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Duplicate (command)An independent copy of the selection, beside the original.
Menu: Edit > Duplicate | In depth: Duplicate, detach & ownership
Duplicate is Copy and Paste in one step, and knowing that explains everything else it does.
What you get is an independent copy, beside the original, in a folder of its own, carrying the construction it stands on. Nothing is shared. Move the original afterward and the copy stays where it is; delete the original and the copy is untouched.
The copy arrives selected, so it is ready to drag straight away. Shift-Cmd-D lays it exactly over the original instead of beside it, for when you want to build a variation in place rather than off to the side.
The nudge that puts the copy beside the original is a constant on screen, not in the drawing. Zoomed right in it is a hair's breadth of real distance; zoomed out it is a long way. Either way it looks the same on your display, which is what you want from a gesture whose only job is to keep the copy from hiding under the thing it came from.
A selected group contributes its members rather than itself, all the way down through nested groups, so duplicating a folder duplicates its contents and wraps them in a fresh folder. The new folder's name follows from the old one, bumping the trailing number.
The construction underneath comes along, and comes along switched off if it was switched off. A tidy figure duplicates as a tidy figure rather than reappearing surrounded by the scaffolding you hid an hour ago.
With nothing selected, Duplicate does nothing. That guard matters: without it the paste half would run off whatever was still on the clipboard and duplicate that instead, which is a confusing thing to watch happen.
Because Duplicate is Copy and Paste rather than a copy of its own, it replaces whatever you had on the clipboard. If you were holding something to paste later, duplicate first and copy second, or you will lose it.
The independence is the part worth remembering. Duplicate is not a linked instance and never was: two copies that both need to change together belong in the node graph, where one definition can feed many places, not in two copies of the same construction.
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