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What is the quickest / best way of duplicating an object with children, so that the children are also duplicated?

I am able to grab the parent object and move it around in the 3D View and the child follows fine, but unless I go into the Outliner and RMB click on the parent and choose "Select Hierarchy" to select the parent AND the children before I duplicate, only the parent gets duplicated. I would like to know the quickest and best way to grab the parent object and all children in the 3D View and duplicate it without too much hassle.

In other words, is there a way to Select Hierarchy in the 3D View instead of having to use the Outliner?

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2 Answers 2

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You can do this by using the 'Select Grouped' menu, triggered with Shift+G.

  1. Select Parent.
  2. Shift+G> Children.
  3. Shift select parent (by default it will be deselected when the children get selected).
  4. Shift+D to duplicate.

If you are doing this multiple times you can open the toolbar(T) and check 'Extend' after doing 'Select Grouped', so the parent remains selected when the children are selected. Any future selection of the children will respect this 'Extend' setting.

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  • $\begingroup$ Extend was what I was looking for. Now I can just hit Shift+G,C and move quickly. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Bryson Jack
    Mar 26, 2015 at 19:04
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    $\begingroup$ 2 and 3 can be done in a single keypress: Ctrl+] $\endgroup$
    – Nicola Sap
    Dec 27, 2018 at 14:30
  • $\begingroup$ @NicolaSap a) The shortcut is Shift+] b) that shortcut only selects the next direct children. It does not select the whole hierarchy (children of children) like this method does. $\endgroup$
    – Ray Mairlot
    Dec 28, 2018 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ @RayMairlot my bad for (a). (b) you're right, but if the hierarchy is not nested it saves a click $\endgroup$
    – Nicola Sap
    Dec 28, 2018 at 16:34
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    $\begingroup$ I think hammering Shift+] a couple times is a handy trick for some situations.. My life revolves around workflows that minimize transitions between keyboard and mouse ;) $\endgroup$
    – Samie Bencherif
    Dec 27, 2019 at 0:19
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In outliner panel, you can make a right click to parent and "Select hierarchy":

Rightclick on parent object Outliner panel

Now ShiftD to duplicate entire hierarchy.

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