AP0109 Schematic Editing Essentials
AP0109 Schematic Editing Essentials
Summary
This application note looks at the placement and editing of schematic objects in Altium
Application Note Designer.
AP0109 (v2.3) March 14, 2008
This Application Note provides a general overview of design object placement and editing methods used in the Schematic Editor.
Detailed explanations of placing and editing some of the more complex objects, such as wires and parts are also included.
Once you have finished setting the properties, click OK to return to placement mode.
The advantages of editing during placement are that objects that have a numeric identifier, such as a designator, will auto-
increment. In addition, changes made during placement can become the defaults for that type of object. Any changes made
to object properties during placement will cause the default properties for the object to be updated, unless the Permanent
option on the Default Primitives tab under the Schematic folder in the Preferences dialog (T, P) is enabled.
4. Position the cursor and left-click, or press ENTER, to place the object. For complex objects, such as wires or polygons, you
must continue the position-and-click procedure to place all vertices of the object.
Note: If autopanning is active, you can move around the document by moving the cursor past the edge of the editing window
in the direction that you wish to go. You can set the style and speed of autopanning in the Graphical Editing tab under the
Schematic folder in the Preferences dialog.
The AutoFocus options in the AutoFocus tab under the Schematic folder in the Preferences dialog control the state of the
schematic display, e.g. it can be configured to automatically zoom in when placing or editing connected objects or dim all
wiring not related to the wire currently being placed.
Other zooming and panning options are available using the shortcut keys or mouse wheel. Use Ctrl key and scroll the wheel
mouse to zoom in and out, push the wheel button down and move mouse up to zoom in or move mouse down to zoom out
when placing. You can setup the behavior of your mouse in the Mouse Configuration tab under the Schematic folder in
the Preferences dialog.
5. After placing an object you will remain in placement mode (indicated by the crosshair cursor), allowing you to place another
object of the same type immediately.
6. To end placement mode, right-click or press the ESC key. In some cases such as placing a polygon, you may need to do
this twice; once to finish placing the object and once to exit placement mode. When you exit placement mode, the cursor will
return to its default shape.
For more information about specific design objects press F1 when the cursor is over an object in the Schematic Editor,
information about the object will appear in the Knowledge Center panel.
Re-Entrant Editing
The Schematic Editor includes a powerful feature called re-entrant editing which allows you to perform a second operation using
the keyboard shortcuts without having to quit from the operation you are currently carrying out. For example, pressing the
SPACEBAR when placing a part will rotate the object but will not disrupt the placement process. Once you place the part,
another part will appear ready upon your cursor, already rotated.
Another example of when re-entrant editing is very useful is if you start placing a wire that it needs to be connected to a port
which you have not placed yet. There is no need to exit Place Wire mode; just press the Place Port shortcut keys (P, R), place
the port, press Esc to exit Place Port mode and then connect the wire to the port.
The following sections detail the placement of two commonly used object types – parts (components) and wires.
Placing Parts
When Place » Part (P, P) is selected or you click on in the Wiring toolbar, the Place Part dialog is displayed. You can enter
the name of the component in the Lib Ref field or you can click on the Browse button (…) to locate the part by searching for and
adding the required library. You can find previously placed parts by clicking on the History button.
Parts can also be placed using the Place button in the Library panel or the Schematic Library Editor. Alternatively, select a
component name in the Libraries panel and drag it into the document where it will appear floating on the cursor ready for
placement. Click to place.
When placing parts, use a snap grid that will cause the pin ends to fall on a grid point, e.g. 10. Remember that you can press G
to cycle through the Snap grid settings of 1, 5 and 10.
Placing Wires
Wires are used to represent an electrical connection between points. When placing
wires, be careful to use the Place » Wire command and not use the Line
command by mistake. The Place Wire command is also available from the right-click
menu when you are in a schematic document or the Wiring toolbar.
A wire end must fall on the connection point of an electrical object to be connected to
it, e.g. the end of a wire must fall on the hot end of a pin to connect. As you are placing a wire, when the wire falls within the
electrical grid range of another electrical object, the cursor will snap to the fixed object and a ‘hot spot’ (red cross) will appear.
This hot spot guides you to where a valid connection can be made and automatically snaps the cursor to electrical connection
points. The wire will be automatically terminated when it finishes on a hot spot.
It is recommended that you set the electrical grid to be slightly smaller than the current Snap grid, or it becomes difficult to
position electrical objects one snap grid apart.
If you wish to place a wire that does not yet connect to another electrical object, right-click (or press ESC) to terminate the wire.
Right-click, or press ESC, to exit wire placement mode.
While placing wires, use the BACKSPACE key to delete the last vertex placed.
Junctions
Wires have the Auto Junction feature, which automatically inserts a Junction object (dot) if a wire starts or ends on another wire
or runs across a pin. The display, junction size and color of auto-junctions and manual junctions can be
controlled from the Compiler tab under the Schematic folder of the Preferences dialog. You can also set
wire cross-overs and convert existing wires to cross-overs using options in the General tab under the
Schematic folder of the Preferences dialog.
See Editing Placed Wires later in this Application Note, for tips on how to modify a placed wire.
Placed wires can be extended or added to. Select the wire and position the cursor on the end you
want to move until the cursor changes to a double arrow. Click on the endpoint and drag the ‘look
ahead’ segment to the new location and click to place. You can change the placement mode while
moving the cursor to the new location by using SHIFT+SPACEBAR.
To make a wire longer by extending it in the same direction, hold down the ALT key as you drag
the selected endpoint.
Breaking Wires
Use the Edit » Break Wire command to break the wire segment into two pieces. This command is also
available from the right-click menu when the cursor is over a wire. A ‘cutter box’ displays (by default) which is
placed on the wire to be cut. The section to be cut out is masked as shown. The cutting length is the space
between the two new segments. Press SPACEBAR to cycle through the three cutting length modes (snap to segment, snap
grid size multiple or fixed length). Press TAB to set the fixed cutting length and any other cutter options. Click to break the wire.
Right-click, or press ESC, to exit break wire mode. Break Wire options can also be set in the Break Wire tab of the Schematic
folder in the Preferences dialog.
Note that you can also set the Components Cut Wires option in the General tab under the Schematic folder in the
Preferences dialog. When this option and the Optimize Wires and Buses option are enabled, you can place a component onto
a wire and the wire is cut into two segments which are automatically terminated onto any two ‘hot’ pins in the component.
Multi-Wire
The multi-wire editing mode in the Schematic Editor allows you to extend
multiple wires at the same time. If multiple parallel wires share a coordinate
for their end vertex, then when you click and drag to move the end of one
wire vertex the end vertex of all other selected wires will also move, keeping
the wire ends aligned.
Metric grid presets. Use the G shortcut to cycle through different snap grid setting values. You can also use the View » Grids
submenu or the Grids right-click menu.
• Selected objects can be 'nudged' by small amounts (according to the current snap grid value) by pressing the arrow keys
while holding down the Ctrl key
• Selected objects can also be 'nudged' by large amounts (snap grid value by a factor of 10) by pressing the arrow keys while
holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys together.
Dragging Objects
The Edit » Move » Drag command enables you to move any object, e.g. a component (part), port, wire or bus, and any
connected wires are moved with the object being dragged so that the connectivity of the schematic is maintained. The cursor
changes to a crosshair, which you position over an object you want to drag, then click or press ENTER. Move the object to the
required position and click, or press ENTER, to place. Continue moving other objects, or right-click or press ESC to exit
dragging mode.
To drag multiple selected objects and maintain connectivity, use the Edit » Move » Drag Selection command.
Alternatively, you can drag objects using a shortcut key. Hold the CTRL key as you click, hold and move the mouse. You can
then release the CTRL key once you start dragging. This also works with multiple, selected objects. Note that using the CTRL
key temporarily toggles the setting of the Always Drag option set in the Preferences dialog.
While dragging the object:
• Press the SPACEBAR or SHIFT+SPACEBAR while dragging to change the wiring mode
• Press CTRL+SPACEBAR while in movement mode to rotate the object. Rotation is anti-clockwise and in steps of 90°.
• Press the X or Y keys while in movement mode to flip the object along the X-axis or Y-axis respectively
• Press SPACEBAR while moving to toggle the orthogonal wire mode for any wires connected to the object
• Press the ALT key while moving, to constrain the direction of movement to the horizontal or vertical axis, depending on the
initial direction of movement.
Sheet Entries are copied and then transformed into Net Labels and Wires using the Smart Paste feature.
You also have complete control over which of the objects in the selection set you want to smart paste. Disable checkboxes to
ignore specific object kinds when you Smart Paste your selection.
Another handy feature is the ability to paste the selected circuitry as a graphic. Using this you can easily include a graphic of
section of circuit on another sheet, and size it as required. Select Edit » Smart Paste to transform the clipboard objects as you
paste them.
Press F1 when the Annotate dialog is open for more information about this process.
You can also use the Tools » Annotate Schematics Quietly command to assign a unique designator to any component that is
currently undesignated without launching the Annotate dialog. This command obeys the Schematic Annotation Configuration
you have previously set up in the Annotate dialog. Annotate Schematics Quietly does not assign unique designators for
duplicates.
The Tools » Reset Schematic Designators command can be used to reset all component designators in the active project, or
you can choose to reset only duplicate designators (Tools » Reset Duplicate Schematic Designators).
To re-annotate all component designators in accordance with the Schematic Annotation Configuration defined in the Annotate
dialog, use the Tools » Force Annotate All Schematics command.
Back Annotating (Tools » Back Annotate Schematics) will update the designators of the components in the source schematic
sheets of the active project, using a WAS-IS file generated when re-annotating designators in the PCB document.
Board Level Annotation is the process of annotating compiled components (the physical view of your components) through the
Schematic Editor. Use the Tools » Board Level Annotate command to open the Board Level Annotate dialog, where you can
calculate naming conventions of your compiled components based on Naming Schemes, Back Annotate from PCB documents
to Compiled Documents, specify custom names and Reset All Designators.
The Board Level Annotation Dialog allows you to customize your Naming Schemes through the Annotate Options, Reset All Designators or
create custom names for your components.
In the PCB Editor, use the Tools » Re-Annotate command to open the Positional Re-Annotate dialog, where you can reassign
the designators positionally. Each Re-annotation process produces a unique *.WAS file that carries the date and time in its
filename. This file is used when you perform a Back Annotation during either a Schematic Level or Board Level Annotation.
For more information about annotating your design, see the Understanding Design Annotation Application Note.
The main region of the tab lists all of the vertex points currently defined for the wire. You can add new vertices to the wire, edit
the coordinates of existing vertices, or remove selected vertices altogether.
Click the Menu button or right-click within the main list region to access a pop-up menu from where you can edit, add or remove
vertices or copy, paste, select or move cells. The Move Wire By XY command will move the entire wire object. The Move Wire
By dialog will appear, from where you can enter the increment value to be applied to each vertex point's X and Y coordinates.
Double-click on the object in the Object Kind list of the SCH List panel to display its Properties dialog.
Revision History
Date Version No. Revision
24-Mar-2005 2.0 Renamed from Object Placement and Editing. Concentrates on Schematic
Editor objects only in Altium SP3.