Working with an Elliptical Arc Object on a Schematic Sheet in Altium Designer

Parent page: Schematic Objects

A placed Elliptical Arc

Summary

An elliptical arc is a non-electrical drawing primitive. It is essentially an open circular or elliptical curve that can be placed on a schematic sheet.

Availability

The Elliptical Arc object is available for placement in both Schematic and Schematic Library Editors:

• Schematic Editor - the following commands are available:
  • Choose Place » Drawing Tools » Elliptical Arc from the main menus.
  • Click the Elliptical Arc 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 top-most item on that section of the Active Bar.)
  • Right-click in the design spacethen choose Place » Drawing Tools » Elliptical Arc from the context menu.
  • Click the  button on the Utility Tools drop-down () of the Utilities toolbar.
• Schematic Library Editor - the following commands are available:
  • Choose Place » Elliptical Arc from the main menus.
  • Click the Elliptical Arc button () in the graphic objects drop-down on the Active Bar menu 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 top-most item on that section of the Active Bar.)
  • Right-click and choose Place » Elliptical Arc from the context menu.
  • Click the  button on the Utility Tools drop-down () of the Utilities toolbar.

Placement

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

1. Click or press Enter to anchor the center point of the arc.
2. Move the cursor to adjust the X radius of the arc, then click or press Enter to set it.
3. Move the cursor to adjust the Y radius of the arc, then click or press Enter to set it.
4. Move the cursor to adjust the first end point of the arc, then click or press Enter to anchor it.
5. Move the cursor to change the position of the arc's other end point, then click or press Enter to anchor it and complete placement of the arc.
6. Continue placing further elliptical arcs, or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

Additional actions that can be performed during placement – while the arc is still floating on the cursor, and before the center point is anchored – are:

• Press the Tab key to access an associated properties dialog, from where properties for the arc 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 Spacebar to rotate the arc anti-clockwise or Shift+Spacebar for clockwise rotation. Rotation is in steps of 90°.
• Press the X or Y keys to mirror the arc along the X-axis or Y-axis respectively.

When an elliptical arc object is selected, the following editing handles are available:

A selected Elliptical Arc.

• Click and drag A to change the vertical radius.
• Click and drag B to change the horizontal radius.
• Click and drag C to adjust the end points.
• Click anywhere on the elliptical arc – away from editing handles – and drag to reposition it. While dragging, the elliptical arc can be rotated (Spacebar/Shift+Spacebar) or mirrored (X or Y keys to mirror along the X-axis or Y-axis respectively).