Document Commenting in Managed Projects

Parent page: Managed Projects and Releasing a Design

Altium Designer, in conjunction with your managed content server, supports Managed Projects – enabling a dispersed design team to collaboratively work on projects that are centrally stored and managed through that Server. Related to this, comments added to an area or object in a Managed Project's schematic or PCB document do not modify the document itself. This allows all working on a document to comment and review the design (or part thereof) in real-time – analogous to the Comments feature of Google Docs.

This commenting feature facilitates strong review and collaboration processes. Due to the server nature of comments (they are stored on the Server and do not touch the design document in any way) they become invaluable when:

• You want to point out some issues in a document, without physically merging and getting conflicts.
• You want to add a comment which will become visible to everybody instantly, prior to committing your working copy.
• You want to have a list of notes for your current design, that are attached to areas of the document and could be closed as the design matures (similar to a to-do list).

Adding a Comment

There are four commands available for adding a comment:

• Place » Comment for Area (Ctrl+Alt+A) – allows you to make a comment that relates to a defined rectangular area on the active document.
• Place » Comment for Point (Ctrl+Alt+P) – allows you to make a comment related to a particular point on the active document.
• Place » Comment (Ctrl+Alt+C) – allows you to make a comment that relates to a single selected component on the active document.
• Place » Freehand comment (Ctrl+Alt+R) – allows you to make a comment that relates to a custom, free-hand area drawn on the document. This command features automatic context identification, so that if you draw a shape around a component, the comment will be bound to that component.

► See the Schematic Comment placement commands and PCB Comment placement commands for more information.

Launch one of these commands, and define the point, rectangular, or free-hand area for the comment where applicable. The Comments panel will appear, ready to enter a new comment. Type your comment, then click the button beneath. The comment will be committed, appearing in the panel. For point, area and component type comments, the comment will also appear in the document editor, linked to the point, area, or component, by a reference line.

To add to an existing comment, thereby creating a comment thread, enter text in the Comments... field and then click the  button to confirm. When not selected in the panel, a comment thread will collapse to its initial comment entry.

  Example comments overlayed on a child schematic sheet of a Managed Project. The Comments panel reflects all comments for the sheet.

Using Freehand comment Mode

When using the Freehand comment feature (Place » Freehand comment, Ctrl+Alt+R) – that allows you to add comments to a document by freehand drawing – the comment entry is automatically added to the Comments panel, which will contain context information as follows:

• If you draw a freehand shape around a component, the comment will be tagged with the string <UserName> commented on <ComponentDesignator>.
• If you draw a freehand shape around multiple components, the comment will be tagged with the string <UserName> commented on.
• If you draw a freehand shape anywhere else on the document, the comment will be tagged with the string <UserName> commented on <DocumentName>.

Click on the entry for the comment in the panel to access the standard field for editing the comment (Edit).

Example of using the Freehand commenting feature.

Working with Comments

The following points relate to working with comments and the Comments panel:

• When a comment is added, it is seen immediately by all other users that have that same Managed Project and document open.
• The Comments panel will track the entire thread of a specific comment, whereas only the latest comment in that thread is displayed in the document view.
• Within a comment thread on the Comments panel, the latest reply is always added to the bottom of that thread. Where multiple comment threads are present in a document, the latest thread is presented at the top of the panel.
• The active/selected comment on the Comments panel is highlighted. In the document editor, the area/point/component that is the focus of the active/selected comment is zoomed and centered in the main design window (where applicable). For a point, area or component type comment, its associated reference line is also displayed.
• You can move (drag) a comment around in the document editor, only in terms of the location in which the text is displayed. The initial defined point or area cannot be modified. The reference line extends from that point/area to the text area.
• You can collapse a comment in the document view by clicking on the small triangle at the top-left of the textual area.
• A comment can be edited or deleted, through the panel only, using the Edit and Remove controls respectively, that present once the comment is selected. Note that these controls will only be available for a comment that you yourself have made – you cannot edit or remove a comment made by another user. If you edit an existing comment, type your text in the field provided, then click the button to commit. To exit without replying, either click the Cancel control, or click away from the thread. In the latter case, a warning dialog will appear, alerting you that all unsaved data will be lost. If you are sure you want to stop editing, click Yes.

Resolving and Reopening Comments

To resolve a comment, select it and then select the Resolve option from the comment thread's  menu. The comment thread will be removed from the document view, and disabled in the panel if its Show resolved comments option is enabled. If the option is disabled, the comment is removed from the panel – use the menu to toggle this option.

Resolving a comment essentially closes it, removing it from both panel and document view.

You also have the ability to restore comments that have been resolved. To do so, make resolved comments visible and then select the Unresolve option from the comment's menu. The comment thread will be reinstated in both on the panel and the document editor.

Accessing previously resolved comments, and reinstating (re-opening) a resolved comment.

Controlling Comments Display in the Editor

The display and appearance of comments are controlled from the Document Comments region, on the Data Management – Servers page of the Preferences dialog. Controls are provided independently for comments displayed on schematic and PCB. To turn off the display of comments in the document editor – relying on just the Comments panel – disable the respective Show Comment Threads option.

Other controls in the region relate to the look and feel of the comment, and its reference line, respectively.