Arc

Modified by Susan Riege on Aug 17, 2018
Contents

Parent page: Schematic Objects

Two placed Arcs (the one on the right is a Full Circle Arc)

Summary

An arc is a non-electrical drawing primitive. It is essentially a curved line segment that can be used when, for example, creating graphical symbols, custom sheet borders and title blocks.

Availability

Arcs are available for placement in both Schematic and Schematic Library Editors:

  • Schematic Editor - click Home | Graphical Elements |  from the main menus to place an arc with full control over start and end angles.
  • Schematic Library Editor - click Home | Place |  from the main menus to place an arc with full control over start and end angles.

Placement

After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and you will enter arc placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following sequence of actions:

  1. Click or press Enter to anchor the center point of the arc.
  2. Move the cursor to adjust the radius of the arc, then click or press Enter to set it.
  3. Move the cursor to adjust the start angle for the arc, then click or press Enter to anchor it.
  4. Move the cursor to adjust the end angle for the arc, then click or press Enter to anchor it and complete placement of the arc.
  5. Continue placing further arcs, or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

Additional actions that can be performed during placement – while the arc is still floating on the cursor, and before the center point of the arc is anchored – are:

  • Press the Tab key to access an associated properties dialog, from where properties for the arc can be changed on-the-fly.
  • Press the Alt key to constrain the direction of movement to the horizontal or vertical axis, depending on the initial direction of movement.
  • Press the Spacebar to rotate the arc counterclockwise or Shift+Spacebar for clockwise rotation. Rotation is in increments of 90°.
  • Press the X or Y keys to mirror the arc along the X-axis or Y-axis respectively.

While attributes can be modified during placement (Tab to bring up associated properties dialog), keep in mind that these will become the default settings for further placement.

Graphical Editing

This method of editing allows you to select a placed arc object directly in the workspace and change its size, shape or location, graphically.

When an arc object is selected, the following editing handles are available:

Selected Arcs (Full Circle Arc on right).

  • Click and drag A to adjust the radius.
  • Click and drag B to adjust the end points (start and end angles).
  • Click anywhere on the arc – away from editing handles – then drag to reposition it. While dragging, the arc can be rotated (Spacebar/Shift+Spacebar) or mirrored (X or Y keys to mirror along the X-axis or Y-axis respectively).

An object that has its Locked property enabled cannot be selected or graphically edited. Double-click on the locked object directly then disable the Locked property to graphically edit the object.

Non-Graphical Editing

The following methods of non-graphical editing are available:

Via an Associated Properties Dialog

Dialog page: Arc

This method of editing uses the Arc dialog to modify the properties of an arc object.

The Arc dialog.

The dialog can be accessed during placement by pressing the Tab key.

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

  • Double-click on the placed arc object.
  • Place the cursor over the arc object, right-click then choose Properties from the context menu.

Via an Inspector Panel

Panel pages: SCH Inspector, SCHLIB Inspector

An Inspector panel enables you to interrogate and edit the properties of one or more design objects in the active document.

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