Duplicating works in AE, not illustrator

[Sulynn31251055nrhm]

I create a circle

I duplicate it, it only moves the circle. 

With After Effects, I duplicate everything and it works beautifully but with illustrator I think I mostly have to use command + C or option drag the shape layer to have a duplicate. Does anyone know why duplicating doesn't really work in illustrator?

[Monika Gause]

Exactly what are you doing for duplicating?

If you are referring to the shortcut cmd+D (Ctrl+D), then that would not necessarily duplicate, but repeat the last transformation.

[Sulynn31251055nrhm]

Hey! I am trying to duplicating the circle I created :3. If it repeats the last transformation (which is creating the circle), then shouldn't there be another circle? With transformation, do you mean transformation (rotation, moving position, etc)? 

[Monika Gause]

Creating something is not a transformation.

Transformation is: move, scale, rotate, mirror and skew as well as all of them combined with making a copy.

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

Adobe Illustrator has multiple methods for making copies of objects. The keyboard shortcuts on Macs and PCs are slightly different. On Windows machines you can drag a copy of an object while holding the Alt key. Or you can copy the selected object to the clipboard (Ctrl+C) and then paste (Ctrl+V) or paste in the same location/paste in front (Ctrl+F). Not every Adobe application has the same keyboard shortcuts for similar commands. Nevertheless, the ability to duplicate objects has been pretty standard for Illustrator for a really long time.

[mpchow · Accepted solution]

@Sulynn31251055nrhm if you want to duplicate objects like a circle in Adobe Illustrator, there are a few different ways. The one I like for duplicating is the first method:

• Select the object. Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) and drag and drop! 
• Select the object. And Copy and Paste. Command C (Mac) or Control C (PC). And Paste Command V (Mac) or Control V (PC)
• Select the object in the Layers Panel. Click on the target (the circle gets selected) and drag over to the 'Create a New Layer' icon (beside the trash can). And move your oject
• Select the layer. Go to the Layers Panel. Click on the drop-down menu (hamburger menu), and select duplicate layer. And move your object