Shortcuts for the Altium Designer Draftsman Editor
The following sections present shortcut keys that are specific to the Draftsman Editor. For general information regarding shortcut keys - including access and editing, general Altium environment shortcuts, and accelerator keys - see Altium Designer Shortcut Keys.
When looking at the shortcut key listings, keep in mind the following:
- When referring to shortcuts, use of the plus (+) symbol denotes holding multiple keys down on the keyboard in the indicated sequence. For example, Shift+F1 means holding down the Shift key then pressing the F1 key. Likewise, Shift+Ctrl+PgUp means holding down the Shift key then holding down the Ctrl key at the same time and pressing the PgUp key.
- Where use of the standard mouse buttons is made, Click refers to a single click of the left-hand mouse button, Double-Click refers to two clicks of the left-hand mouse button, and Right-Click refers to a single click of the right-hand mouse button.
Standard Shortcuts
The following shortcuts are standard to the Draftsman Editor. They are available in general and do not require you to be performing an interactive process to access them.
General Editing |
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| Double-Click | Modify the properties of the object currently under the cursor. |
| Right-Click | Access context menu for the design space. If currently within an interactive command, will escape from the current operation. |
| Ctrl+C | Copy selection. |
| Ctrl+X | Cut selection. |
| Ctrl+V | Paste selection. |
| Delete | Delete selection. |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo. |
| Ctrl+Y | Redo. |
Selecting |
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| Click | Select the object currently under the cursor. |
| Shift+Click | On an object to add it to the current selection (cumulative selection). |
| Ctrl+A | Select all objects on the current document. |
| Click (away from objects), Hold&Drag (left-to-right) | Select all objects that fall completely within the bounds of the selection area. |
| Click (away from objects), Hold&Drag (right-to-left) | Select all objects that fall completely inside the selection area or are touched by its boundary. |
| Shift+Tab | Switch between selection of a component and its overlapping designator in a Board Assembly View. |
Moving |
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| Click (on an object), Hold&Drag |
Move the single object currently under the cursor (or group of selected objects if the object is part of that selection). |
| Left Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) to the left in the current document design space in increments of one snap grid unit. |
| Shift+Left Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) to the left in the current document design space, in increments of 10 snap grid units. |
| Right Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) to the right in the current document design space, in increments of one snap grid unit. |
| Shift+Right Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) to the right in the current document design space, in increments of 10 snap grid units. |
| Up Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) upwards in the current document design space, in increments of one snap grid unit. |
| Shift+Up Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) upwards in the current document design space, in increments of 10 snap grid units. |
| Down Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) downwards in the current document design space, in increments of one snap grid unit. |
| Shift+Down Arrow | Move the current selection (one or more selected design objects) downwards in the current document design space, in increments of 10 snap grid units. |
Viewing the Draftsman Sheet |
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| Ctrl+PgDn | Change the view in the main design window so that the active Draftsman document is made completely visible (where possible). If the document contains multiple sheets, fitting the entire document into view especially if there are a great many sheets, may not be possible. In this case, the software will attempt to fit what it can with the center of the document at the center of the main design window. |
| PgUp | Zoom-in, relative to the current cursor location.
You can also use the mouse to zoom in to a region of the document by one of the following methods (where applicable and depending on how the buttons of your mouse might be assigned):
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| PgDn | Zoom-out, relative to the current cursor location.
You can use the mouse to zoom out from a region of the document by one of the following methods (where applicable and depending on how the buttons of your mouse might be assigned):
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| Mouse Wheel | Scroll vertically within the design space. This is a default setting that can be changed from the System - Mouse Wheel Configuration page of the Preferences dialog. |
| Shift+Mouse Wheel | Scroll horizontally within the design space. This is a default setting that can be changed from the System - Mouse Wheel Configuration page of the Preferences dialog. |
| Right-Click, Hold&Drag | Pan the view within the main design window. |
Grids |
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| G | Access the Snap Grid dialog, to set the required grid size. |
| Shift+Ctrl+G | Turn the visible grid on or off in the current document. |
| Ctrl+Shift | Temporarily disables the grid when placing/moving an object. |
| Shift+E | Toggle the snapping functionality on or off. |
Finding Text |
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| Ctrl+F | Find text. |
| F3 | Find next occurrence of searched text. |
Miscellaneous |
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| Shift+Ctrl+C | Copy the formatting from the currently selected text object (title or note). Alternatively, select the text object whose formatting you wish to copy and launch the Format Painter command from the main Edit menu. |
| Shift+Ctrl+V | Paste the formatting copied from a previously selected text object to the currently selected text object (title or note). Alternatively, if you have launched the Format Painter command from the main Edit menu, just click on each additional title/note object to apply the 'copied' formatting. |
| F11 | Toggle the display of the Properties panel. |
Interactive Shortcuts
The following shortcuts become available when an interactive process has been launched, such as placing a new design object, or moving an existing one. Note that the shortcuts available will depend on the interactive command and the specific design object that is the focus of that command.
| PgUp | Zoom in. |
| PgDn | Zoom out. |
| X | Mirror the object being moved along the X-axis. |
| Y | Mirror the object being moved along the Y-axis. |
| Esc | Escape from the current process - either a stage of the currently running interactive command or the command itself. |
| Spacebar |
Rotates the object being moved counterclockwise. Rotation is in increments of 90°. |
| Shift+Spacebar |
Rotates the object being moved clockwise. Rotation is in increments of 90°. |
| Backspace | Remove the last placed segment, while placing a region. |
Pop-up Menu Shortcuts
The following shortcuts give access to specific pop-up menus of commands, directly from within the design space itself. Some of these will be familiar as they are sub-menus found within the main menus for the editor. Each of the main menus also have a defined pop-up key for quick access from within the design space, see Accelerator Keys for more information.
| B | The Toolbars sub-menu (from the main View menu). |
| K | The Panels sub-menu (from the main View menu). |
| M | A pop-up menu of move commands. |
| S | The Select sub-menu (from the main Edit menu). |
| Z | A pop-up menu with zoom commands |