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Documentation Altium Designer Documentation ... Projects Project Options

Project Options - Parameters

Created: July 28, 2015 | Updated: October 24, 2018 | Applies to versions: 15.1, 16.0, 16.1, 17.0 and 17.1
Now reading version 16.0. For the latest, read: Project Options - Parameters for version 21


The Parameters tab of the Project Options dialog

Summary

This tab of the Project Options dialog enables you to manage parameters defined for the project, often referred to as project-level parameters. Parameters defined at the project level are available for use across all schematic sheets and PCB documents in the project, through the use of special strings (=<ProjectParameterName> on a schematic, and .<ProjectParameterName> on a PCB). Parameters defined on this tab will appear in the drop-down listings of available special strings for the respective Text fields in the Annotation dialog (schematic string object) and String dialog (PCB text string object).

When using the Project Parameter with a Schematic Template (*.SchDot), place the parameter as a Special String in the TitleBlock "=[ParameterName]" of the template. To avoid duplicate parameter definition, do not also add the parameter as a Document Parameter (Parameter tab of the Document Options dialog). See the Parameter object page for more info on replacing the value of a string with a parameter value.
Altium Designer supports parameters at various levels of the project - project-level parameters, document-level parameters (defined for a schematic sheet), and variant-level parameters. They also have a hierarchy, which means you can create a parameter with the same name at different levels of the project, each having different values. Altium Designer resolves this with the following order of precedence: Variant (highest priority) ---> Schematic Document ---> Project (lowest priority). That means the parameter value defined in the schematic document overrides the value defined in the project options, and the value defined in the variant overrides the value defined in the schematic document. (Note that schematic-level parameters are not available on the PCB or in the BoM; for these types of outputs you should use project or variant parameters.)
When working with an Integrated Library project (*.LibPkg), the Parameters tab is part of the Options for Integrated Library dialog - a variation of the dialog described here.

Access

This is one of multiple tabs available when configuring the options for a project – accessed from within the Options for Project dialog. This dialog is accessed by:

  • From the PCB or schematic editor, click Project » Project Options.
  • Right-click on the project name on the Projects panel, then click Project Options from the context menu.
Only the second method of access can be used for an Integrated Library project.

Options/Controls

  • Parameters Grid - the main region of the tab lists all of the parameters currently defined for the project, in terms of:
    • Name - the name of the parameter.
    • Value - the value of the parameter.
A parameter can be modified with respect to either of these attributes directly in the grid.
  • Add - click this button to add a new parameter to the list in the Parameter Properties dialog.
  • Remove - click this button to delete the selected parameter(s) from the list of parameters.
  • Edit - click this button to modify the currently selected parameter in the Parameter Properties dialog.

Right-Click Menu

The following commands are available on the right-click menu:

  • Edit - use this command to modify the currently selected parameter in the Parameter Properties dialog.
  • Add - use this command to add a new parameter to the list in the Parameter Properties dialog.
  • Remove - use this command to delete the selected parameter(s) from the list.
  • Copy - use this command to copy the selected parameter(s) to the Windows clipboard.
  • Paste - use this command to paste parameter(s) on the Windows clipboard into the parameters list.
The Copy and Paste commands support the ability to define a set of parameters in an external spreadsheet (such as Microsoft Excel), and paste them into the tab. If a parameter being pasted has the same name as an existing parameter in the list, the value for the existing parameter will be overwritten with that being pasted. 

 

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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.