Embedded Systems Design Resources

While it is easy to place components using the mouse, most designs require precise placement of some components (e.g., to align parallel headers). This tutorial walks through how to place components at a specific X-Y coordinate, determine the X-Y coordinates of a component, measure the distance between two components, move an existing component to a specific X-Y coordinate, and move an existing component relative to its current location.

How do you place a component at a specific X-Y coordinate?

1. Choose Place > Manually... (see Figure 1). The Placement dialog box appears (see Figure 2).

Figure 1: Place > Manually... menu

Figure 2: Placement dialog box

2. Check the box next to the part that you want to place, but do not place it yet. Instead, go to the command line at the bottom of the screen and type the desired placement coordinates in the following format: x x-coordinate y-coordinate

Example:

Command > x 0 0 will place the component at the origin (0,0)

Figure 3: Component placed at origin (0,0)

Figure 6: Display > Measure menu option

Figure 7: Command line message for Measure tool

Figure 8: Measured distance between resistor and capacitor pins

How do you move an existing component to a specific  X-Y coordinate?

Figure 9: Moving a component to an absolute x coordinate

Figure 10: Moving a component to an absolute Y coordinate

How do you move a component relative to its current position?

Figure 11: Results of relative movement Based on a tutorial by Seana O'Reilly