Noob question: where to set default via size while routing?

[andyturk]

Please save me from putting a fist through a nice $1k monitor... 

How do you configure the vias that appear when you're dragging out a track on the PCB and change layers? I've configured the RoutingVias rule to have the hole size and diameter I want, but Altium always puts down some big fumbling size that just horrible. Such a simple thing, but it drives me nuts! And I'm running out of #@$^&*@ swear words!

When I just place a via (P,V) it works fine.

[T3sl4co1l]

P, V, Tab

P, T, (click to begin route), 4 I think cycles via size from rule, or hit Tab to specify

If in doubt, hit F1 to see the list of actions, or try pressing keys at random.

Tim

[andyturk]

Quit. Restart. Fresh cup of coffee in the morning, and it seems to work. 

I didn't know about the 4 key. That's pretty handy. Thanks Tim!

[free_electron]

If you are veginnig with altium : turn on the status bars. Both of them whenever you are doing something keep an eye there. Altium cycles messages like an rss feed showing you what key does what at this point in time.

[andyturk]

If you are veginnig with altium : turn on the status bars. Both of them whenever you are doing something keep an eye there. Altium cycles messages like an rss feed showing you what key does what at this point in time.

Heh. Well, I was almost "ending" with Altium last night. I updated all the PCB footprints from a library and the f-ing thing rearranged half the components on my board. My previously beautiful PCB was splattered with green DRC blood from all the overlaps and open connection. WTF?

About half the components on the board got moved and/or rotated from the library update. Everything came from that library in the first place, and I have no idea how they got out of sync, or even why Altium would decide to change placement based on something in a footprint library. Anyway, I noticed that all the affected components had the "Flipped on Layer" bit set (whatever that means). Unflipping that bit and then repositioning the components made it happy again.

I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation for what the program did, but it's behavior (in that instance) was indistinguishable from a horrible data-losing bug.

[Mikekoz13]

Andy-

That sounds like broken Component Links.

While in your .PcbDoc select PROJECT> COMPONENT LINKS from the top banner menu. You will get a pop-up that shows two columns on the left: components in the schematic, and components on the board. Those two colums should be empty. If they are not, you will need to match the components in the two columns and move them to the large window on the right. You can do that more easily by using the "Add Pairs Matcxhed By" button in the lower left.
Once everything is moved to the right, select "Perform Update" in the lower right corner.

Hopefully you have a copy of that datasbase BEFORE this happened. (if you didn't save a copy, you can retrieve one from the History folder).

[andyturk]

Thanks, Mike. I'll look for broken links next time. Doing that probably would have saved me some effort. My low tech fix was to print out a copy of the pick-and-place .txt file from before the files got munched. Then I went back in to the PCB (after turning off the "flipped on layer" bits) and re-entered the correct location and orientation for parts that moved.

Thank goodness it was a small board!

[free_electron]

clearly you are doing something massively wrong.
this is behavior i've never experienced

why would you want to flip parts on layers anyway ?  oh wait ... don't tell me you are working from a bottom view perspective...
did you accidentally execute a V-B command ?

parts moving when updating from library means you did something to the part post placement that is not expected. other possible causes are parts origins being defined wrongly in the library

[dfnr2]

I agree--Altium has its share of bugs, but this doesn't sound like one of them.  Perhaps there is some habit in your design flow that you are carrying over from some other package that does not fit with the Altium way. 

You should definitely try to figure out how this happened before you start on a bigger board.  If you can reproduce it with a part or two, post the steps here, and it will probably be obvious.  What package did you use before this?  What parameters did you change for these parts?  When you update from libraries, you do have some control over what features are updated.  You want to make sure the stuff that gets updated isn't stuff you have modified already.

Dave

[andyturk]

did you accidentally execute a V-B command ?

That might be it. Would V-B cause that "flipped on layer" bit to get set? I thought it was just changing how the board was *viewed*.

What parameters did you change for these parts?  When you update from libraries, you do have some control over what features are updated.  You want to make sure the stuff that gets updated isn't stuff you have modified already.

The uproar started when I went back to my PCB library to add some other mechanical layers for assembly drawing output. That went well, but then I had to add a layer pair to the PCB itself and update all the footprints so that the bottom assembly drawing wasn't empty.

[Mikekoz13]

OOPS! I should have read that entry of yours better. That definetly sounds like a layer pairing issue.