I have been using ViaCad on MacOS for awhile but I am not an expert. I generally get things to work but I don't do anything too fancy.

One thing I have struggled with is the procedure to duplicate or copy a part, along with its history, so that I can edit the various modifications, like cutouts, without having to recreate the part from scratch. A simple copy/paste does not cut it. I just get a solid with no history. There are are two "duplicate" options in the right-click (contextual) menu when selecting a part; "duplicate as instance" and "duplicate as history". Neither of these commands are referenced in the (almost 800 page) PDF manual or the web version.

Selecting "duplicate as instance" gives a copy with a history but any modifications to the duplicate are applied to the original. I see that "child links" are added when I look in Concept Explorer but I am not sure what that means. Selecting "duplicate part with history" gives a copy but I am not sure what history is propagated as I don't see any of the cutouts or modifications I made to the original.

I believe it is common to want to modify a part as a duplicate or copy but I can't figure out the best process. For now, I just do Save As to make a new copy for the whole project and modify the one part in the copy.

As long as I am asking, when using "duplicate", is there a reliable way to distinguish between the original and duplicate as they have the same name attribute?

Thanks. The issue, I discovered, is that I was giving the parts unique names in the Attributes window. When you do that, creating a duplicate uses the same name. Leaving the name attribute at the default gives a different number when you create a duplicate. Much easier to distinguish between the original and duplicate in that case.
Duplicate as Instance or History are not doing what I want or what I think they should. Searching further in the forum revealed a workaround (from 10 years ago so I am not asking something new); you can export the selected object (there is a checkbox for that) as a Viacad file. The exported object retains the history which can then be modified, independent of the original. This object can then be imported back into the original document, again retaining the history and with no object links. It will import to a new layer, regardless of the active layer, and it will create sublayers. However these can be flattened and the object moved to the desired layer. So there are additional steps.
This workaround works for me but it would be helpful if the Duplicate with History did just that.

Edited by user Friday, October 18, 2024 11:28:41 AM(UTC)  | Reason: added info on exporting