Cut and paste a coil or contact without losing its cross-references

[ispyisail]

When you cut a relay coil and paste it on another folio, it arrives as a new, unlabelled coil with no contacts, and its contacts on the other folios lose their master. You relink each one by hand and retype the label. The same happens to a single contact, and to a folio report arrow. (This is from reading the code on current master; I have not clicked through it yet.)

The links are already on the clipboard; paste throws them away because it treats every paste as a copy. After a cut there is no original left, so keeping them duplicates nothing.

Proposal: cut and then paste inside the same project moves the item:

• it keeps its label, and its links to the contacts (or coil) it had;
• the cross-references on the other folios update to the new folio.

Unchanged:

• copy and paste still makes an unlinked, unlabelled copy;
• pasting the same cut a second time makes a copy;
• pasting into another project makes a copy.

Questions:

1. Should the label stay even with "erase label on copy" turned on? I'd say yes — it is the same device.
2. Would a "Move to folio…" right-click action be wanted as well, or is cut and paste enough?

Related: #607 / #997 (a coil and its contacts pasted together now stay linked).

[neitri]

It is absolutely essential that the "Cut" and subsequent "Paste" commands preserve all cross-references and descriptions.
"Copy and Paste" is not quite as straightforward. On one hand, I might want to copy and paste additional contacts for the same relay, while on the other, I might need a contact for a different relay.
It might be more convenient to have a separate "Paste Linked" option or a "Paste Special" function that preserves cross-references and properties.

[ispyisail]

I struggling with this whole concept but i like your idea. Can you create more detail?

• Paste
• Paste Linked
• Pasted Special

etc

[ispyisail]

How it works now (from reading the code)

When you copy a contact, QElectroTech notes which coil it belongs to. On paste it throws that note away — unless the coil is pasted along with it — and clears the label. Cut behaves the same, because a cut is just a copy followed by a delete.

How it could work

• Cut, then paste: the item moves. It keeps its label and its links. No new menu item needed.
• Paste: unchanged — an unlinked, unlabelled copy.
• Paste linked: a contact joins the same coil as the original and shows its label (e.g. -K1). If the coil has no free contact left, it pastes unlinked.

Paste linked can't work for a coil or a report arrow: a contact belongs to only one coil, and a report arrow pairs with only one other arrow, so the copy would take them away from the original.

With only one real option, I'd leave out Paste Special. @neitri, does that match what you had in mind?

[arummler]

For copy & paste formula based labels I was planning to add that the formula is preserved but rec-calculated. Optionally with a global project settings on/off switch. Optionally with shift+paste command which gives a small window what to copy and what not to copy. Like when copying a cell in a spreadsheet program.

[ispyisail]

Don't let me stop you