Move

The Move option is used to move an item(s) to a new position in a design.

Additionally, the ability to drag an item to a new position using only the mouse is also available.

Shortcuts

Default Keys: None

Default Menu: None

Command: Move

Locating this option

Available from: Edit toolbar > Move option

Available from: Context menu > Move option

How To Move An Item

1. Select the item(s) you wish to move.
2. Click on the Move icon on the Edit Toolbar, alternatively right click the mouse and select Move from the shortcut menu, or if one has been assigned, you can use the shortcut key for move.
3. The cursor will snap back to the selected item which you can then reposition by moving the mouse. Note that it is not necessary to press or hold down a mouse button while moving an item in this way.
4. To release the item at the desired position click the left mouse button.

How To Drag An Item

1. To be able to move an item simply by dragging, Pulsonix needs to be in Select Mode (or Edit Mode).

2. With the cursor over the item(s) to be moved, press and hold down the left mouse button.

   The item(s) selected may or may not be already selected. If not, any other item(s) will first be deselected, and the item to be moved will also become the selected item. If the item under the cursor is part of a larger selection, the whole selection will be dragged.

3. Still holding down the left mouse button, move the mouse to drag the item(s) to the required position.

4. Release the left mouse button to drop the item(s) at their new position.

Latch Mode

Move can also be used in Latched Mode This allows you to move items simply by picking them, but unlike dragging, it does not require you to hold down the left mouse button during the move.

Defining The Placement Origin

You may wish to change the point in an item that is used as its origin when moved. For example, if you have defined the origin of a component at its centre, but wish to place it using the first pad position.

If placing a pre-selected item, you can change the selection origin by using Place Selection Origin from the shortcut menu prior to the move. Place the origin over the item or point you want to place the item about and then drag or use the Move function.

Alternatively, when the Move option is latched down, you can redefine the placement origin as follows:

Right click and use the Use Selection Origin option from the shortcut menu. A origin symbol will be displayed on the cursor for you to place. Whilst placing it, right click again to enable the Snap To Item option if you want the origin to snap to the nearest point on the design item it is dropped over. Once the origin has been placed you can right click and use Place Selection Origin to reposition it.

With a selection origin defined, when items are moved the origin is also moved and its position is gridded and shown on the status bar.

Moving The Cursor To The Placement Origin

There is an option Move Cursor To Placement Origin. Enable this if you want the cursor to be initially moved to the original placement origin. This will only apply if the picked item in the selection has an origin, i.e. it is a text item or uses a symbol (e.g. component, signal reference, documentation symbol, block instance etc.) or if a temporary selection origin has been explicitly created for the move.

Special Move Modes

Moving some items enter their own special mode of operation as follows:

1. Move Corner - Used if the selected item is just a corner of a shape, PCB track or Schematics connection.
2. Stretch Dimension - Used if the selected item is the arrow head or construction line of a dimension. In this mode the dimension length is dynamically altered.
3. Place Dimension - Used if the selected item is the tail on a arrow of a dimension. In this mode the dimension offset is dynamically altered.
4. Place Callout - Used if the selected item is a callout, and the picked part is either the callout text or the marker at the start of the callout line. In this mode the picked end of the callout is moved whilst the other end is left in its original position. The pointer line will be dynamically changed to attach to the moving item.
5. Move Chip Body - This is available from the shortcut menu when any part of a bare die component is selected in a PCB design. Use it to position the body of the chip without changing the position of any of the bond pads.

Auto Weld

Use Auto Weld to attach two items that are on top of each other in a design with a PCB track or schematic connection.

This is available in Select Mode, using the shortcut menu option Auto Weld Selection to attempt to weld all selected pads and track ends to the items beneath them, or can be used when placing items to weld a moving item to a static one in the design.

Whilst moving you can perform an auto weld using the Auto Weld Now command which is available from the shortcut menu or by using a shortcut key. This mode allows you to then carry on moving the item after it has been attached with a track to the static item beneath it. For example move a pad over a track segment, use Auto Weld Now, and when the pad is moved again the track will be split and attached to the pad.

You can also use the Auto Weld On Drop mode which performs the welding after completing the move. The On Drop mode must have been enabled in the Options dialog.

Auto Weld will join a pin to another pin or an unconnected track end, provided they are on the same net, or one of the pins is not on a net. They must align in order to be welded. Several pins may be welded at the same time.

In schematics you can move a new symbol so that its pins are over a bus segment and weld it to the bus. A dialog will be presented to choose the net names from the bus for each of the pins. Moving the symbol away from the bus will show the connections and bus terminals clearly. If the bus is an open bus there are no net names on the bus, but you can type the required net name range or pick an existing closed bus name range from a drop down list.

There are two more Auto Weld options. The first is Allow Weld To Split Tracks. Enable this to allow moving pads or track ends to be inserted into static track segments they are dropped over. This will also allow moving track segments to be split to insert static pads they are dropped over.

The second option is Show Weld Spots. Enable this to display spots of colour where a moving item will attempt to weld to the item it is over if Auto Weld is performed. There are two highlight colours that can be set up for this purpose, one when the items are close enough to weld, and another to indicate they are directly over each other, thus not involving any track reworking.

Dynamic Align

Dynamic Align provides the ability to snap one moving item (Component, Pad, Via or Text) to another legal item that can snapped to. During move, the item will snap in-line and either one or two graphical lines will be drawn in your selection colour to indicate when either a portion of the item extents, Pad, Via or Text is in-line with another similar item.

In a PCB design, you can control which items are dynamically aligned to using the current display state of the layer. If a layer is not displayed, then an item being moved on a displayed layer will not align with an item on a non displayed layer. To turn off a layer, use the Layers Bar or Toggle Layer dialog.

The settings for Dynamic Align can be changed in the Options dialog.

Constrained Movement

Whilst moving items, holding the Shift key down will restrict the movement to horizontal or vertical from their original position.

There are also some options on the context menu whilst moving items to help with exact placement by fixing the direction of movement. Use Move Horizontally to only move items in the X direction, and Move Vertically to only move in the Y direction. To avoid a slight movement before fixing the move direction, either use latch mode or put these options onto keys (X and Y for example) and just press the key after selecting the item to move. This will enter move mode with the direction already fixed.

If moving horizontal or vertical shape or track segments, they may be automatically constrained to move in a perpendicular direction to their direction. If you do not want this to happen, switch off the Constrain Orthogonal Segment option from the context menu.

Preserving Attached Segments

Use this option from the context menu to describe how unselected segments attached to moving selected segments are altered. This is only on the context menu if Free Angle Adjoining Segments is off.

If left unchecked the attached segments are matched to a segment mode and altered to try and keep that pattern.

Check the option to preserve the angle and far end point of the unselected attached segments. This is usually achieved by changing the length of the selected segment. This mode is intended for editing PCB tracks that contain lots of 45 degree segments.

Show Placement Origin

Check this if you want to see an origin marker when moving items. This will indicate the position that is shown on the status bar.

Gridding

When moving items their origin point will snap to the nearest grid point. Common grids for general use, or grids for specific item types, can be set up using the Grids option. The grid used when moving an item will be the same as the last time you moved that type of item, and can be set up using the Current Interactive Grids option. The current grid can quickly be changed whilst moving the item using the grids on the Change Grid sub-menu, or by typing “G” to use the Grid Step option.

If multiple items are being moved the item to be gridded is the picked item in the selection, for example the item that was actually dragged or picked last. If the selection contains a mixture of item types, the default current interactive grid will be used. The only exception to this is where the picked item uses an interactive grid that is greater than the default grid. Another point to note is if moving mixed item types and the picked item uses a grid that is smaller than the default grid, the picked item will not be gridded as this would cause the other item types being moved to move off grid.

There are three special grids that can be used whilst moving items that affect the way items are moved. Unlike normal gridding, for each of these methods the item is moved so that its origin is at the cursor whilst being placed.

• Polar Grids - The item snaps to points that are radial steps around concentric circles.

• Placement Sites - This method allows you to snap moving items to pre-placed attribute positions.

• Construction Lines - You can use multiple construction lines to define a irregular matrix of points to be used as a grid in the design. Items being moved can be snapped to these lines using the Snap To Construction Lines option. This makes the construction lines and intersection points act as magnets to attract the moving item when it is near to them.

  If the item is near to an intersection between two construction lines it will snap directly onto that point, otherwise if it is near to a construction line it will snap to the nearest point on the construction line that is gridded in either direction. If the item is not near to a construction line it is gridded normally. So if you want the item to always snap directly onto a construction line, set the snap distance to a large value.

  If snapping a component to a construction circle, you can use the Auto Rotate option to alter the components rotation to be along the circle. Using construction circles for this enables you to define irregular polar grids.

  The snap distance that is used to determine if the moving item is close to a construction line, uses the value defined in the Move options dialog.

The coordinates of the origin of the moving item is displayed on bottom right of the status bar. This origin can be displayed using the Show Placement Origin option from the shortcut menu.

Moving Item(s) Onto Grid

There is the option to move selected items onto their respective grid. This can be done on selected items from: Context menu > Move Items Onto Grid option.

Each selected item will move onto the closest point of their grid. If a track is selected it will not be gridded unless only one segment of the track is selected. The selected track segment will be moved onto the grid based on its orientation. A track segment attached to a component will not be gridded.

Moving An Item To A Different Page

In Schematics, when moving an item(s) you may move it to a different page (pages side by side in view) simply by moving the cursor, with the attached circuit selected, into the window of the receiving page. The item will disappear from its original page and appear on its new page. This will also work with Ctrl+Drag Duplicating.

All connections must be contained within the selection i.e. all connection end pins must be within the selection.

Pushing During Move

When moving components in PCB, there are switches that can be set to define what is moved and how. These switches can be viewed on the Options - Move (PCB) page.

Delta Coordinates

If the moving item was originally in the design, “dx” and “dy” are shown on the status bar to give the offset from the original position of the item. You can use the command Reset Delta Coords to reset the “dx” and “dy” values on the status bar to be (0,0) at the current moving item position. This command will need to be put on a key using customise to use it.

Related Topics

Latch Mode | Select Mode | Place Corner | Show Connection To Nearest Node | Stretch Dimension | Place Dimension | Place Callout | Options - Move (PCB)