A special method of design is the Process > Copy command. It allows the user to assign the same reinforcement from one beam line to another. This is useful when it is desired to make similar beam lines identical and it also reduces the number of unique beam marks when the concrete beam schedules are created in the DXF file. To use the Copy command, first design a beam line using either the Process > View/Update command or Process > Design All command. Once a beam line has been designed, the corresponding design can be copied to other beam lines provided the copy-from beam line and the copy-to beam line:

• Have the same number of spans
• Corresponding spans and supports have the same length
• Corresponding spans have the same member sizes and material properties

Once the Copy is performed, the bar sets from the initial beam line are assigned to the new beam line(s) and the resulting design is checked. The check is the same as performing an Analyze in the View/Update dialog box. Upon completion of the check, the screen will be updated to reflect the current design status of each beam. When a copy is performed, the beam lines that are updated are automatically frozen, the same as if a Process > Freeze is performed (see Section 3.10.5 for more information on the Freeze command). The beams in the beam line are now considered user defined and will be painted dark blue on screen if the design is successful. Please refer to Section 3.4 for more information on color-coding.

When the Copy Design > Single to Single command is issued, the cursor changes from the arrow cursor to a target cursor. First select the designed beam line (the Copy From beam line), then select the beam line to which the designs are to be copied (the Copy To beam line). A warning will be given when a Copy To beam line is selected that fails to meet the criteria above. The target cursor changes, alternating between a Copy From cursor to a Copy To cursor, to help identify the current step in the copy process.

When the Copy Design > Single to Fence command is issued, the cursor changes from the arrow cursor to a target cursor. First select Copy From beam line. The cursor will then change to a fence cursor. Fence one or more Copy To beam lines. Only those beam lines that meet the criteria above will be designed with the copied reinforcement. No warning will be given for beam lines that are not updated. After the Copy command is complete, the cursor will return to the target cursor and a new Copy From beam line can be selected.

When the Copy Design > Single to All command is issued, the cursor changes from the arrow cursor to a target cursor. After selecting a Copy From beam line, the copy will be performed on all beam lines in the model that meet the criteria specified above. No warning will be given for those beam lines that are not updated.

The Copy command does not create a link between the Copy From beam line and the Copy To beam line; a subsequent change in the design of one is not automatically made to the other. The command merely copies the current reinforcement from one beam line to the other.