Polygon

The Polygon dialog.

Summary

This dialog allows the designer to specify the properties of a Polygon object. A polygon is a non-electrical drawing primitive. It is a multi-sided graphical object that can be placed on a schematic sheet. A polygon must have at least three sides and can be filled or unfilled.

Access

The Polygon dialog can be accessed prior to entering placement mode, from the Schematic – Default Primitives page of the Preferences dialog. This allows the default properties for the polygon object to be changed, which will be applied when placing subsequent polygons.

During placement, the dialog can be accessed by pressing the Tab key.

After placement, the dialog can be accessed in one of the following ways:

• Double-clicking on the placed polygon object.
• Placing the cursor over the polygon object, right-clicking and choosing Properties from the context menu.
• Using the Edit » Change command and clicking once over the placed polygon object.

Graphical Tab

Polygon dialog - Graphical tab.

Use the dialog's Graphical tab to modify graphical properties of the polygon object.

Options/Controls

• Border Width - the width of the border used to draw the outline of the polygonal shape. Available widths are: Smallest, Small, Medium, and Large.
• Fill Color - click the color sample to change the fill color for the polygon, using the standard Choose Color dialog. The Draw Solid option must be enabled for the polygon to be filled.
• Border Color - click the color sample to change the color used for the polygon's outline, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
• Draw Solid - if this option is enabled, the polygon is filled with the color set in the Fill Color field. If this option is disabled, the polygon is drawn in outline only.
• Transparent - enable this option to allow objects placed beneath the polygon to be shown in the workspace.
• Locked - enable this option to protect the polygon from being edited graphically.

Vertices Tab

Polygon dialog - Vertices tab.

Use the dialog's Vertices tab to edit the individual vertices of the currently selected polygon object. You can also add new vertices to the polygon, or remove selected vertices altogether.

Options/Controls

• Vertices Grid - the main region of the tab lists all of the vertex points currently defined for the polygon, in terms of:
  • Index - the assigned index of the vertex.
  • X - the X (horizontal) coordinate for the vertex.
  • Y - the Y (vertical) coordinate for the vertex.
• Add - click this button to add a new vertex point. The new vertex will be added below the currently focused vertex entry (as distinguished by a dotted outline around a cell in its row) and will initially have the same coordinates as the focused entry
• Remove - click this button to remove the currently selected vertex entries in the list. This command will be unavailable if there are only two vertices present for the polygon.

• Menu - click this button to access a pop-up menu containing the following commands:
  • Edit - right-click on a coordinate cell (X or Y) for a vertex and use this command to edit the value in that cell. Alternatively, click directly on the cell.
  • Add - use this command to add a new vertex point. The new vertex will be added below the currently focused vertex entry (as distinguished by a dotted outline around a cell in its row) and will initially have the same coordinates as the focused entry.
  • Remove - use this command to remove the currently selected vertex entries in the list. This command will be unavailable if there are only two vertices present for the polygon.
  • Copy - use this command to copy the content of the selected cells in the list to the clipboard (alternatively use Ctrl+C).
  • Paste - use this command to paste the content of the clipboard into the list, starting at the selected cell (alternatively use Ctrl+V).
  • Select All - use this command to quickly select the entire grid contents of the list.
  • Select Column - use this command to quickly select the entire column in which the currently focused cell resides.
  • Move Up - use this command to move the selected vertex upward in the list.
  • Move Down - use this command to move the selected vertex downward in the list.
  • Move Polygon By XY - use this command to move the entire polygon object. The Move Polygon By dialog will appear, from where you can enter the increment value to be applied to each vertex point's X and Y coordinates.