Grids

Parent page: Commands

The Grids command options.

Summary

Grid commands allow you to best utilize the efficiency of your workspace as your workspace necessitates in any given moment.  Turn the visible grid on and off, set the Electrical Grid to override the Snap Grid, cycle the Snap Grid, and adjust the Snap Grid settings. You can easily access and execute commands from hot keys or the Schematic Editor's right-click menu.

Details

Setting the Snap Grid

The Snap grid is the grid that the cursor is locked to when placing or moving schematic design objects. It is important to select a Snap grid that suits both your company requirements, and also the components used in your designs. The default Snap grid is in mils, and all Altium components are designed with their pins on a 100 mil grid.

Use the Set Snap Grid command to open the Choose a Snap Grid Size dialog which allows the designer to quickly set a different interval size for the Snap grid. The Snap grid pulls the cursor to the nearest point on its defined grid. Visit the dialog page for more information.

Cycling the Snap Grid

Cycle through snap grid settings to easily place or adjust components, wiring, designators, and more.

Execute the Cycle Snap Grid command using the following methods:

• Press the G key.
• Right-click in the workspace and select Grids » Cycle Snap Grid.

In the animation below you can see the cursor behavior with the Snap grid is 10. It is then cycled to 1 by pressing the G key once, note how the Electrical grid becomes dominant then, pulling the cursor to the end of the pin (the Electrical grid settings have been configured to 80 mils for the animation). As the wire is being placed, the Snap grid is cycled back to 10 by pressing G twice.

To help easily place objects that are not sensitive to the grid, such as strings, press the Ctrl key to temporarily change the grid to 1, as shown at the end of the animation when the designator string is moved.

Press G to cycle through the preset grids, note the Electrical grid pulling the cursor to the end of the pin. Ctrl is used to temporarily inhibit the Snap grid.

Instead of incrementally increasing the snap grid from 1, to 5, to 10, you can also cycle through the Snap Grid in reverse. This allows you to more easily returning to your previous Snap Grid setting if needed.

Execute the Cycle Snap Grid (Reverse) command using the following methods:

• Press the G+Shift at the same time.
• Right-click in the workspace and select Grids » Cycle Snap Grid (Reverse).

Toggling the Visible Grid

The Visible Grid is designed for visual presentation; it is the grid you see on the schematic sheet. Whenever the zoom level allows it to be sufficiently spaced, the Visible Grid appears as either lines or dots. The color of the Visible Grid and the choice of lines or dots is made in the Schematic - Grids tab of the Preferences dialog. Note that the cursor is not locked to this grid. You can toggle the visible grid on or off to your preference.

Execute the Toggle Visible Grid command using the following methods:

• Press G+Ctrl+Shift.
• Right-Click in the workspace and select Grids » Toggle Visible Grid.

Toggling the Electrical Grid

To simplify the creation of connections, you can toggle the Electrical Grid to override the Snap Grid. The Electrical Grid overrides the Snap grid to pull the cursor to the nearest electrical hotspot (such as the end of a pin) when the cursor is within the range of the current Electrical grid.

Execute the Toggle Electrical Grid command using the following methods:

• Press E+Shift.
• Right-Click in the workspace and select Grids » Toggle Electrical Grid.