Working with a Board Assembly View Object on a Draftsman Document in Altium Designer
This document is no longer available beyond version 21. Information can now be found here: Board Assembly View for version 24
Parent page: Draftsman Objects
Summary
A Draftsman Board Assembly View is an automated graphic composite of the active PCB project's board outline, cutouts, holes, and component graphics with additional notation. Its drawing representation, included information and data sources are all configurable in the Properties panel.
Availability
Board Assembly Views are available for placement in a PCB project Draftsman document from the Draftsman Editor as follows:
- Choose the Place » Board Assembly View command from the main menus (Place Board Assembly View).
- Click the button on the Active Bar located at the top of the design space.
- Right-click in the drawing design space then select Place » Board Assembly View from the context menu.
- Click the entry on the Drawing Views toolbar (View » Toolbars » Drawing Views to enable).
Placement
After launching the command, drawing data is retrieved from the source PCB file, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and the rendered Board Assembly View is attached to the cursor. Move the cursor to the desired position then click to confirm the placement.
Graphical Editing
Both the position and size of placed Board Assembly View may be graphically modified.
A selected Board Assembly View will show a node handle at the top right of the selection outline, which can be dragged to a new location to modify the view's size. To move a Board Assembly View, drag and drop it to a new location.
The position of component Designators also can be graphically modified by dragging and dropping the text to a new location. Hold the Ctrl key while dragging then use the Space bar to rotate the Designator through 90°
increments.
Non-Graphical Editing
Properties page: Board Assembly View Properties
The non-graphical method of editing a Board Assembly View is available in the Draftsman Properties panel, which provides a comprehensive range of editable properties, options and design content settings for placed Draftsman views.
To open the Properties panel and access the properties of a placed Board Assembly View:
- After selecting the Board Assembly View object, select the Properties panel from the Panels button at the bottom right of the design space or select View » Panels » Properties from the main menus.
- Double-click on the Board Assembly View object in the design space.
- Right-click on the Board Assembly View then select Item Properties from the context menu.
If the Properties panel is already active, click on the Board Assembly View object to access its properties in the panel.
Editing Multiple Objects
The Properties panel supports multiple object editing, where the property settings that are identical in all currently selected objects can be modified.