Hello,
I was hoping someone could help me with copying, flipping and moving drawings?
Is there any way to ‘paste in place’ a drawing you have just copied so that it’s in exactly the same place as the original? I know that when you paste to another drawing layer it’s in the same spot, but when the drawings are on the same layer the paste is offset slightly. And then how do I move the drawing to either the left or right without it moving all over the place? I’m using a Mac and in other apps I hold down ‘shift’ which locks the drawing when I move it either up or down, but I can’t figure out how to do it in Animate Pro. (For example, I’m trying to draw a character’s ears, so I’ve drawn the left ear, copied, flipped and dragged it to the right, and I have to fiddle with it’s placement so that it’s symmetrical).
I have searched the user guide but either it’s not there or I’ve been on the computer too long and I’m going blind!
Animate and Mac user
I had this problem until I changed the Keystroke shortcuts in Preferences.
Assuming Animate Pro also places the copy below and to the right of the original, by changing the key shortcuts you should be able to move the copied drawing to superimpose exactly with the original with a single Shift+Arrow Up and a single Shift + Arrow Left. If this is your aim then read below.
The problem with Animate - and I’m guessing Animate Pro - is Shift+Arrow Up and Shift+Arrow Down are assigned to nudging drawings backwards and forward along the Z axis respectively. While Shift + Right /left arrows enables moves along the X axis.
Looking at the short-cut keys under Animate Preferences. “Bring Drawing Forward” has the default Shift + Up. So I cleared this and typed in Alt + Down (same as for nudging elements forward in camera view). I have also cleared Shift +Down in “Send Drawing Backwards” and applied Alt + Up.
Now, if you get a warning sign about another function already having this combination please let me know - as it’s a while since I did this. But if you don’t get a warning then Ok the change.
You should now find that Shift+Arrows up and down allow you to make single large jumps in the Y axis in Drawing view.
However, I find I have to use Command + Alt + up down arrows to nudge elements in z axis in camera view.
So if you find that you can now simply Nudge your pasted drawing directly over the original with a Shift + Arrow Up and Shift + Arrow Left, good. But if you have problems with nudging along the z axis in camera view - let me know.
Thanks for your quick reply grenspleen 
You’ve solved half my problem! I’m using Animate Pro’s set of shortcuts and Shift+Up and Shift+Down are already the defaults to move my drawings along the Y axis, not the Z axis. I couldn’t (and still can’t!) find these shortcuts mentioned anywhere in the shortcuts preferences though, so thankyou for pointing this out to me!
The other half of my problem that I still can’t figure out is how to click and drag a drawing with the mouse so that it stays locked on either the Y axis or the Z axis, depending on the direction I drag it. In other applications I hold down shift and click-drag, but I can’t do it in Animate Pro unless the transform button is clicked and that moves everything on the layer, not just elements of the drawing. I’m currently using the ‘snap and align’ button, but it still moves around a bit.
I’m used to drawing everything in Illustrator but because Adobe have made it so dang hard to import their ai files I’m now drawing everything in Animate Pro and trying to wrap my head around the new shortcuts! :o
Which set of shortcuts do you (or anyone else) usually use? The flash set, animate set, or toon boom studio set? Just curious.
I selected Toonboom Shortcuts - not that I could see a difference in choosing the other sets.
I don’t think there’s a lock on chosen axes while moving objects. I would love that, as I can’t abide holding Shift+Arrow as an object slowly limps across the screen. Maybe you should place a future functions request.
Hope I helped to some extent
You can animate an object in Animate Pro only moving it on one axis - this you would accomplish by selecting that object and with the move tool (Advanced Animation Tools) and then when you hit Shift, it will move it in that direction only.
However this is only available for the animation stage, not for the actual drawing stage. For the drawing stage, your best bet is to use Shift+arrow keys or just arrow keys to nudge the drawings in that direction. The other thing you could do is, with the select tool, select the parts you want to move then in the tool properties there are sliders where you can move the objects in one axis.
I can submit this as a feature request.
For the shortcuts, it should be Alt-up and Alt-down for nudging in the Z axis, and shift-up and shift-down, or just up and down, for nudging in y, shift-left and shift-right, or just left and right, for nudging in x.
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
Thankyou a million times grenspleen! You were a huge help. There are a few differences in the sets of shortcuts, and I was curious which set people tend to use. I guess it really depends which program people previously used…
And thankyou lillyV, that would be great if you could add that as a feature request for version 2. I’ve noticed it also locks when the transform button is selected and you hold down shift key, but it would be great to have this feature at the drawing stage as well. Also, the ability to ‘paste in place’ on the same layer would also be a big help.