Setup Paste Array (SCH)

The Setup Paste Array dialog

Summary

This dialog allows you to quickly paste a copied object (or objects) as an array with specific spacing. If the copied object involves text, the alpha or numeric suffix can be incremented by defined steps also. This dialog takes the effort out of defining pins for the symbol of a component, with the ability to increment both designator and display name independently, and in ascending (alpha or numeric values) or descending (numerical values only) increments.

Access

This dialog is accessible in the schematic library editor only. With the object(s) copied to the clipboard, use the Edit » Paste Array command from the main menus.

Options/Controls

Placement Variables

• Item Count - use this field to specify the total number of duplicate items to be pasted into the workspace.
• Primary Increment - use this field to specify the amount to increment by. To increment a numerical value, simply enter the increment step as an integer value. To increment alphabetically, enter the letter in the alphabet that represents the number of letters you want to skip. For example, if the initial text was 1A, set the field to A, (first letter of the alphabet), to increment by 1. If you set the field to C (third letter of the alphabet) then the text will become 1A, 1D (three letters after A), 1G, etc. When the pasted object is a pin, this field affects the Pin Designator.
• Secondary Increment - this field applies only when pasting an array of pin objects, and affects the Pin Display Name. Use it to specify the amount to increment by as per the Primary Increment field.

• Remove Leading Zeroes - enable this option to remove leading zeroes from pasted array text. For standard text strings, this concerns leading zeroes for the numeric portion of a string only, and will not remove zeroes that prefix an alpha character. For example, the text string C000020 would be pasted (with Primary Increment 1) as C21, and the text string 000C000020 would be pasted as 000C21. When pasting pin objects, this concerns the Pin Designator only and not the Pin Display Name.

Spacing

• Horizontal - enter a value in this field to determine the horizontal displacement of each array item. A positive value will place the array to the right of the cursor position. A negative value will place the array to the left.
• Vertical - enter a value in this field to determine the vertical displacement of each array item. A positive value will place the array upward from the cursor position. A negative value will place the array downward.