Working with a Counter Hole View Object on a Draftsman Document in Altium Designer

Parent page: Draftsman Design Objects

Two placed Counter Hole Views, used to illustrate dimensions of the pad hole with countersink applied.

Summary

The Draftsman Counter Hole View feature allows a specified pad with counterbore and/or countersink applied from the current PCB design to be placed as a single drawing view object. The view angle, display style and content of a Counter Hole View is configurable in the Properties panel.

Availability

Counter Hole Views are available for placement in a PCB project Draftsman document from the Draftsman Editor as follows:

• Choose the Place » Additional Views » Counter Hole View command from the main menus.

• Click the Counter Hole View option () in the view 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 » Additional Views » Counter Hole View from the context menu.
• Click the  entry on the Drawing Views toolbar (View » Toolbars » Drawing Views to enable).

Placement

After launching the command, drawing data is retrieved from the source PCB file, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and the rendered Counter Hole View is attached to the cursor. Move the cursor to the desired position then click to confirm the placement.

A default counter hole is initially shown, however, the view selection can be changed in the Properties panel to specify any available pad with a counter hole feature from the source PCB design.

Graphical Editing

The position of a placed Counter Hole View may be graphically changed by selecting the object in the design space then dragging it to a new location.

When dragging a Counter Hole View with the Left ViewSide selected in its properties, use the Spacebar to rotate the view through 90° increments.

Non-Graphical Editing

Properties page: Counter Hole View Properties

The non-graphical method of editing a Counter Hole View is available in the Draftsman Properties panel, which provides a comprehensive range of editable properties, options and design content settings for placed Draftsman objects that are currently selected in the design space.

The Properties panel when a Counter Hole View is selected.

To open the Properties panel and access the properties of a placed Counter Hole View:

• After selecting the Counter Hole View object, select the Properties panel from the Panels button at the bottom right of the design space or select View » Panels » Properties from the main menus.
• Double-click on the Counter Hole View object in the design space.
• Right-click on the Counter Hole View then select Item Properties from the context menu.

If the Properties panel is already active, click on the Counter Hole View object to access its properties in the panel.

Editing Multiple Objects

The Properties panel supports multiple object editing, where the property settings that are identical in all currently selected objects can be modified.