Saving Content As a Duplicate or Branch

You can create a duplicate or a branch of an object during a save operation in long transaction mode.

A duplicate is a physical copy of the original object, not linked or related to the original, and behaves as if created independently. However, a branch maintains a historic link to the original object. For more information, see Collaborative Lifecycle User's Guide: Creating Revisions and Branches: About Revisions, Branches, and Duplicates.

Only references and representation references that are modified or unchanged can be saved as a duplicate. You cannot save as a duplicate:

  • New objects
  • Deleted objects
  • An aggregated representation without its reference

Saving a reference as a duplicate automatically impacts its child representations. Instances, ports, and connections are automatically duplicated when their aggregating reference is saved as a duplicate.

See Also
Saving Content with Advanced Options
About Saving As a New Object
About Saving
  1. Select Share > Save > Save with Options(or use Ctrl+Shift+S).
  2. Optional: In the Save with Options dialog box, right-click anywhere, then click Select All.
  3. Optional: Click Zoom In .
    All the aggregated elements appear.
  4. Select the objects you want to save, and then click one of the following commands:
    • Save as New to save the selected objects as duplicates.
    • Save as New Branch to save the selected objects as branches.

    To choose between the classic mode ( Save as New or Save as New Branch ) and the immediate mode (Immediate Save as New or Immediate Save as New Branch ), click the arrow at the bottom right of the icon and select the corresponding command.

    For more information, see Classic and Immediate Modes.

  5. Optional: In the Duplication string box, enter the string to be used as a prefix for the new object names.

    The Duplication String field is displayed if the User defined duplication string option is selected in the Identification options in the Preferences panel. The value you enter in this field will be used to name the duplicated content. If you leave this field empty, the internal identifier of the duplicated content is automatically computed. For more information about the User defined identification string option, see Native Apps User Preferences: All Preferences: Social and Collaborative: Global Design Management: Collaborative Lifecycle: Identification.

    Important: Saving content as a duplicate or a branch does not change the attribute values, except for identification attributes that are defined by the Business Logic (PLMIdentificationInitialization opening ID).

  6. Optional: Select the Apply to children check box if you want the operation to impact all the children of the selected objects.
  7. Click OK to validate and close the Save as New or Save as New Branch dialog box:
    The or modification icon is displayed in the Modification column to indicate that the object is to be saved as a duplicate or branch. The chosen prefix is displayed in the Comment column.
    Note: Objects that you selected to be saved as a duplicate or a branch keep the owner of their lock, revision, and maturity status in the Save with Options dialog box at this step, except if you are using the immediate mode.
  8. Click OK to validate.
    The Save dialog box is closed and the duplicates or branches are created. The owner of their lock, revision, and maturity status are reset.
    Important:
    • The new duplicate or new branch automatically replaces the previous content in the tree in all nodes and in all authoring tabs.
    • An error message is displayed if the object to be saved impacts either a new object or an excluded object.
    • An update of the structure is required in the session, for example in other tabs containing this structure.
    Note: You can stop the operation anytime either by clicking Cancel in the Save with Options dialog box, or by double-clicking the or icon in the Modification column. If you close the Save with Options dialog box by clicking Cancel, the list of objects to be saved is lost.

    In immediate mode, the cloning of content cannot be canceled. If you validate the operation in the first dialog box, but cancels it in the Save with Options dialog box, the new content will still be created in database.