Paste in Reference Location is an option I never noticed until recently and it’s surprisingly useful. I had structural information form another file that I needed to copy into place. Essentially I was referencing in an updated structural main level plan underneath an outdated one. I pasted the updated info in the story below, but offset 100′. The reason for this was to keep the new information completely separate from the current model/outdated information. I selected show story below in the trace reference and shifted the reference so that what I wanted to reference (pasted info from another file) was now sitting below the main level (and not on top of the model info). Now I could flip back and forth between the two stories (Switch Reference with Active) and rather than paste in the original location of the referenced info, which was 100′ south of my building, I could paste where the reference was located. (note, the trace reference has to be on when you paste). I also used the sliders to peel back the reference to get a better sense of what had changed and make sure I copied everything. Very nice.

And yes I realize that this work flow – copying updated structural info from one file to another- is not ideal. There are many better solutions (teamwork, teamwork 2, hotlinks, etc.), but for the project this was the best solution available to me.