Instead of setting all properties for an element, have an option where you can choose any existing element is the one that this one clones/copies. All the settings of the parent will be used for the child.
Ideally, this is not a one time copy, but a reference back to the source. Perhaps bidirectional? The dependent element could simply have a property that references the parent element id, and the class can be made smart enough to retrieve a different record from the DB when getting this element.
Instead of setting all properties for an element, have an option where you can choose any existing element is the one that this one clones/copies. All the settings of the parent will be used for the child.
Ideally, this is not a one time copy, but a reference back to the source. Perhaps bidirectional? The dependent element could simply have a property that references the parent element id, and the class can be made smart enough to retrieve a different record from the DB when getting this element.