Altium Slice Tracks
Bessie Murrillo
There are times the PCB designer has to delete tracks in their entirety that are already created, or some fragment thereof. If necessary, you can remove the track or its segment in one of the following ways:
Also, you can slice tracks, which is useful when you need to route a group of signals in a different direction from a particular location. To do this, select Edit > Slice Tracks from the main menus; a crosshair will be attached to the cursor. Click and hold then swipe the tracks as if you were cutting them. Altium Designer displays the location where the slice will be made.
I usually slice the track at the end where I want to trim the track then select a piece of the remainig tracks I want deleted, press [tab] and all the connected copper will be selected. Then press delete to delete the selected tracks. Play around with it, it's handy but if your traces run into copper pour etc. pressing tab will select them too. I sometimes will select a trace, press tab to select all connected copper and press [ctrl][alt]-g and have Altium gloss the traces. You can always undo if it's not what you like.
My favorite method is simply selecting the stub farthest from the connected line and pressing backspace. It will delete the segment and auto-select the next segment of the line, so you can clean up quite a bit of track with just a few key-presses.
Probably the closest you will get to emulating that "trim" command is with the keyboard shortcuts : SS - for Select Single Layer Connection, or SC - for Select Connection ... once the portion is selected you can delete only the part required for deletion.
The workflow generally involves selecting the track(s) or object(s) using the SS, SC or SN selection commands and then deleting (if they are not locked - may require unlocking first to complete deletion)
The Slicer Properties dialog allows you to configure properties for the Track Slicer. The Track Slicer provides an easy mechanism for cutting one or more track segments into two, and can slice tracks on the current layer or all visible layers.
In the PCB Editor, click Edit Slice Tracks from the main menus to enter track slicing mode. Click to define the desired starting location for the slice then press Tab.
The features available depend on your Altium product access level. Compare features included in the various levels of Altium Designer Software Subscription and functionality delivered through applications provided by the Altium 365 platform.
Since the slicing line is the same color as the polygon pour, it helps if the polygon is repoured with the Fill Mode set to None (Outlines) before starting the slicing process so the slicing line can easily be seen.
This command is accessed from the PCB Editor by right-clicking over a placed polygon pour then choosing the Polygon Actions Slice Polygon Pour command from the context menu.
This command is used to slice track segments using the Track Slicer tool. The Track Slicer provides an easy mechanism for cutting one or more track segments into two and can slice tracks on the current signal layer or all visible signal layers.
After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and you will be prompted to choose a starting location for the slice. In addition, filtering is applied to only show track objects within the workspace. This will either be all track across all visible signals layers or only track on the current signal layer, depending on the active setup of the Track Slicer. To slice one or more tracks:
If the original room was associated with and contained components that were members of a component class, a newly generated room that inherits one or more of these components will not have a new component class created and assigned to it. Therefore, the components in this new room will still be members of the original component class. To have the components made members of a new component class as part of a slice, use the Smart Slice Room feature.
This command is accessed from the PCB Editor by right-clicking over a placed room then choosing the Room Actions Slice Room command from the context menu.
This command is used to slice the room under the cursor into two or more separate rooms. Each new room created may inherit one or more of the components contained in the original room. Where such components belong to a component class, a new class will be created for each new room and membership will be updated accordingly.
This command is accessed from the PCB Editor by right-clicking over a placed room then choosing the Room Actions Slice and Create Classes command from the context menu.
This command is used to slice the board region under the cursor into two or more separate regions. Each new region created may inherit one or more of the components contained in the original region. Where such components belong to a component class, a new class will be created for each new region and membership will be updated accordingly.
Edit>Move>Drag Track End works best for me (Altium 18.1.7), and after a bit of use I actually like it pretty well. I found that solution in another thread with many more options to try to get the traces to move with the component. Try a search for the phrase "rubber band traces altium". I know this is an older thread--hopefully you found an answer to your question before now--but I figure if I'm reading this now then someone else might benefit too. Happy routing!
Altium is not good at dragging a part while also keeping the tracks from crossing each other. I came from Orcad which did as you desire. I was very surprised that Altium did not do it, since I thought of it as a basic concept. The best you can do in Altium is to slice the tracks that are attached to the part, un-route the component, drag it to its new location, then re-route the tracks manually or auto-route the component.
A Track segment is a straight line of a defined width. Use tracks to define a straight line in the PCB design space. Tracks are placed on a signal layer to form the electrical interconnections, or routing, between component pads. Tracks placed on a non-electrical layer are called Lines, where they are used as general-purpose drawing elements to create component outlines, instructional information, keepout boundaries, etc. Tracks also are used in group design objects, such as dimensions and coordinates.
Although tracks and lines are actually the same object, the difference is how the software behaves during their placement, which is why there are different commands. When a track placement command is run, such as Interactive Routing, the software monitors the click location and automatically adopts the net name of an existing object (such as a pad) under the click location. It also monitors and obeys any applicable design rules. When a line placement command is run (Place Line), these monitoring behaviors do not occur.
Tracks are available for placement in both PCB editor and the PCB Library editor. Regardless of which command is used (routing/track or line placement), the basic placement behavior is the same. After launching the command, the cursor will change to a crosshair and you will enter track placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following sequence of actions:
The PCB editor includes sophisticated algorithms for moving track segments on the board so that the arrangement of the routing can be maintained. This sliding of track segments can be invoked interactively either by clicking to first select the track segment and then clicking and holding when the special cursor appears to slide the segment or by clicking and holding on a track segment and sliding it. Sliding behavior can be configured using the Dragging options on the PCB Editor - Interactive Routing page of the Preferences dialog. These options allow you to assign the Move action to a track, which is useful if you want to be able to freely move an individual track segment.
During Interactive Routing, the default behavior is for the software to ensure the track segments are placed in accordance with the applicable Electrical and Routing design rules. That means the software will not allow a new track segment to be placed that violates an existing track segment that belongs to a different net; instead, it will clip the track segment to meet the design rules. This interactive routing behavior is known as the Routing Conflict Resolution mode. The default mode is Stop at First Obstacle (the current mode is displayed on the Status bar). Press Shift+R to cycle through the available modes.
The term applicable design rules means all the rules that apply to the object being placed. The design rules engine works on a system where you scope exactly to which objects you want each rule to apply. During placement, the design rules engine is queried to determine the highest priority rule that applies in the current placement situation. Rules that apply during Interactive Routing include:
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