Making mass changes to designator text properties

e14softwareuk — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:38:41 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by e14softwareuk on 10/6/2021 9:38:41 PM

[Applies to versions: 1.5.1]

Setting Default Designator Properties

Although there is no dedicated user interface option for setting a default font & text size for the PCB designators it is possible using this tip.

The following assumed you have have a schematic prepared and have open an empty (no components already placed) PCB. In the PCB editor pick any random component from a library and start to place, the component should be 'on the cursor'. Hit the TAB key to bring up the property dialog and from there set the designator text properties. Finish placing the component - you have now successfully set the default properties. Perform an update from the schematic to add all the components to the PCB, the newly added component designators will take on the default text properties you have just set.

Mass Updates to Placed Components

If you need to update the designators of already placed components follow the steps below.

Set the filter to components using Home | Components
select all with Ctrl+A (or select just the subset of compnents you wish to change)
Change the filter to all using Home | All Objects
Activate the object inspector (if not already visible) using View | Object Inspector
In the PCB Inspector panel click on the Name link
Change the text properties as required using the inspector panel (Text Height, Text Width etc)

Tags: pcb, howto, circuitstudio