Help a noob, please...

[JVR]

I have a few questions, and teh interwebs seems to not want to help.

I've used OrCAD and PADS for a while, and decided to move over to Altium, so I hace DXP10 on my machine, and have started a new design on it.  At the moment its still like pulling teeth though, but hopefully I'll get there.

So I have some questions to the more experienced:

1.  How do I get the schematic to autofocus on the component I've selected in the PCB (twin monitor)?  I cant seem to get it set up so that I can place components on the PCB while the Schematic shows me what I'm working with, and referencing between the two takes time.

2.  How do I select multiple components to make changes, eg I'd like to change the footprint for a bunch of LED's from 0805 to 0603, but I cant select them all at once and do the change.  And since the footprints are in different libs, its taking an age.


Thanks!

[JuKu]

1: Turn cross-select mode on
2: Right click on a resistor, find similar objects

(Sorry, not on my Altium machine now. If I try to give an example by memory, I'd get it wrong.)

[Psi]

To select multiple components and change their properties all at once you can either use the "find similar objects" tool as mentioned above
(However this is only fast for doing LOTS of components at once, like all 0.3mm holes to 0.5mm)
Or, if you want to change just a few components, say <10, the quickest way is to click on them while holding 'Shift' and then 'Double Click' on the final one.

So...
- Click on the first component (it should get the white highlight box around it)
- Hold down the Shift key
- Click on the 2nd component. (white highlight box will appear on this too)
- Click on the 3rd component. etc..
- DoubleClick on the last component

This will bring up the PCB inspector window showing all the common properties. If you change them it will apply to all components you have selected.

The key here is to double click on the last component you select.
If you single click or right click and go 'properties' you will get the properties for only that component and not all of them.

Remember if you change things on the pcb document (footprints etc) the pcb doc is now different to the schematic doc.
So you have to go "Design" "Update schematic".
If you forget to do that then later on when you update the PCB from the schematic it will revert the changes back.

[JVR]

- DoubleClick on the last component

 
Epic, I've been going the right click->properties route. THANKS!

[David_AVD]

Thanks Psi.  I've been doing it the hard way all this time (selecting and using "find similar").  What a time save that little gem is.   

To select multiple components and change their properties all at once you can either use the "find similar objects" tool as mentioned above
(However this is only fast for doing LOTS of components at once, like all 0.3mm holes to 0.5mm)
Or, if you want to change just a few components, say <10, the quickest way is to click on them while holding 'Shift' and then 'Double Click' on the final one.

[Psi]

Thanks Psi.  I've been doing it the hard way all this time (selecting and using "find similar").  What a time save that little gem is.   

heh, no problem
Altium is like that. There are so many shortcuts that you still come across new ones years later

[David_AVD]

Every time I find something like this, I add it to the Altium page in our company wiki.  Sometimes I don't need that little piece of info for a while and can't quite recall what the exact steps were 6 months down the track.  (yeah, getting old - lol !)

[Psi]

Here's something else that's quite useful.

The destination point for the measure tool will move in sync with the selected object when you use the Ctrl + <arrowkeys>

So if you have two pads and you want to move pad(A) to X=0mm Y=2.54mm with respect to pad(B) you can...
* Select pad(A)
* Ctrl-M (measuring tool activate)
* Click on pad(B) to start the measuring
* Move the mouse to the middle of pad(A) but don't click it. (You might want to take your hand off the mouse so you don't bump it)
* Hold down Ctrl and use the arrow keys. They will move the selected pad(A) as well as moving the measure tool destination. The realtime distance between pad A and B will show top left.
* Use this to move pad(A) around until you see the coordinates you are after.

[David_AVD]

Very good.  I can think of a few times when that would have been handy to position a highlighted section relative to another point.

[JVR]

Right, next question, how do I get it to allow me free placement of via's mid-route?  I seems to only want to move them "horizontally" in line with the route.  Only way around this is to stop routing and manually move the via.

[David_AVD]

Not sure if I understand the question fully, but can't you just go P V to place the via manually, then ESC to drop back to the routing?

[JVR]

Not sure if I understand the question fully, but can't you just go P V to place the via manually, then ESC to drop back to the routing?

Tried that, but in my insomnatic state I could not get it to keep the route active in the background, and allow me to connect to the via.

What I was doing was to press + or - mid-route to push a via between the layers, but it only allows you movement in one direction.

[David_AVD]

I just tried what I think you want to do and it works fine.

I started a track (PT), then pressed PV (Place Via), moved the via to where I wanted it (and set the net property), then dropped back (ESC) to the track placement and corrected connected to said via.

Maybe I'm just not understanding what you want to do.   

[JVR]

Nah, I think my utter lack of sleep is getting to me, will test again tonight can confirm