Navigating a Document in Altium Designer

When working with a graphical document, such as a schematic sheet, PCB document, or Draftsman document, you can zoom and pan the document to focus on a specific document area. The basic shortcuts that can be used to do this are:

• Ctrl+Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out
• Right-Click, Hold&Drag to slide the document around

The View main menu includes a number of commands that can be used to control the view of the current document.

Use commands of the View main menu to control the view of your document. In the top image, the View menu of the schematic editor is shown. In the bottom image, the View menu of the PCB editor is shown.

These commands include:

• Fit Document - display the entire area of the current document.
• Fit All Objects - display all design objects on the current document.
• Area - zoom into a user-defined area of the current document.
• Around Point - redefine the display area about a specified point in the current document.
• Selected Objects - change the view in the design space, such that all selected objects are visible.
• Zoom In - bring the design closer to you, relative to the cursor position, in the current document.
• Zoom Out - move the design away from you, relative to the cursor position, in the current document.
• Zoom Last - return the display to the previous view of the screen, in the current document.

Jumping to a Specific Point in a Document

Using the commands of the Edit » Jump sub-menu from the main menus of the schematic, schematic symbol, PCB or PCB footprint editor, you can jump to a specific point in the active document. The Jump pop-up menu also can be accessed by pressing the J key in the design space. For example, you can jump to:

• the document's origin coordinate:
  • the origin point of a schematic sheet (that corresponds to the bottom-left corner) - Origin;
  • the absolute origin of the PCB document - Absolute Origin;
  • the relative origin of the current PCB document - Current Origin;
  • the location of the component reference point in the PCB footprint document - Reference;

• any location within the current document, based on user-specified XY coordinates - select the New Location command to enter values for the X and Y coordinates within the design space, for the location you wish the cursor to jump to, in the Jump To Location dialog that appears. In the PCB editor, you can also use the Delta X and Delta Y fields to specify the delta X and Y coordinates for the required location to which you want to jump.

  
  The Jump To Location dialog - in the schematic editor (the first image) and in the PCB editor (the second image)

• an object within the document. Use the following commands to jump to an object of interest:

  • a component on the schematic sheet - Jump Component. After launching the command, the Component Designator dialog will appear. Enter the component designator for the component you wish to jump to. If the designator is valid and the component exists on a schematic source document within the active project, then the relevant schematic document will be made the active document, and the target component will be zoomed and centered (where possible) within the design space. The found component (or all parts for a multi-part component) is also listed in the Messages panel. Double-click a message entry to jump to that component (or part thereof) in the design space.

    
    The Component Designator dialog

    When targeting a multi-part component, only enter the root designator. Do not include the part suffix. For example to jump to a 2-part IC component, whose parts are designated IC1_CPA and IC1_CPB, enter IC1_CP into the Component Designator dialog. For a multi-part component, the first part will be highlighted, with the Find Text - Jump dialog opened. Use this dialog to jump between sub-parts of the component.
    Enable the Physical option in the Component Designator dialog to confine the jump feature to only physical component designators - those appearing on the Compiled Document tabbed views of the source schematic documents. With this option disabled, the jump feature will only consider logical designators - those appearing on the Editor tabbed views of the source schematic documents.

  • a specific component in the PCB document - Component. After launching the command, the Component Designator dialog will appear. Type in the component designator to jump to that component. If you are unsure of the designator, type ? and click OK to launch the Components Placed dialog, which lists all components in the design. Enter text into the Mask field to search for the desired component. As you type, the list is filtered to show only strings that match the mask string. You can use the ? (any single character) and * (any characters) wildcards in the string. The cursor will jump to the reference point of the component you select.

    
    Type ? in the Component Designator dialog to access the Components Placed dialog listing all components in the PCB.

  • a specific net in the PCB document - Net. After launching the command, the Net Name dialog will appear. Type in the name of the net you wish to jump to, or type ? and press OK to open the Nets Loaded dialog, containing a list of all loaded nets for the design. Enter text into the Mask field to search for the desired net. As you type, the list is filtered to only show strings that match the mask string. You can use the ? (any single character) and * (any characters) wildcards in the Mask string. If the target Net is already displayed within the main design window, the cursor will jump to the nearest design object that is a member of that Net. If the Net is out of view, the cursor will be positioned at the nearest design object that is a member of that Net, centered within the design space (where possible).

    Type ? in the Net Name dialog to access the Nets Loaded dialog listing all nets in the PCB.

  • a specific component pad in the PCB document - Pad. After launching the command, the Jump To Pad Number dialog will appear. Enter the required pad of the desired component in the form ComponentDesignator-PadDesignator (e.g., U1-6) and click OK. If the target pad is already displayed within the design space, the cursor will simply jump to the center of that pad. If the pad is out of view, the cursor will be positioned at the center of the pad, centered within the design space (where possible).

    
    The Jump To Pad Number dialog

  • a specific string in the PCB document - String. After launching the command, the Jump To String dialog will appear. Type in the string that you wish to jump to, or type ? and click OK to open the Strings dialog, containing a list of all strings found within the active board document (free and children of other group objects). Use this dialog to quickly locate the string to which you want to jump. If the target string is already displayed within the design space, the cursor will simply jump to anchor point of the string - the point by which it is held during a move operation, or rotated around. If the string is out of view, the cursor will be positioned at the anchor point of the string, centered within the design space (where possible).

    
    Type ? in the Jump To String dialog to access the Strings dialog listing all nets in the PCB.

    The system will perform three searches: first for a string that matches the specified string in both case, characters and length; then for a string with the same characters in it but perhaps having more characters; and finally for a string with the same characters, ignoring case.

  • jump to, and cycle through, all error markers in the current design document - Error Marker. After launching the command, the cursor will jump to the first Design Rule Check (DRC) error marker, centered in the main design window. Repeatedly using the command will cause a jump to a second error marker and so on. This command will jump to an error marker, irrespective of whether or not the violation is waived.

    Interrogate the violation(s) associated to the object under the cursor by right-clicking and choosing the relevant command from the Violations sub-menu.

• jump to, and cycle through, all selected design objects in the current document - Selection. After launching the command, the cursor will jump to the first selected object, zoomed and centered in the main design window. Repeatedly using the command will jump to a second selected object and so on, cycling through all selected objects in the current document. The command cycles through the selected objects in the order in which they were originally added to the selection.

• a position in the current schematic or PCB document, whose coordinates have been previously stored in the indicated location marker - select the Location Marks » n command to jump to the position that has been stored in the indicated location marker using the Set Location Marks » n command.

  For a schematic document, a stored location is only available while the document remains open (active or not). If the document is closed and opened again, the location marker will be empty. For a PCB document, location markers are saved with the design, so that the user-defined positions contained within can still be accessed between design sessions.