Defining Draftsman Preferences for Altium Designer

Now reading version 23. For the latest, read: Defining Draftsman Preferences for Altium Designer for version 25

The page in the Draftsman category of the Preferences dialog provides access to preferences relating to features and functionality of Draftsman.


Defaults

The Draftsman – Defaults page of the Preferences dialog allows the default values and settings to be configured for drawing and objects placed in a Draftsman document. These default settings can be overridden in the Draftsman Properties panel once an object or view has been placed in a document.

The Draftsman – Defaults page of the Preferences dialog
The Draftsman – Defaults page of the Preferences dialog

Default Primitives
  • Primitives - use this field to filter the presented listing of primitives. Choose from: All, Board Views, DimensionsDrawing ToolsTableSpecial Signs, and Other.
  • Primitive List - a list of primitives that can be used in Draftsman (filtered in accordance with the chosen entry for the Primitives field above). Click on the below listed Primitives to change the available default values as described.

All primitive default values are saved in the ADVPCB.DFT file. This file is located in the \Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Roaming\Altium\Altium Designer <GUID> folder of the installation.

To view and edit the settings and options for each primitive, click on the desired entry in the Primitive List. Information for each primitive can be found at the following links:

The links below provide information on all properties available for Draftsman objects. Note that some properties are only available in the Properties panel after the placement and are not available as default settings in the Preferences dialog.

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Note

The features available depend on your Altium product access level. Compare features included in the various levels of Altium Designer Software Subscription and functionality delivered through applications provided by the Altium 365 platform.

If you don’t see a discussed feature in your software, contact Altium Sales to find out more.