCAD. It retains all relevant object information, including block references and 3D aspects.

The Windows metafile (picture) format contains screen vector information, and files can be scaled and printed without losing resolution. Use this format to paste objects into Windows applications that support WMF files. Metafiles pasted into AutoCAD are of higher resolution than bitmapped images (BMP files) but are not as easily manipulated as AutoCAD objects. Bitmapped images are raster images consisting of a pattern of pixels and are commonly used by paint applications.

The color of the object doesn't change when copied to the Clipboard. For example, white objects pasted onto a white background won't be visible. Use the WMFBKGND and WMFFOREGND system variables to control whether the background or foreground is transparent for metafile objects pasted into other applications.

You can insert a linked or embedded object from the Clipboard into a drawing with PASTESPEC. If you convert pasted information to AutoCAD format, the object is inserted as a block reference. To edit the pasted information, explode the block reference into its component objects. When you convert a Windows metafile stored on the Clipboard to AutoCAD format, you may lose some scaling precision. To retain proper scaling, save objects in the original drawing as a block (WBLOCK), and then insert them into AutoCAD using INSERT.