In general the Edit menu > Cut, Edit menu > Copy and Edit menu > Paste commands work similar to the standard cut, copy and paste Windows commands. However some of the behavior of these commands is specific to ETABS.
The Cut, Copy and Paste commands are active only when the currently active window is in plan or plan perspective view.
The Cut command deletes the objects selected at the story level shown in the plan view in the currently active window. When the objects are deleted, all of their assignments are also deleted. The geometry of the objects and their assigned property names are copied to the Windows clipboard. No other assignments to the object besides its property name are copied to the clipboard. The geometry and property names associated with the cut objects can be pasted back into ETABS, or they can be copied to a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel, in a text format.
The Copy command copies the geometry of the objects selected at the story level shown in the plan view in the currently active window to the Windows clipboard. The assigned property names associated with those objects are also copied to the Windows clipboard. The geometry and property names associated with the copied objects can be pasted back into ETABS, or they can be copied to a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel, in a text format.
The Paste command copies geometry and property names from the Windows clipboard into your ETABS model on the story level that is shown in plan or plan perspective view in the currently active window. The geometry and property names that are on the Windows clipboard may have been copied to the clipboard from ETABS or from a spreadsheet.
The similar stories feature of ETABS works for pasting objects into ETABS. That is, depending on which of the similar stories features is active, cutting, copying, and pasting can affect one story, all stories, or similar stories.
It is important to note that the Cut and Copy commands only copy the geometry and property name of the selected object to the Windows clipboard. Other assignments (e.g., loads, diaphragms) made to the selected object are not copied using these commands.