When you copy a test set from one project to another, it has to link those new test instances to test cases in the Test Plan in the destination project.
I did some experimenting with v11.0, and this is what I found.
It will try to create a link between a new Test Instance and a Test Case in the destination project based on the location of the original Test Case in the source project. So, let's say in your source project you have this structure in the Test Plan:
Subject > PlanFolder1 > TestCase1
And in the source project in the Test Lab you have this:
Root > LabFolder1 > TestSet1 > TestInstance1
and TestInstance1 is an instance of TestCase1.
If you try to copy TestSet1 to a new project, then within the new project the TestInstance1 item has to be linked to a Test Case in that new project. The paste operation will attempt to link it to a test case with the same name located in the same place as in the source project. So, in the new project the paste operation will look in that Test Plan for
Subject > PlanFolder1 > TestCase1
If it doesn't find that, then it will create it, pulling over the TestCase1 information from the source project.
If it does find that heirarchy in the destination project, then it will link the test instance to it.
If you try to pull the data directly from the source database and paste it into the destination database, you could wind up with a lot of messed up links between the Test Instances and the Test Cases.
A Test Instance record (look at the TESTCYCL table) contains the unique Test Case ID (from the TEST table) for the Test Case it references. If you pull the data directly from the source TESTCYCL table and paste it into the destination TESTCYCL table, those Test Case IDs probably won't resolve to the test cases you really want. You would need to find the new Test Case IDs of the test cases within the new project, and massage the data to get the linkages to be correct.
I did some experimenting with v11.0, and this is what I found.
It will try to create a link between a new Test Instance and a Test Case in the destination project based on the location of the original Test Case in the source project. So, let's say in your source project you have this structure in the Test Plan:
Subject > PlanFolder1 > TestCase1
And in the source project in the Test Lab you have this:
Root > LabFolder1 > TestSet1 > TestInstance1
and TestInstance1 is an instance of TestCase1.
If you try to copy TestSet1 to a new project, then within the new project the TestInstance1 item has to be linked to a Test Case in that new project. The paste operation will attempt to link it to a test case with the same name located in the same place as in the source project. So, in the new project the paste operation will look in that Test Plan for
Subject > PlanFolder1 > TestCase1
If it doesn't find that, then it will create it, pulling over the TestCase1 information from the source project.
If it does find that heirarchy in the destination project, then it will link the test instance to it.
If you try to pull the data directly from the source database and paste it into the destination database, you could wind up with a lot of messed up links between the Test Instances and the Test Cases.
A Test Instance record (look at the TESTCYCL table) contains the unique Test Case ID (from the TEST table) for the Test Case it references. If you pull the data directly from the source TESTCYCL table and paste it into the destination TESTCYCL table, those Test Case IDs probably won't resolve to the test cases you really want. You would need to find the new Test Case IDs of the test cases within the new project, and massage the data to get the linkages to be correct.