diff --git a/src/DistributedFactorGraphs.jl b/src/DistributedFactorGraphs.jl
index 91df59f3..8155b154 100644
--- a/src/DistributedFactorGraphs.jl
+++ b/src/DistributedFactorGraphs.jl
@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ export listTags, mergeTags!, removeTags!, emptyTags!
 #this isn't acttually implemented. TODO remove or implement
 export addTags!
 
+import Base: copy
+export copy
+
 ##------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Variable
 ##------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/src/entities/DFGVariable.jl b/src/entities/DFGVariable.jl
index 789d4968..0a0561d8 100644
--- a/src/entities/DFGVariable.jl
+++ b/src/entities/DFGVariable.jl
@@ -87,6 +87,28 @@ VariableNodeData(val::Array{Float64,2},
 VariableNodeData(softtype::T; solverKey::Symbol=:default) where T <: InferenceVariable =
     VariableNodeData{T}(zeros(1,1), zeros(1,1), Symbol[], Int[], 0, false, :NOTHING, Symbol[], softtype, false, 0.0, false, false, 0, 0, solverKey)
 
+## Copying
+function copy(vnd::VariableNodeData; solverKey::Union{Nothing,Symbol}=nothing)
+    return VariableNodeData(
+        deepcopy(vnd.val),
+        deepcopy(vnd.bw),
+        deepcopy(vnd.BayesNetOutVertIDs),
+        deepcopy(vnd.dimIDs),
+        vnd.dims,
+        vnd.eliminated,
+        vnd.BayesNetVertID,
+        deepcopy(vnd.separator),
+        vnd.softtype,
+        vnd.initialized,
+        vnd.inferdim,
+        vnd.ismargin,
+        vnd.dontmargin,
+        vnd.solveInProgress,
+        vnd.solvedCount,
+        solverKey == nothing ? vnd.solverKey : solverKey)
+end
+
+
 ##==============================================================================
 ## PackedVariableNodeData.jl
 ##==============================================================================
@@ -194,6 +216,15 @@ end
 
 MeanMaxPPE(solverKey::Symbol, suggested::Vector{Float64}, max::Vector{Float64}, mean::Vector{Float64}) = MeanMaxPPE(solverKey, suggested, max, mean, now(UTC))
 
+## Copying
+function copy(ppe::MeanMaxPPE; solverKey::Union{Nothing,Symbol}=nothing)
+    return MeanMaxPPE(solverKey == nothing ? ppe.solverKey : solverKey,
+    ppe.suggested,
+    ppe.max,
+    ppe.mean,
+    ppe.lastUpdatedTimestamp)
+end
+
 ## Metadata
 """
     $SIGNATURES
@@ -315,15 +346,6 @@ Base.setproperty!(x::DFGVariable,f::Symbol, val) = begin
     end
 end
 
-
-##------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# TODO: can't see the reason to overwrite copy, leaving it here for now
-# function Base.copy(o::DFGVariable)::DFGVariable
-#     return DFGVariable(o.label, getSofttype(o)(), tags=copy(o.tags), estimateDict=copy(o.estimateDict),
-#                         solverDataDict=copy(o.solverDataDict), smallData=copy(o.smallData),
-#                         dataDict=copy(o.dataDict), solvable=getSolvable(o))
-# end
-
 ##------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ## DFGVariableSummary lv1
 ##------------------------------------------------------------------------------