Working with a Region Object on a Multi-board Schematic Document in Altium Designer

Parent page: Multi-board Schematic Objects

A placed Region

Summary

A Region is a closed shape object that can be placed on a Multi-board Design document to indicate a specific area in the schematic. The Region object shape can include angle-based curved lines.

Availability

Regions are available for placement in the multi-board schematic editor as follows:

• Choose the Place » Region command from the main menu.
• Click the  button in the graphic 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 » Region from the context menu.

Placement

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

1. Click to place the first vertex of the Region shape.
2. Move the cursor and click to place the second vertex of the Region shape.
3. Continue to place further region vertices to complete the Region shape.
4. After the final vertex is placed, right click or press Esc to complete the Region shape back to the first-placed vertex.

Straight lines will be drawn between each vertex as they are placed, however the Shift+Spacebar shortcut can be used to cycle through other line options such as a 90° corner, 45° corner, curved 90° corner or curved 45° corner – this applies to the line segment between the cursor and the previously placed vertex. Once an option is selected, use the Spacebar to toggle the direction of the corner.

Graphical Editing

This method of editing allows a placed Region object to be selected in the design space and graphically edit its size, shape or location.

Select a Region by clicking on its fill or outline. Once selected, editing handles/nodes are available at each of the shape's verticess.

A selected Region shape is edited by dragging line or vertex nodes.

• Drag (click+hold+move) any part of the Region, but not a node, to reposition it on the document.
• Drag the center mark of a line segment to move that line in the perpendicular (maintaining its angle) to a new location.
• Drag a corner vertex node to move it to a new location and alter the Region shape.
• Ctrl+drag on a line, but not its center mark, to add a new node.
• Press Delete while dragging a node to delete it from the shape.

Non-Graphical Editing

Properties page: Region Properties

The non-graphical method of editing a Region is available in the multi-board Properties panel, which provides editable property fields for the item that is currently selected in the design space.

The Properties panel when a Region object is selected.

To open the Properties panel and access the properties of a placed Region:

• After selecting the Region 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 Region object.
• Right-click on the Region then select Item Properties from the context menu.

If the Properties panel is already active, click on the Region 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 may be modified. When multiples of the same object type are selected, a Properties panel field entry can be edited for all selected objects. If values of a property are different for objects in the selection, the appropriate field will be shown as an asterisk (*); a new property value will be applied to all selected objects.