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Cloning Objects

Objects on the screen can be cloned using the Infinite Clone property. This property, once set, allows repetitive cloning of a touched object.
Cloning is a much faster process of creating multiple copies of an object than using the Copy and Paste and Duplicate commands.


The following are some general notes:
Cloning a single object
  1. Select (Select) from the toolbar.
    Selecting Select from the Tools menu also switches to the Select tool.

  2. Select  the object  you wish to clone.

  3. You can find the Infinite Clone property under the Lock property in the Object Properties panel (in the sidebar):

    Infinite Clone property

    You can turn the property on or off with the check box.

  4. Once the property is set, the selected object displays an infinity symbol in the top right of the selected area:

    Infinity symbol

  5. Drag the object with the Select tool. This creates a clone of the object and starts dragging the clone:

    Dragging the cloned object
     
    To create further clones, repeat the select and drag process on the object that has the Infinite Clone property.

Cloning a group of objects
The Infinite Clone property can be applied to a group of objects. In this scenario, the following happens:
  1. Select (Select) from the toolbar.
    Selecting Select from the Tools menu also switches to the Select tool.

  2. Select  the objects you wish to clone.

  3. If the objects are not automatically grouped together,  use the Group option in the Edit menu to create a group.

  4. Set the Infinite Clone property for the group of objects.

  5. When you click and drag one of the objects, the group that was originally selected is cloned.


Behaviour of Infinite Clone when using the Multi Select tool

The Multi Select tool Multi Select tool has a higher priority than the Infinite Clone Property (the Infinite Clone property is ignored). In this scenario, the following happens:
  1. You set the Multi Select tool to “active”.

  2. You select an object.

  3. You drag another object with the Infinite Clone Property.

  4. This object is added to the selection and both objects are dragged without creating a clone.

Behaviour of Infinite Clone when dragging a group of objects

The Infinite Clone property is ignored when dragging multiple objects. In this scenario, the following happens:

  1. You select multiple objects (whether or not they have the Infinite Clone property does not matter).

  2. When you click and drag one of the selected objects, this starts dragging all selected objects without creating a clone, even if the touched object has the Infinite Clone property.