Signal Harness

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Modified by Admin on Nov 18, 2013

Parent Page: Objects

Signal Harness.

Summary

A Signal Harness is an electrical design primitive. It is an abstract connection which combines different signals.

Availability

Signal Harnesses are available for placement in the Schematic Editor only. Use one of the following methods to access the placement command:

choose Place » Harness » Signal Harness [P, H, H] from the main menus
click the button on the Wiring toolbar.

Placement

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

click or press Enter to anchor the starting point for the Signal Harness
position the cursor and click or press Enter to anchor a series of vertex points that define the shape of the signal harness
after placing the final vertex point, right-click or press Esc to complete placement of the Signal Harness.
Continue placing further Signal Harness objects, or right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

Use the Backspace or Delete keys to remove the last Signal Harness segment placed.

Any changes made to object properties during placement will cause the default properties for the object to be updated, 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.

Guided wiring of a Signal Harness

Schematics have a definable electrical grid that makes it easy to define electrical connections between objects. As you are placing a Signal Harness, when the Signal Harness falls within the electrical grid range of another electrical object the cursor will snap to the fixed object and a Hot Spot (red cross) will appear.

Hot Spot (red cross).

The Hot Spot guides you to where a valid connection can be made and automatically snaps the cursor to electrical connection points.
The electrical grid can be defined on the Sheet Options tab of the Document Options dialog (Design » Document Options). It is recommended that you set the electrical grid to be slightly smaller than the current snap grid, or it becomes difficult to position electrical objects one snap grid apart.

Non-Graphical Editing

The following three methods of non-graphical editing are available:

...via an associated properties dialog

This method of editing uses the following dialog to modify the properties of a Signal Harness object.

The Signal Harness dialog.

The Signal Harness dialog provides a Vertices tab, from where you can edit the individual vertices of the currently selected Signal Harness object as required.

The Vertices tab in Signal Harness dialog.

The main region of the tab lists all of the vertex points currently defined for the Signal Harness. You can add new vertices to the Signal Harness, edit the coordinates of existing vertices, or remove selected vertices altogether.
Click the Menu button or right-click within the main list region 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 wire.
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 Signal Harness By XY - use this command to move the entire signal harness object. The Move Signal Harness By dialog will appear, from where you can enter the increment value to be applied to each vertex point's X and Y coordinates.

The Signal Harness dialog can be accessed prior to entering placement mode, from the Schematic - Default Primitives page of the Preferences dialog (Tools » Schematic Preferences). This allows you to change the default properties for the signal harness object, which will be applied when placing subsequent signal harnesses.

During placement, the Signal Harness dialog can be accessed by pressing the Tab key.
After placement, the Signal Harness dialog can be accessed in one of the following ways:

double-clicking on the placed Signal Harness object
selecting the Signal Harness object and choosing Properties from the right-click pop-up menu
choosing the Change command from the Edit menu and then clicking once over the placed Signal Harness object.

...via the SCH Inspector panel

The SCH Inspector panel enables you to interrogate and edit the properties of one or more design objects in the active document. Used in conjunction with appropriate filtering, the panel can be used to make changes to multiple objects of the same kind, from one convenient location.

...via the SCH List panel

The SCH List panel allows you to display design objects from one or more documents in tabular format, enabling you to quickly inspect and modify object attributes. When used in conjunction with the SCH Filter panel, it enables you to display just those objects falling under the scope of the active filter - allowing you to target and edit multiple design objects with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Graphical editing

This method of editing allows you to select a placed Signal Harness object directly in the workspace and change its size and/or shape, graphically.
When a Signal Harness object is selected, the following editing handles are available:

A selected Signal Harness.

Click and drag A to reposition the end points of the Signal Harness.
Click and drag B to move a vertex. The end points will remain anchored.
Click and drag near the center of a Signal Harness segment to "grab" that segment and reposition it. The end points and other vertices will remain anchored.

With the Signal Harness selected, click on a vertex or segment to individually select that vertex or segment. This Signal Harness 'sub-selection' is distinguished by the associated editing handles becoming red in color.
Individual vertex sub-selection.

Individual segment sub-selection.

The associated vertex (or vertices for a segment) can then be edited directly using the SCH Inspector or SCH List panels, with any changes appearing immediately on the schematic.

If you attempt to graphically modify a signal harness 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 in the Schematic - Graphical Editing page of the Preferences dialog (Tools » Schematic Preferences), and the Locked option for this design object is enabled as well then this object cannot be selected or graphically edited.
You will have to double click on this locked object directly and disable the Locked property or disable the Protect Locked Objects option to graphically edit this object.

Notes

When placing a Signal Harness, various placement modes are available: 90 Degree, 45 Degree, Any Angle and Auto Wire. The mode specifies how corners are created when placing wires and the angles at which wires can be placed. The 90 Degree and 45 Degree modes (true orthogonal modes) both have Start and End sub-modes.
When placing a Signal Harness, press Shift+Spacebar to cycle through the wire placement modes. Press Spacebar to toggle between the Start and End sub-modes (when in 90 Degree or 45 Degree modes), or between Any Angle and Auto Wire modes (when either of these modes is active). The current placement mode is displayed in the status bar. You can change modes at any time during Signal Harness placement.
In all modes other than Any Angle, the Signal Harness segment attached to the cursor is a "look ahead" segment. The segment you are actually placing precedes this look ahead segment.