Configuring Draftsman Drill Drawing View Object Properties in Altium Designer
Created: December 13, 2018 | Updated: March 11, 2019
| Applies to version: 19.0
Now reading version 19. For the latest, read: Configuring Draftsman Drill Drawing View Object Properties in Altium Designer for version 21
Parent page: Drill Drawing View
Draftsman object properties are definable options that specify the visual style, content and behavior of the placed object. The property settings for each type of object are defined in two different ways:
- Pre-placement settings – most Drill Drawing View object properties, or those that can logically be pre-defined, are available as editable default settings on the Draftsman - Defaults page of the Preferences dialog (access from the
button at the top-right of the workspace). Select the object in the Primitive List to reveal its options on the right.
- Post-placement settings – all Drill Drawing View object properties are available for editing in the Properties panel when a placed Drill Drawing View is selected in the workspace.
The Drill Drawing View default settings in the Preferences dialog, and the Drill Drawing View mode of the Properties panel.
Scale
- Scale – use the drop-down to choose from a range of preset size scale ratios. This option is not available if the Use Custom Scale option is checked.
- Use Custom Scale – select this option to enter a specific scale in its associated field. The scaling of the drawing object is relative to
1
, where0.9
would represent a scale of 90%.
Title
- Title – the title name string that will be displayed (if enabled) with the Drill Drawing View object. Use the associated
button to toggle its visibility. Enter the title name and any desired system/custom parameters to create a meaningful name for the placed view. See the Parameters section in the Properties panel's Document Options mode for a list of the currently available parameters.
- Location – use the drop-down to choose from a range of relative locations for the title. The Manual option is automatically selected if the title is manually moved (dragged and dropped to a new location).
- Font – sets the displayed font used for the view's title string.
- Use Document Font checkbox selected – the title font used is that defined by the document options. See the Document Font entry in the General section of the Properties panel when in Document Options mode.
- Use Document Font not selected – use the drop-down menus to choose the desired font type and size and select the lower buttons to enable text attributes. The associated color button (
) opens the color selector where the font color can be specified by RGB or HEX value, by freeform selection, or from a range of presets. Note that the slider control sets the color Opacity level where 0% represents full transparency.
Style
- Board Line – the thickness and style of the Drill Drawing View's border/outline. Use the drop-down menus to choose from a range of line thickness presets and the line pattern menu to choose from a range of line styles. The associated color button (
) opens the line color selector dialog as outlined above.
Properties
- View – the direction of view used to render the board drawing. Use the drop-down menu to specify the Top or Bottom view direction.
- Rotation – the rotation angle at which the Drill Drawing is rendered as selected from the sequence of 90° preset options is in the drop-down menu.
- Layer Pairs – select which PCB drill Layer Pair holes will be displayed in the drawing view. Use the drop-down menu to choose from the Layer Pairs that are available in the source board design as can be viewed and edited in the PCB Editor's Layer Stack Manager. All board designs will have a Top Layer to Bottom Layer pair, while other pairs will represent via holes passing between or to other layers, such as internal/plane layers.
- Drill Symbols (Properties panel only) – select to open the Drill Symbol Configurations dialog, which provides a tabular view of all drill hole data and allows the setting of the style and size for each hole symbol.