Method and system of preparing engineering data for industrial control systems

An industrial plant module-based engineering method comprising:

• duplicating a source engineering template having one or more source child templates to create a duplicated engineering template having one or more duplicated child templates which correspond to the one or more source child templates, respectively, without duplicating any instances with one or more child instances which have been instantiated from the one or more source child templates in the source engineering template, wherein the duplicated engineering template is free of any instances and wherein each of the one or more child instances has an original link to the source engineering template;
• selecting at least one child instance among one or more child instances which have been instantiated from the source engineering template, wherein the selected at least one child instance has an original link to the source engineering template;
• and
• changing the original link into a new link between the selected at least one child instance and the duplicated engineering template, wherein the selected at least one child instance has the new link to the duplicated engineering template and is free of the original link to the source engineering template, and wherein unselected one or more child instances remain to have the original link to the source engineering template.