Cloning Media content

Cloning creates an independent copy of existing content. You can use it to create a backup, develop a different version of a project, or create a project that students or colleagues can clone and adapt for their own use.

If the scene is part of a tour, cloning also copies all of its linked scenes and updates the transit tags automatically, so you get a complete new tour. You do not need to clone each scene - simply clone the first scene in your tour.

Related article: Cloning scenarios 

• How to clone a scene
• Cloning a tour
• Limitations
• Allowing or prohibiting other users from cloning your content

How to clone a scene

To clone your own scene,

1. Open the project.
2. Click the ‘More options’ (three dots) button in the top bar.
3. Select ‘Clone’.

You can also clone a scene from your ‘Media’ page: hover over the scene thumbnail, click the three dots button, and select ‘Clone’.

If the scene has no linked scenes, the cloned scene is added directly to your ‘Media’ page.

Cloning another user's project

If you are viewing another user's project, click the 'More options' (three dots) button in the top bar and select 'Clone'. If that option is not present, then the user does not allow others to clone their content.

Cloning a tour

A tour is a group of scenes connected to each other with transit tags. When you clone a scene that links to other scenes through transit tags, ThingLink clones all of the linked scenes as well and updates the transit tags in the copies so they lead to the cloned scenes instead of the originals. You no longer need to clone each scene separately or fix the transit tags by hand.

After you select ‘Clone’, ThingLink creates a new folder in your account. The folder contains:

• The cloned scene: the copy of the scene you cloned.
• A subfolder with the linked scenes: clones of all the scenes linked from the scene you cloned, and of the scenes linked from those scenes, and so on.

Each scene is cloned only once. If the same scene is linked from several scenes, or the tour loops back on itself, the copy is still created once and all transit tags in the cloned tour point to it.

Limitations

• 20 transitions: when you clone a scene, ThingLink follows transit tags up to 20 transitions away from that scene. In a long, linear tour, scenes that can’t be reached within 20 transitions are not cloned.
• No bulk cloning: scenes can only be cloned one at a time.
• Access: linked scenes you have access to are cloned, whether you can view or edit them. Scenes you have no access to are not cloned, and a transit tag in the cloned tour that leads to such a scene still leads to the original scene.
• Independent copies: changes you make to a clone do not affect the original scene, and the other way around.

Allowing or prohibiting other users from cloning your content

By default, other users are not allowed to clone and edit your content. Other users can clone your content only if you enable ‘Allow cloning’ and they have access to it. If you wish to allow the cloning of your content:

1. Click your profile icon and select ‘Profile settings’.
2. Open the ‘General’ tab.
3. Scroll down to ‘Allow cloning’ and click ‘Enable’.