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Working with Parts in the Design Editor
Working with Parts in the Design Editor

What actions can we perform on Parts in the Design Editor?

Ximena Mora avatar
Written by Ximena Mora
Updated over a week ago

There are multiple actions you can choose to work with parts while in the Design Editor: insert, remove/clear, cut, copy, paste and edit parts. 

  1. Insert part(s): In the design grid, right-click on the cell you want to insert a part. From the context menu choose Insert > Insert Part. You can also double-click on an empty cell.

This will pop-up a dialog which displays all the parts available for you within your Parts library. Here you can search by part name with the Search field at the top right or filter by tags if you have assigned tags to parts by clicking the Filter by Tags button and selecting one or more tags to search for. By double-clicking on one of the parts in your Parts library, you will immediately assign that part to the selected part cell.

You can multi-select parts using Cmd + click and Shift + click, then click OK. Each part will be assigned to the cells in the same column but different rows. This is particularly useful in combinatorial design (See Tutorial: Small DNA Library Part 1). You can view detailed information about each part in the Part Details tab in the Inspector panel on the right side of the DESIGN Editor.  

2. Remove part(s): It is possible to remove a part from the Design canvas, having a part selected (active) just right-click and from the context menu choose Remove > Remove Part. 

Alternatively, you can clear a part assigned to a cell by clicking on the part, then clicking on the "Edit" button in the Design Editor's top menu, and selecting "Clear Part".

3. Cut, copy and paste part(s): To cut, copy or paste a part, click on the "Edit" button in the design editor's top menu, and then click on "Cut", "Copy", or "Paste" in the resulting context menu or use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + X, Ctrl + C, or Ctrl + V respectively (Cmd + X, Cmd + C, Cmd + V for Mac users). 

Multi-Select Actions:  It is possible to perform bulk actions on cells in a design by selecting multiple cells. Either hold down shift while clicking two different cells or hold down the Ctrl key (Cmd for Mac users) while clicking different cells to select multiple. Then, either right-click a highlighted cell to access the context menu with bulk actions or use the keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy and paste (Ctrl + X, Ctrl + C, and Ctrl + V).

4. Edit part(s): In order to edit a part that has been inserted into a design, double-click the cell containing the part and it will open in the Vector Editor. Alternatively, you can select the part, click on the "Part Details" icon on the Inspector panel on the right and click the "View Part" button to open that part in the Vector Editor.

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