Polygon

Modified by Jason Howie on Feb 19, 2015
Contents

Parent page: Schematic Objects

  A placed Polygon.

Summary

A polygon is a non-electrical drawing primitive. It is a multi-sided graphical object that can be placed on a schematic sheet. A polygon must have at least three sides and can be filled or unfilled.

Availability

Polygons can be placed in both the Schematic Editor and the Schematic Library Editor.

  • Schematic Editor - click Home | Graphical Elements |  from the main menus.
  • Schematic Library Editor - click Home | Place |  from the main menus.

Placement

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

  1. Click or press Enter to anchor the starting point for the polygon.
  2. Position the cursor and click or press Enter to anchor a vertex, move the mouse and repeat as often as required to define the shape of the polygon.
  3. After placing the final vertex point, right-click or press Esc to complete placement of the polygon.
  4. Continue placing further polygons, or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

While attributes can be modified during placement (Tab to bring up associated properties dialog), bear in mind that these will become the default settings for further placement.

Graphical Editing

This method of editing allows you to select a placed polygon object directly in the workspace and change its size and/or shape, graphically.

When a polygon object is selected, an editing handle (vertex) will appear at each corner, as shown in the image below.

A selected Polygon.

  • Click and drag on a vertex to move that vertex.
  • Ctrl+click and drag on an edge to move that edge of the polygon.
  • Right-click on a vertex point and choose the Edit Polygon Vertex n command to access the Vertices tab of the Polygon dialog, with the entry for the nth vertex selected ready for editing.
  • Ctrl+click and hold on an edge, then press Insert to add a vertex at that point.
  • Click and hold on a vertex, then press Delete to remove that vertex.

With the polygon selected, click on an edge to individually select that edge. This polygon 'sub-selection' is distinguished by the associated editing handles for the edge becoming red in color.

Individual edge sub-selection.

The associated vertices for the edge can then be edited directly using the Inspector panel, with any changes appearing immediately on the schematic.

To move an entire polygon, click and hold on the un-selected polygon, then move it to the new location.

An object that has its Locked property enabled cannot be selected or graphically edited. Double click on the locked object directly and disable the Locked property, to graphically edit the object.

Non-Graphical Editing

The following methods of non-graphical editing are available:

Via an Associated Properties Dialog

Dialog page: Polygon

This method of editing uses the Polygon dialog to modify the properties of a polygon object.

The Polygon dialog.

The dialog can be accessed during placement by pressing the Tab key.

After placement, the dialog can be accessed in one of the following ways:

  • Double-clicking on the placed polygon object.
  • Placing the cursor over the polygon object, right-clicking and choosing Properties from the context menu.
The Polygon dialog includes a Vertices tab, where you can edit the individual vertices of the currently selected polygon object.

Via an Inspector Panel

Panel pages: SCH Inspector, SCHLIB Inspector

An Inspector panel enables the designer to interrogate and edit the properties of one or more design objects in the active document. Used in conjunction with the Find Similar Objects dialog, the panel can be used to make changes to multiple objects of the same kind, from one convenient location.

 

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