Working with a Comment Object on a PCB in Altium Designer

A placed Comment object

Summary

The comment field is a child parameter object of a PCB object. It is used to add additional information to a placed object.

Availability

A Comment is configured in the Properties panel after the parent component part object is placed. It is not a design object that you can directly place.

Graphical Editing

The comment can be edited graphically using what is known as in-place editing. To edit a comment in place, click once to select, pause for a second then click a second time to enter edit mode.

When a non-inverted comment object is selected, the following editing handles are available:

A selected Comment

• Click the editing handles to resize.
• Click anywhere on the comment away from any editing handles then drag to reposition it. The comment can be rotated (Spacebar/Shift+Spacebar) or mirrored (X or Y keys to mirror along the X-axis or Y-axis).

The following methods of non-graphical editing are available:

Via the Parameter Dialog or Properties Panel

Properties page: Comment Properties

This method of editing uses the associated Parameter dialog and Properties panel to modify the properties of a Comment object. 

  The Parameter dialog on the left and the Parameter mode of the Properties panel on the right. 

During placement, the Parameter mode of the Properties panel can be accessed by pressing the Tab key. Once the Comment is placed, all options appear.

After placement, the Parameter dialog can be accessed by:

• Double-clicking on the placed Comment.
• Placing the cursor over the Comment, right-clicking then choosing Properties from the context menu.

After placement, the Parameter mode of the Properties panel can be accessed in one of the following ways:

• If the Properties panel is already active, by selecting the Comment.
• After selecting the Comment, select the Properties panel from the Panels button in the bottom right section of the design space, or by selecting View » Panels » Properties from the main menu.

Note that if the Comment is not visible, it can be made visible by selecting the Component and toggling on the  icon next to the Comment from the Properties panel. 

Editing via a List Panel

Panel pages: PCB List, PCBLIB List, PCB Filter

A List panel allows you to display design objects from one or more documents in tabular format, enabling quick inspection and modification of object attributes. Used in conjunction with appropriate filtering - by using the PCB Filter panel or the Find Similar Objects dialog - it enables the display of just those objects falling under the scope of the active filter – allowing you to target and edit multiple design objects with greater accuracy and efficiency.