How symbols and instances work

In this movie I'll show you how you to work with symbols, and I'll also show you …why they are such remarkable time savers. I'm looking at a kind of dimmed out map …of Yellowstone National Park. And you can see that I have a hand full …of these picnic areas that are represented by these picnic table icons. …Now, as opposed to collecting these paths into a group, for example and then …duplicating the group to new locations. What we're seeing is repeated instances …of a single symbol. And to confirm that's the case, I'll go …up to the window menu and choose the Symbols Command.…

Or you can just click on this little Clover icon, over here in the panel Column. …And notice that we do indeed see the picnic area icon here inside the panel. …If you're working along with me, go ahead and click on that symbol, and then go out …to the symbols fly out menu and choose Select All Instances. …And that goes ahead and selects every one of the picnic table icons here inside the …document window. All right, now let's say you want to make a …