Place Part

The Place Part dialog.

Summary

This dialog allows the designer to choose a schematic part and configure related attributes, prior to placement on the active schematic document.

Access

The dialog can be accessed from the Schematic Editor, by using the Place » Part command, from the main menus. Alternatively, right-click in the workspace and use the Place » Part command from the context menu.

Options/Controls

• Physical Component - the name of the design component being placed. Type the name of the component directly into the field, select a previously placed component from an historical list, or browse for it among the set of Available Libraries. The field's associated drop-down will list historically placed components.
  • History - click this button to access the Placed Parts History dialog, listing all previously placed components. Select a component in this dialog and click OK to have it loaded ready for placement back in the main Place Part dialog.
  • Choose - click this button to access the Browse Libraries dialog, from where you can browse for a component through all available libraries (project libraries, installed libraries, and libraries found along specified search paths). Select a component in this dialog and click OK to have it loaded ready for placement back in the main Place Part dialog.
• Logical Symbol - this uneditable field presents the name of the logical symbol, which is the symbolic representation of the physical component in the schematic domain.
• Designator - the current designator that will be used for the next placed instance of the chosen component. By default, the undesignated form of designator associated with the type of component will be used, such as U?, C?, R?, Q?. By specifying the designator prior to placement, you will be able to place multiple instances, and the designator will increment, resulting in uniquely designated components.

• Comment - use this field to give the component a meaningful comment, which might be its part number (for a specific IC package), or a value (for a generic component such as a resistor, capacitor, or inductor).
• Footprint - the footprint model that will be used to represent the component in the PCB domain. If the component has multiple footprints (or more precisely 2D/3D Component models) linked to it, these will be listed on the field's drop-down. Simply choose the model you wish to set as the current model.
• Part ID - for a multi-part component, this field allows you to choose which part to place, from the associated drop-down listing. For a single part component, this field will simply reflect this with the entry 1, and be grayed-out.
• Library - this uneditable field presents the name of the library in which the chosen component resides.
• Database Table - this uneditable field is meaningful only when placing a part from a linked database. It presents the name of the table within the source database, in which the physical component's record can be found.

Tips

1. A physical component and a logical symbol are the same if they come from a standard library. But for database libraries and vault-based 'libraries' (components available through a named collection of vault folders), a physical component represents a record in a table of the linked source database, or a revision of a Component Item in the source Altium Vault, respectively. So in a database, a record with Part Number 10ACD33 is the physical component, while the name of the schematic symbol in a source SchLib referenced by a field in that record - say Capacitor - would be the logical symbol. Similarly, in a Vault, a revision of a Component Item, with unique Item-Revision ID Cmp-000-0001-1, would be the physical component, while the name of the schematic symbol in the released library of the Schematic Symbol Item, referenced by that Component Item Revision - which is typically reflected in the comment field for that Schematic Symbol Item - would be the logical symbol.