Multi-board Assembly Editor Shortcuts
Created: January 31, 2023 | Updated: January 31, 2023
| Applies to versions: 23 and 24
The following sections present shortcut keys that are specific to the Multi-board Assembly Editor. For general information regarding shortcut keys - including access and editing, general Altium environment shortcuts, and accelerator keys - see Altium Designer Shortcut Keys.
When looking at the shortcut key listings, keep in mind the following:
- When referring to shortcuts, use of the plus (+) symbol denotes holding multiple keys down on the keyboard in the indicated sequence. For example, Shift+F1 means holding down the Shift key then pressing the F1 key. Likewise, Shift+Ctrl+PgUp means holding down the Shift key then holding down the Ctrl key at the same time and pressing the PgUp key.
- Where use of the standard mouse buttons is made, Click refers to a single click of the left-hand mouse button, Double-Click refers to two clicks of the left-hand mouse button, and Right-Click refers to a single click of the right-hand mouse button.
Standard Shortcuts
The following shortcuts are standard to the Multi-board Assembly Editor. They are available in general and do not require you to be performing an interactive process to access them.
General Editing |
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| Right-Click | Access context menu for the design space. |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo. |
| Ctrl+Y | Redo. |
Selecting |
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| Click |
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| Shift+Click | When editing a part, select the component currently under the cursor and add it to the current selection of components for that part (cumulative selection). |
Moving |
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| Click (on an object), Hold&Drag |
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Viewing the Assembly |
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| Ctrl+PgDn | Change the view in the main design window so that all objects are made completely visible (where possible). |
| Shift+Ctrl+PgDn | Change the view in the main design window so that only selected objects are made completely visible (where possible). |
| Ctrl+Mouse Wheel Up | Zoom-in, relative to the current cursor location. Use of the Ctrl key is a default setting that can be changed from the System - Mouse Wheel Configuration page of the Preferences dialog.
You can also use the mouse to zoom into a region of the document by one of the following methods (where applicable and depending on how the buttons of your mouse might be assigned):
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| Ctrl+Mouse Wheel Down | Zoom-out, relative to the current cursor location. Use of the Ctrl key is a default setting that can be changed from the System - Mouse Wheel Configuration page of the Preferences dialog.
You can also use the mouse to zoom out from a region of the document by one of the following methods (where applicable and depending on how the buttons of your mouse might be assigned):
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| Mouse Wheel | Scroll vertically within the design space. This is a default setting that can be changed from the System - Mouse Wheel Configuration page of the Preferences dialog. |
| Shift+Mouse Wheel | Scroll horizontally within the design space. This is a default setting that can be changed from the System - Mouse Wheel Configuration page of the Preferences dialog. |
| Right-Click, Hold&Drag | Pan the view within the main design window. |
| Shift+Right-Click, Hold&Drag | Pivot the design space view around the click location. |
| P | Toggle projection type between Orthographic and Perspective. |
| X | Re-orient the view to be looking down the X axis, directly into the Y-Z plane. Corresponds to using the Red X-axis Gizmo in the main design space. |
| Shift+X | Re-orient the view to be looking down the X axis, directly into the Y-Z plane, from the opposite direction. Corresponds to using the Red X-axis Gizmo in the main design space. |
| Y | Re-orient the view to be looking down the Y axis, directly into the X-Z plane. Corresponds to using the Green Y-axis Gizmo in the main design space. |
| Shift+Y | Re-orient the view to be looking down the Y axis, directly into the X-Z plane, from the opposite direction. Corresponds to using the Green Y-axis Gizmo in the main design space. |
| Z | Re-orient the view to be looking down the Z axis, directly into the X-Y plane. Corresponds to using the Blue Z-axis Gizmo in the main design space. |
| Shift+Z | Re-orient the view to be looking down the Z axis, directly into the X-Y plane, from the opposite direction. Corresponds to using the Blue Z-axis Gizmo in the main design space. |
| Shift+Ctrl+V | Toggle display of the Section View between Edit, On and Off. |
Working with Mates(To work with an existing mate, select it first in the Multiboard Assembly panel) |
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| Shift+Ctrl+A | Switch to Mating mode. The cursor will highlight potential mate sites on each surface, as the cursor is moved over the surface. Two mating sites on different parts - Source and Target parts - must be nominated, these will be bought together (mated) after the second one is chosen. |
| Shift+Space | Rotate Source part of the mate clockwise. |
| Space | Rotate Source part of the mate counterclockwise. |
| Up Arrow | Increase the distance of the source part from its mated target part, along the mating axis. Note that this shortcut is only available for Auto and Plane-to-Plane mating modes. |
| Down Arrow | Decrease the distance of the source part from its mated target part, along the mating axis. Note that this shortcut is only available for Auto and Plane-to-Plane mating modes. |
| Ctrl+Right Arrow | Increase the offset of the Source part in the X direction of the target mating plane. Note that this shortcut is only available for Auto and Axis-to-Axis mating modes. |
| Ctrl+Left Arrow | Decrease the offset of the Source part in the X direction of the target mating plane. Note that this shortcut is only available for Auto and Axis-to-Axis mating modes. |
| Ctrl+Up Arrow | Increase the offset of the Source part in the Y direction of the target mating plane. Note that this shortcut is only available for Auto and Axis-to-Axis mating modes. |
| Ctrl+Down Arrow | Decrease the offset of the Source part in the Y direction of the target mating plane. Note that this shortcut is only available for Auto and Axis-to-Axis mating modes. |
| Ctrl+T | Toggle the orientation of the source part in relation to its mated target part. |
| Delete | Remove the currently selected mate. |
Working with Parts(A part is a constituent PCB of the overall multi-board assembly) |
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| Ctrl+E | Edit selected part. |
| Ctrl+D | Finish part editing. A comparison is then made to detect any changes. If there are any, a component has been moved for example, an Engineering Change Order (ECO) will be created, ready to pass changes back to the source PCB document. |
| Ctrl+U | Update the currently selected part with any changes made to the source PCB document. |
| Shift+Ctrl+U | Update all parts with any changes made to their source PCB documents. |
| Delete | Delete selected part(s). |
Miscellaneous |
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| Q | Toggle measurement units between metric and imperial - the displayed measurement values will update accordingly. |
| Ctrl+K | Check for collisions between the various constituent entities of the multi-board assembly. Detected collisions will be listed in the Messages panel. |
| Ctrl+M | Switch to Measurement mode. Click one object and then click a second object, the distance between their closest edges/surfaces will be displayed. |
| Esc | Escape from the current mode - either Mating or Measurement. |
| L | Access the View Configuration panel, from where you can change the projection, control attributes of the section view, and modify system colors as required. |
| F11 | Toggle the display of the Properties panel. |
