Sunday, June 30, 2019

Default Designator and Comment Font Being Changed on Me

Something odd about Altium is that there doesn't seem to be a way to set a universal font. The default is Times New Roman, and frankly, I'm just not usually a fan of serif fonts on CAD files. I'm just not used to it. Apparently you have to set the default font for each separate thing. I did that, but have still been having issues with this being reverted. Below is a message I almost sent to support:
I'm having an issue with my default fonts for designator and comment being reverted to Times New Roman.

I placed a component from the Vault onto my schematic, then to have a little more control over it, I selected it, copied, then pasted into one of my own schematic libraries. I created a footprint for it, then compiled the integrated library.

Meanwhile, I set my default fonts for the designator and comment to Arial with different justification and sizes.

When I try to place that part, the designator and comment are changed to Times New Roman 10 pt. There was another part (resistor) I copied the symbol from the "Miscellaneous Devices.IntLib". When I try to place that one, the reference designator stays in Arial, but the comment reverts back to Times New Roman. . .
The issue is that there is not an obvious way to control anything about the designator and comment other than the whole system default.

It's about this time I took one more look around, and found my solution.

While in a SchLib: Tools > Document Options...

The Properties window/pane will change and you'll see an option saying "Show Comment/Designator", helpfully highlighted below:

Wow! Look at that super useful option! I sure can't imagine why anyone might want selected as default! It's not like I might have a better idea than a dumb program of where to artfully put a designator that's close yet unobtrusive!

Here's the appropriate help article.

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