How to force altium to put connector on edge

[TheUnnamedNewbie]

I'm making a design that uses a number of SMA edge launch connectors.

Is there any way I can force altium to put the connector on the edge? How do I properly mark this in the footprint?

[TheUnnamedNewbie]

No, not really. I can place them manually on the edge, but I was wondering if there was some special feature to 'tell' altium it should be right on the board edge (and perhaps enforce rules when it is not). Rather in the interest of learning right now than a need since it is not too much work to do it by hand.

[ajb]

I don't think there's any sort of facility for this really.  You could maybe do something like place a line on a particular layer in the footprint that must line up with the edge of the board, and if there's a way to create a rule for a maximum distance between that might work, but I don't think there is.

I would just put a reference line in the footprint that you can manually line up with the board edge.  If you've got a bunch of connectors along the same edge you can carefully place one and then use some of the placement tools or even just copy and paste the X or Y coordinate (as appropriate) to get the others lined up.

[radar_macgyver]

My preferred way to do this is to make sure that the footprint has its origin along the board edge. Drawings for many edge-launch connectors reference all dimensions to the board edge anyway so this is straightforward. Using a STEP model if available is a good backup to verify everything's in place. When dragging the part in the PCB editor, the cursor will line up with the origin and if you have snap to board edge enabled, the connector will snap into place.

[julianhigginson]

Like AJB, I put a line on mech 1 (my nominal "board edge" layer) in the footprint design for things that need to be critically placed on the edge, and then it's pretty obvious if the part isn't placed correctly.

Also works for PCB antennas when you want to make sure the antenna element will be always placed a certain distance from the edge of the board.