Wire

Now reading version 18. For the latest, read: Wire for version 22


The Wire dialog

Summary

This dialog allows you to specify the properties of a Wire object. A wire is a polyline electrical design primitive that is used to form electrical connections between points on a schematic. It is analogous to a physical wire.

For information on how a placed wire object can be modified graphically, directly in the workspace, see the Graphical Editing section of the Wire object page.

Access

The Wire dialog can be accessed by right-clicking on a vertex point of a placed wire then choosing the Edit Wire Vertex n command.

Graphical Tab


The Wire
dialog Graphical tab

Use the Graphical tab to modify graphical properties of the wire object.

Options/Controls

  • Color - click the color sample to change the color of the wire, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
  • Wire Width - the width of the wire. Available widths are: Smallest, Small, Medium, and Large.
  • Locked - enable this option to protect the wire from being edited graphically.
An object that has its Locked property enabled cannot be selected or graphically edited. Double click on the locked object directly and disable the Locked property, to graphically edit the object.

Vertices Tab


The Wire
dialog Vertices tab

Use the Vertices tab to edit the individual vertices of the currently selected wire object. You can also add new vertices to the wire, 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 wire, 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 wire.
  • 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 wire.
    • 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 Wire By XY - use this command to move the entire wire object. The Move Wire By dialog will appear, from where you can enter the increment value to be applied to each vertex point's X and Y coordinates.
All of these commands also are available from the right-click context menu associated to the main list region.
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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.

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