Running Multiple Instances of WYSIWYG (in order to copy objects between files)

Hi everyone,

A number of users have contacted Tech Support regarding this in the last few months, so I thought I'd post the following information on here as well, as I am sure it will be useful for everyone...

CAST has never endorsed and/or supported, the running of two instances of WYSIWYG at the same time. Opening a file while another is open in order to check something is acceptable, but working with two files at the same time, copying objects back and forth, etc., has the potential to corrupt both files due to the way in which WYSIWYG handles file saving. (There is a reason why only one file can be opened at a time.)

Therefore, if you need to copy objects between files, use the Save Selected Objects & Merge feature. In other words...

... open the file which contains the objects that need to be copied to another file;
... select the objects in question;
... save the selection to a new file (File menu > Save As > Selected Objects);
... close this file;
... open the file in which these objects are needed;
... merge (File menu > Merge) the file you just saved.

If the object is one that you expect to require in multiple files in the future, create an Insertable instead and then add it to any new or existing file. Insertables' use is described in the WYSIWYG Reference Guide.


Similarly, if you need to copy Worksheets or Reports between files, export them (File menu > Export) instead and then import (File menu > Import) them into any other file.


Cheers,

Dany

 

Hi Floriaan,

I didn't know this was possible in the past (or at least I never thought to do anything like this, since the Save As > Selected Objects and then Merge was always fine for me) but I think you are right: it should be. I will inquire and see what we can do about bringing this back in one of next year's releases.


Thanks!

Dany

 

Sorry I haven't followed up on this until now.

Another user just contacted us in support about this issue. This user was attempting to copy a DWG Library Item (i.e. an object that existed as a Block in a .DWG file, which was converted to a Library Item object during import). Such objects can only exist in the library of the file into which they were imported; it is impossible to copy and paste them into another file because their reference (i.e. the actual library) does not exist in the "other" file--so the paste action will result in an empty (zero-length) object. Since it is not possible to push DWG Library Items from a file's private library to the application library, the only way to get such objects into another file is by the method described in the my first post, above.

The functionality that Floriaan described above was disabled in order to prevent problems such as this (among others). This functionality will not be coming back.