Offsheet connectors are available for placement in the Schematic Editor only in the following ways:
- Choose Home | Circuit Elements | Offsheet Connector from the main menus.
- Right-click in the design space then choose Place » Offsheet Connector from the context menu.
After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and you will enter offsheet connector placement mode with an off sheet connector floating on the cursor:
- Press Tab to open the Off Sheet Connector mode of the Inspector panel with the Net Name selected and ready for editing; enter the new net name.
- Position the offsheet connector so that its electrical hotspot (the end held by the cursor) touches the wire to which you want to connect then click or press Enter to effect placement.
- Continue placing further offsheet connectors or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.
Additional actions that can be performed during placement while the offsheet connector is still floating on the cursor are:
- Press the Tab key to pause the placement and open the Off Sheet Connector mode of the Inspector panel in which its properties can be changed on the fly. Click the design space pause button overlay (
) to resume placement.
- Press the X or Y keys to flip the offsheet connector along the X-axis or Y-axis.
- Press the Spacebar to rotate the offsheet connector counterclockwise or Shift+Spacebar for clockwise rotation. Rotation is in increments of 90°.
If the Net property of the offsheet connector is entered before it is placed and the value entered has a numeric ending, each subsequent offsheet connector will auto-increment this numeric value. This behavior is configured in the Auto-Increment During Placement region on the Schematic – General page of the Preferences dialog. For offsheet connectors, only the Primary field applies; the Secondary field applies when the object has multiple fields, such as a Pin.
Graphical Editing
The offsheet connector can be edited graphically using what is known as in-place editing. To edit an offsheet connector string in-place, click once to select, pause, then click a second time to enter edit mode.
Click once to select the string.
Pause, then click a second time to enter in-place edit mode.
The string has been selected and is ready for you to type in a replacement string.
The Offsheet Connector can be edited in place.
Once editing is complete, press Enter or click away from the string to exit in-place editing mode.
Offsheet connectors do not have independent font properties; they use the Document Font properties (also referred to as the System Font) of the schematic sheet on which they are placed. Double-click away from any objects to open the Document Options mode of the Inspector panel to edit these settings.
To clear the selection of (or de-select) the object, use the Esc key.
Non-Graphical Editing
This method of editing uses the Inspector panel to modify the properties of an offsheet connector object.
During placement, the Off Sheet Connector mode of the Inspector panel can be accessed by pressing the Tab key. Once the offsheet connector is placed, all options appear.
After placement, the Off Sheet Connector mode of the Inspector panel can be accessed in one of the following ways:
- If the Inspector panel is already open, select the offsheet connector object, right-click then choose Properties from the context menu.
- With the offsheet connector selected, click View | Schematic | Ofsheet Connector from the main menu.
