Movement Tools
Parent page: Commands
The Schematic Editor includes a variety of movement tools to help you efficiently develop the board schematic.
Summary
Printed circuit board design is a highly detailed and precise process, objects are carefully placed to fulfill their mechanical and electronic requirements. To help with this, the Schematic Editor includes a variety of movement commands and behaviors. Any object can be moved by simply clicking and dragging. To move multiple objects, they must be selected first so the software knows which objects are to be moved.
Details
As well as moving objects directly with the mouse, specific movement commands are available by clicking Tools | Arrange | . A summary of each is given in the table below.
General notes on moving objects:
- Click and hold the mouse button to move a single object.
- Click and hold requires the mouse button to be held down, holding the mouse button down is not required if you use a Move menu command. The advantage of using a Move command is that arrow keys can then be used to accurately move the object(s) in single grid increments. You can then hold Shift to step in 10 x grid increments.
- A set of selected objects can also be moved using the click and hold technique, depending on which kind of object in the selection set is clicked on. When multiple objects are moved using click and hold, the cursor will jump to the nearest grid point and then begin to move the selection set. Note that this held by point may not be an object reference point. If positioning is critical, it is better to use the Move Selection command described below, as you can move the cursor around until it snaps to an object reference point, such as the center of a pad, which then becomes the point where the set of objects is held by. In fact it can help to place a temporary pad or via to help with the precise relocation of a set of selected objects.
- If multiple objects are moved, their position relative to each other is maintained.
Interactive Behavior while Moving Objects
The following commands are available while one or more objects are being moved:
- Press Tab to open the object's properties dialog (if only one object being moved).
- Press Spacebar to rotate the object(s) anti-clockwise about the movement reference point, or Shift+Spacebar for clockwise rotation. The default rotation increment is 90 degrees.
- Press X or Y to flip the object(s) along the X or Y axes respectively.
- Right-click or press Esc to abort the current movement action.
Summary of the Movement Commands
| Command | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Drag | Move the chosen object and drag attached objects with it. After launching the command the Status bar will prompt Move any Object. Click to choose the object then move it to the required location. Connected wire segments will remain attached, the end on the moving object will move with the object, the other end of the segment(s) will remain where it was. |
| Move Selection | Move selected objects. After launching this command the Status bar will prompt to Move Selection. Click anywhere within the workspace to hold the selection set at that point, then move the mouse to move the selection set to a new location. Note that the click that defines the hold point for the selection set will automatically be on grid, unless you hover the mouse so that it snaps to an object hotspot (reference point), such as the center of a pad. |
| Move Selection by X, Y | Move the selected objects by a user-defined offset. After launching this command the Move Selection by X, Y dialog will open; enter the required offset values and click OK to move the selection set by that amount. |
| Drag Selection | Available when an object(s) has been pre-selected; otherwise functions as the Drag option does. |
| Move To Front | Choose an object to move and bring in front of another object(s). |
| Rotate Selection | Rotate the selected object(s) counter-clockwise. |
| Rotate Selection Clockwise | Rotate the selected object(s) clockwise. |
| Bring To Front | Move an object that is part of a stack of overlapping objects to the front of the stack. |
| Send To Back | Move an object that is part of a stack of overlapping objects to the back of the stack. |
| Bring To Front Of | Move one object in front of another object in a stack of overlapping objects. |
| Send To Back Of | Move one object in behind another object in a stack of overlapping objects. |