Cutting, Copying, and Pasting in Models

Use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands to edit your model and to transfer model information to other applications.

To Cut or Copy Model Items

Note When you copy model structure, you don't have to select the connectors; they'll automatically be included. If you want to explicitly include or exclude connectors when creating graphics for another program, use the keyboard command Shift+Ctrl+C (Shift+⌘+C on Mac).

Note If you want to get some, but not all, connectors you can select them separately. In this case only the selected connectors will be copied (whether the shift key is selected or not).

Note Selecting a loop indicator (see Loop Labels) will cause the variable and connectors in the loop to be copied (even when other connectors are selected).

Paste Formats

When you cut or copy items, they're put into the clipboard in a number of formats. The first is an XMILE format that allows the contents to be pasted into other parts of Stella. In addition to this, content is also formatted as graphics (or text, for tables).

Vector Graphics

Model diagram content copied from the model window is put into the clipboard as vector graphics and as a bitmap. The vector graphic format is an enhanced metafile on Windows and portable document format (pdf) on Macintosh. Depending on the application you're using, you may get the best results by using 'paste as', so you can be sure this format will be used.

Note Powerpoint especially seems to often paste a bitmap by default. To paste in Powerpoint, right click and select Picture or select paste special and choose the enhanced metafile format.

Bitmaps

In addition to the vector graphic format, material is also sent to the clipboard as a bitmap. This will look the same when pasted, but won't scale or print as well. For some applications, paste may give this format, which is why 'paste as' is recommended.

For anything copied from the interface window, the bitmap format is the only one available. If you select all, copying the entire contents of a page, you'll get a bitmap the same size as the entire page. This lets you copy a number of pages consistently. Since they're bitmaps, quality will degrade when they're scaled.

Text

Right-clicking on a table and selecting Copy Data will put the table content into the clipboard as text. This should paste directly into spreadsheets.

Anything else that is itself text, like equations and variable names, can also be copied to the clipboard as text.

The Equation Viewer content can be sent to the clipboard by clicking on the Export to Clipboard button. This will go to the clipboard as text.

To Paste Copied Model Items

  1. Deselect the copied items by clicking the diagram where you want to paste the copied items.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Paste, or use Ctrl+V (⌘+V on Mac), or right-click and choose Paste from the shortcut menu that appears.

    Note: The software doesn't allow two building blocks with the same name in a model (more specifically, within a module). If you paste a building block, the software gives the copy the same name as the original building block, with a number appended to it. For example, if you copy a stock named "Population", the pasted stock will be named "Population 1". You can rename either stock, as long as you give them different names.

To Paste Graphics

Graphics box, Button (Interface), and Module Properties Tab all support the inclusion of a picture. This picture can come from a file, or from the clipboard. For each of these, there's a button in Properties to bring the picture in. You can also use Paste from the Edit menu, or Ctrl+V (⌘+V on Mac) to place the picture in directly.

Pasted graphics are encoded and stored with the model file, which does make it easier to send the model to other people without losing pictures.

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