Working with a Center Mark Object on a Draftsman Document in Altium Designer

Parent Page: Draftsman Objects

Center Mark objects attached to placed Circle and Arc objects.

Summary

A Center Mark is crosshair object that automatically locks to the radius origin of a Circle or Arc in a Draftsman document. A placed Center Mark is available as a reference location for placed dimensioning objects such as Linear and Ordinate dimensions – see example.

Availability

Center Marks are available for placement in the Draftsman Editor in the following ways:

• Choose the Place » Annotations » Center Mark command from the main menus.
• Click the  button in the annotation objects drop-down on the Active Bar located at the top of the design space. Click and hold an Active Bar button to access other related commands. Once a command has been used, it will become the topmost item on that section of the Active Bar.
  
• Right-click in the drawing design space then select Place » Annotations » Center Mark from the context menu.
• Click the the  entry on the Drawing Annotations toolbar (click View » Toolbars » Drawing Annotations to enable).

Placement

After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and the editor will enter Center Mark placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following actions:

1. Hover the cursor over a Circle or Arc outline, which will be highlighted (colored orange) as the Center Mark graphic snaps to the Circle/Arc radius center point.
2. Click the Circle/Arc outline to confirm the placement of the Center Mark object.
3. Continue placing further Center Marks or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

► Placement demonstration

Graphical Editing

This method of editing allows a placed Center Mark object to be selected in the design space then moved to snap to a different Circle/Arc.

Select a Center Mark by clicking on the intersection of its cross-hairs. Once selected, an editing node is available at its center point.

A selected Center Mark

Click and drag the Center Mark's node to move it to a Circle/Arc object in a different location. The Center Mark is attached to the target Circle/Arc in the same way as during its initial placement – hover then click on the Circle/Arc outline.

Non-Graphical Editing

Properties page: Center Mark Properties

The non-graphical method of editing a Center Mark is available in the Draftsman Properties panel, which provides editable property fields for the item that is currently selected in the design space.

To open the Properties panel and access the properties of a placed Center Mark:

• Double-click on the Center Mark's cross-hair intersection.
• Right-click on the Center Mark's cross-hair intersection then select Item Properties from the context menu.

If the Properties panel is already active:

• Click on the Center Mark's cross-hair intersection to access its properties in the panel.

To manually open the Properties panel, select View » Panels » Properties from the main menu or click the button at the bottom right of the design space then select Properties from the pop-up menu.