Working with a Rectangle Object on a Draftsman Document in Altium Designer

Parent page: Draftsman Objects

A placed Rectangle, with ANSI fill

Summary

A Rectangle is a graphic object that can be placed on a Draftsman document sheet and optionally filled with a solid color or ANSI pattern.

Availability

Rectangles are available for placement in the Draftsman Editor as follows:

• Choose the Place » Rectangle command from the main menus.
• Click the  button in the graphic objects drop-down on the Active Bar located at the top of the design space. Click and hold an Active Bar button to access other related commands. Once a command has been used, it will become the topmost item on that section of the Active Bar.
  
• Right-click in the drawing design space then select Place » Rectangle from the context menu.
• Click the  entry in the graphic objects drop-down menu () on the Drawing Annotations toolbar (View » Toolbars » Drawing Annotations to enable).

Placement

After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and the editor will enter rectangle placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following sequence of actions:

1. Click to anchor the first corner of the rectangle.
2. Move the cursor to adjust the size of the rectangle then click again to complete placement.
3. Continue placing further rectangles, or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

Graphical Editing

This method of editing allows a placed rectangle object to be selected in the design space and graphically edit its size, shape or location.

Select a Rectangle by clicking on one of its perimeter lines. Once selected, editing handles/nodes are available at each corner.

A selected Rectangle

• Click and drag a node to reposition it and alter the size of the rectangle.
• Click and drag a rectangle perimeter line to reposition the rectangle in the sheet.

Non-Graphical Editing

Properties page: Rectangle Properties

The non-graphical method of editing a Rectangle is available in the Draftsman Properties panel, which provides editable property fields for the item that is currently selected in the design space.

The Properties panel when a Rectangle is selected.

To open the Properties panel and access the properties of a placed Rectangle:

• After selecting the Rectangle 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 Rectangle's perimeter.
• Right-click on the Rectangle's perimeter then select Item Properties from the context menu.

If the Properties panel is already active, click on the Rectangle's perimeter 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.