Copy and paste of shapes does not work

Symptoms

If one or more of these match what you are seeing, you are on the right page.

• •Paste produces no visible change on the canvas
• •The pasted element lands offset from the original
• •Copy works within a project but not between two tabs
• •Pasting into a group puts the element at the top level instead

Causes and fixes

Ordered from most to least likely. Work down the list — each cause is paired with what to do about it.

1. 1

   Paste placed the element at a different position than expected.

   Use Ctrl+Shift+V (Paste in Place) to paste at the source coordinates rather than the default paste position.

2. 2

   Keyboard focus is in a text or numeric field.

   The field consumes the shortcut and copies its own contents. Press Escape to deselect before copying.

3. 3

   The paste target scope is not what you expect.

   Double-click a group to enter it before pasting if the element should land inside it. Otherwise the paste goes to the current level.

4. 4

   The source layer is locked.

   Unlock it in the Layer Panel. A locked layer cannot be selected, so there is nothing for Ctrl+C to copy.

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