Bus

This document is no longer available beyond version 17.1. Information can now be found here: Bus Properties for version 24

Applies to Altium Designer version: 17.1

The Bus dialog.

The Bus dialog.

Summary

This dialog allows the designer to specify the properties of a Bus object. A bus is an electrical design primitive. It is a polyline object that represents a multi-wire connection.

For information on how a placed bus object can be modified graphically, directly in the workspace, see Graphical Editing.

Access

The Bus dialog can be accessed prior to entering placement mode, from the Schematic – Default Primitives page of the Preferences dialog. This allows the default properties for the bus object to be changed, which will be applied when placing subsequent buses.

During placement, the dialog can be accessed by pressing the Tab key.

While attributes can be modified during placement, bear in mind that these will become the default settings for further placement unless the Permanent option on the Schematic – Default Primitives page of the Preferences dialog is enabled. When this option is enabled, changes made will affect only the object being placed and subsequent objects placed during the same placement session.

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

  • Double-clicking on the placed bus object.
  • Placing the cursor over the bus object, right-clicking and choosing Properties from the context menu.
  • Using the Edit » Change command and clicking once over the placed bus object.

Graphical Tab

Bus dialog - Graphical tab.

Bus dialog - Graphical tab.

Use the dialog's Graphical tab to modify graphical properties of the bus object.

Options/Controls

  • Bus Width - the width of the bus line. Available widths are: Smallest, Small, Medium, and Large.
  • Color - click the color sample to change the color of the bus, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
  • Locked - enable this option to protect the bus from being edited graphically.
If attempting to graphically modify an object that has its Locked property enabled, a dialog will appear asking for confirmation to proceed with the edit. If the Protect Locked Objects option is enabled on the Schematic – Graphical Editing page of the Preferences dialog, and the Locked option for that design object is enabled as well, then that object cannot be selected or graphically edited. Double click on the locked object directly and disable the Locked property, or disable the Protect Locked Objects option, to graphically edit the object.

Vertices Tab

Bus dialog - Vertices tab.

Bus dialog - Vertices tab.

Use the dialog's Vertices tab to edit the individual vertices of the currently selected bus object. You can also add new vertices to the bus, or remove selected vertices altogether.

Options/Controls

  • Vertices Grid - the main region of the tab lists all of the vertex points currently defined for the bus, in terms of:
    • Index - the assigned index of the vertex.
    • X - the X (horizontal) coordinate for the vertex.
    • Y - the Y (vertical) coordinate for the vertex.
  • Add - click this button to add a new vertex point. The new vertex will be added below the currently focused vertex entry (as distinguished by a dotted outline around a cell in its row) and will initially have the same coordinates as the focused entry
  • Remove - click this button to remove the currently selected vertex entries in the list. This command will be unavailable if there are only two vertices present for the bus.
  • Menu - click this button to access a pop-up menu containing the following commands:
    • Edit - right-click on a coordinate cell (X or Y) for a vertex and use this command to edit the value in that cell. Alternatively, click directly on the cell.
    • Add - use this command to add a new vertex point. The new vertex will be added below the currently focused vertex entry (as distinguished by a dotted outline around a cell in its row) and will initially have the same coordinates as the focused entry.
    • Remove - use this command to remove the currently selected vertex entries in the list. This command will be unavailable if there are only two vertices present for the bus.
    • Copy - use this command to copy the content of the selected cells in the list to the clipboard (alternatively use Ctrl+C).
    • Paste - use this command to paste the content of the clipboard into the list, starting at the selected cell (alternatively use Ctrl+V).
    • Select All - use this command to quickly select the entire grid contents of the list.
    • Select Column - use this command to quickly select the entire column in which the currently focused cell resides.
    • Move Up - use this command to move the selected vertex upward in the list.
    • Move Down - use this command to move the selected vertex downward in the list.
    • Move Bus By XY - use this command to move the entire bus object. The Move Bus By dialog will appear, from where you can enter the increment value to be applied to each vertex point's X and Y coordinates.
All of these commands are also available from the right-click context menu associated to the main list region.

 

Note

The features available depend on your level of Altium Designer Software Subscription.