Working with a Harness Connector Object on a Schematic Sheet in Altium Designer

Parent page: Schematic Objects

A placed Harness Connector

Summary

A Harness Connector object is an electrical drawing primitive. It is essentially a container to group various signals together to form a Signal Harness including buses and wires. A Harness Connector is defined by the Harness Type.

Availability

Harness Connectors are available for placement in the Schematic Editor:

• The following commands are available:
  • Click Place » Harness » Harness Connector from the main menus.
  • Click the Harness Connector button () in the graphic objects drop-down on the Active Bar located at the top of the workspace. 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 workspace then click Place » Harness » Harness Connector from the context menu.
  • Click the  button on the Wiring toolbar.

Placement

After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and you will enter Harness Connector placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following sequence of actions:

1. Click or press Enter to anchor the tip of the Harness Connector.
2. Move the cursor to adjust the size of the Harness Connector, then click or press Enter to anchor the corner and thereby complete placement of the Harness Connector.
3. Continue to place other Harness Connectors or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

Additional actions that can be performed during placement – while the harness connector is still floating on the cursor, and before its tip is anchored – are:

• Press the Tab key to open the Harness Connector mode of the Properties panel from where properties for the harness connector can be changed on-the-fly.
• Press the Alt key to constrain the direction of movement to the horizontal or vertical axis, depending on the initial direction of movement.
• Press the X or Y keys to mirror the harness connector along the X-axis or Y-axis respectively.

Graphical Editing

This method of editing allows you to select a placed harness connector object directly in the workspace and change its size, shape or location graphically.

When a harness connector object is selected, the following editing handles are available:

A selected Harness Connector.

• Click and drag A to resize the harness connector in the vertical and horizontal directions simultaneously.
• Click and drag B to resize the harness connector in the vertical direction.
• Click and drag C or anywhere on the harness connector away from editing handles to reposition it. While dragging, click the X or Y keys to mirror the harness connector along the X-axis or Y-axis.
• The Harness Connector Type text for a harness connector object can be edited in-place by:
  1. Single-clicking the text to select it.
  2. Single-clicking again (or pressing Enter) to enter the in-place editing mode. Sufficient time between each click should be given to ensure the software does not interpret the two single-clicks as one double-click (which would open the Properties panel).
  3. To finish editing in-place text, press the Enter key or use the mouse to click away from the text.

The following methods of non-graphical editing are available:

Via the Properties Panel

Panel page: Harness Connector Properties

This method of editing uses the associated Properties panel mode to modify the properties of a harness connector object.

The Harness Connector mode of the Properties panel

During placement, the Harness Connector mode of the Properties panel can be accessed by pressing the Tab key.

After placement, the Harness Connector mode of the Properties panel can be accessed in one of the following ways:

• Double-click on the placed harness connector object.
• Place the cursor over the harness connector object, right-click then choose Properties from the context menu.
• If the Properties panel is already active, select the harness connector object.

Editing Multiple objects

The Properties panel supports multiple object editing, where the property settings that are identical in all currently selected objects may be modified. When multiples of the same object type are selected manually, via the Find Similar Objects dialog or through a Filter or List panel, a Properties panel field entry that is not shown as an asterisk (*) may be edited for all selected objects.

The panel with two Harness Connector objects selected.

Via a Panel

Panel pages: SCH List, SCH Filter

The SCH List panel allows you to display design objects from one or more documents in tabular format, enabling quick inspection and modification of object attributes. Used in conjunction with appropriate filtering - by using the SCH Filter panel or the Find Similar Objects dialog - it enables the display of just those objects falling under the scope of the active filter – allowing you to target and edit multiple design objects with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Tips

1. By default, newly-placed Harness Connectors are given the Harness Type Harness.
2. The Harness Type can be hidden from view or moved to save space in your design. Click the  option in the Properties panel to hide the Harness Type.