Working with the Component Orientations Design Rule on a PCB in Altium Designer

Rule category: Placement

Rule classification: Unary

Summary

This rule specifies allowable component orientations. Multiple orientations are permitted, allowing component placement in accordance with any of the enabled orientations. This could be used, for example, when a component is only allowed a particular orientation for wave soldering - maybe it's pads are prone to forming solder bridges during soldering if it is oriented into the wave, so a rule of this type could be added to only mount it so it enters with the pads across the wave. Another example could be RF objects (antennas) that have to be particularly aligned.

Constraints

Default constraints for the Component Orientations rule.

• Allowed Orientations - the chosen orientations that are made available for use. The following orientation-based options are available:
  • 0 Degrees - permits rotation of placed components to the 0° orientation.
  • 90 Degrees - permits rotation of placed components to the 90° orientation.
  • 180 Degrees - permits rotation of placed components to the 180° orientation.
  • 270 Degrees - permits rotation of placed components to the 270° orientation.
  • All Orientations - permits rotation of placed components to any of the four individual orientations.

How Duplicate Rule Contentions are Resolved

All rules are resolved by the priority setting. The system goes through the rules from highest to lowest priority and picks the first one whose scope expression matches the object(s) being checked.

Rule Application

Currently not observed by the DRC system.