Sheet Setup

October 2020

In the previous section we created a new project and added a single sheet...

To display the contents of a sheet, double-click it's node in the Project Explorer...

As we have not added any content, just a blank canvas will be displayed.

Right now we can view the sheet, but do no editing, so we must first shift to Edit Mode, which means hiding the Project Explorer.

To do this use one of various options:-

Easiest is to just double-click into the Sheet that is displayed in the right hand pane (literally double-click the right hand pane).

Hit F10

Press the icon on the menu toolbar (as shown below)...

Choose File > Explorer Show / Sheet Edit to toggle the Edit Mode off or on...

Once Edit Mode is enabled the Project Explorer will disappear, and you can now add objects to the sheet, however, before we do anything let's look at this...

The GRID and Snapping = Essential

Keeping Snap to Grid ON is an essential feature unless you are creating symbols with, or are wilfully doing, free hand graphics.

Circuit depends upon anything that has a wiring node or connection point being horizontally or vertically aligned - so just keep the Grid Snap ON, and to help you, toggle the Grid View on and off as required.

To toggle the Grid visibility hit F2 or choose Layout > Grid, or press the toolbar button...

To toggle the Grid Snapping hit F5 or choose Layout > Snap, or press the toolbar button...

Adding Text

Tap the Text object toolbar item to prepare for adding a text object to the sheet...

Then left click anywhere you'd like to insert the text object... the Text Properties dialog will pop up on the screen...

Just tap the row with the property of "text" to be able to add your required text...

Then press [Apply] to complete. Then [Apply] once more on the Properties dialog to finish...

Text is now displayed on sheet...

So, we have text, it's rather small, let's change it, but first, let's see how to select objects...

Before we carry on - we're still in Text mode - so select the Pointer (as we'll otherwise just keep adding Text objects every time we click on the canvas)...

To Cancel Drawing Tools

Once any drawing tool has been selected, every time you left-click onto the Sheet you will continue to add another entity of the selected type (graphical, Image or Text).

To cancel this continuation, either select the Pointer tool button, press [ESC] or right-click anywhere on the Sheet.

Insertion Points

Every object on the sheet has an Insertion Point, the X, Y co-ordinates of the top left hand corner of where the object is rendered on the canvas.

X travels Left to Right. Y travels Top to Bottom.

You can pretty much see where to click on an object to select it, but we have an aid...

Hit F3

Choose Layout > Insertion Points to toggle their display off or on...

Insertion Point shown, but object NOT selected...

Insertion Point shown, and object selected...

Insertion Points are OFF, and object is selected...

As you can (just about) see, the selection is a yellow box - which has a somewhat lacking contrast to the sheet colour.

Sheet colours can be any colour you desire, the default is white - so we can adjust the Selected Object Box colour for a better contrast...

With the colour picker dialog that shows choose a preferred colour and close. For example, here is the new selection colour...

(Note: On Selection Colour is saved with the current Sheet only - it is not project wide).

Text Change

Once an object has been added to the sheet you can generally double-click it's insertion point to get to it's Properties dialog... (different object types respond differently to the double-click)...

Double-click the text object then, and go ahead and adjust it's font size (you should know enough now to be able to do this no problem).

Sheet Title

Right now our sheet is simply referred to as "1". We can add more information to help us identify its purpose more readily.

Hit F10 and restore the Project Explorer... right-click on the Sheet 1 node, and choose Text...

At the prompt enter your meaningful description...

Then press [OK]. See the reflection as follows in the Title Bar, and when you hover over Sheet 1 node...

Let's save our work now... either from the File > Save option...

or from the Toolbar Button...

Delete Sheet

Note: Deleting a Sheet CANNOT be undone!

To delete any Sheet, select it on the Project Explorer and choose Edit > Delete (or press the [Delete] key on the keyboard)...

You will be prompted to confirm...

Press [Yes] to finalise, or [No] to cancel.

That's the basics on how to edit a sheet.