Practical Tips and Tricks#

This page is intended to save many important and useful tips for working with Altium.

Short Cuts#

Using shortcuts in Altium makes working much more user-friendly. To find out the shortcut key combinations, Altium has provided hints in each menu guide.

This is illustrated by the placement of a component in the schematic sheet.

../../../_images/180_Short_Cut.png

Fig. 81 Altium - Place Part.#

In order to be able to place a component in the schematic sheet, the library in which the component is located, must be opened. To get access to the library system, you have to select Place –> Part either from the menu bar or by right-clicking in the schematic. But the easiest method is to press p p (always in lowercase letters), which also stands for “Place Part”. You can recognize the shortcut because of the underlined letters in the menu bar.

Therefore, in Altium it is very easy to quickly learn the short cuts using the original menu navigation.

Nevertheless, it is essential to learn the key bindings to be productive. The following is an incomplete list of useful shortcuts. See Altium Shortcut Keys

Schematic short cuts#

  • Place Part –> p p

  • Place Wire –> p w

  • Annotate schematic –> t a

  • Smart paste –> Shift Ctrl v

PCB short cuts#

  • Place Via –> p v

  • if a via should be placed –> select the correct layer by stepping through the layers –> + or - (only possible with separate number pad on the keyboard)

  • Switch layers –> Ctrl + Mouser wheel scroll

  • Interactive Routing –> Ctrl + w

  • Place Track –> p t

  • Repour All Polygons –> t g a

  • Switch between layer visibility –> Shift s

Schematic and PCB short cuts#

  • Move An Object –> m m

  • Move Selection –> m s

  • Rotate object that you are currently moving –> Spacebar

  • Selection filter

    • Select all completely encircled objects –> Click drag from left to right

    • Select all touching objects –> Click drag from right to left

Useful videos#