How to designate a specific portion of a design in altium

Question

I copy and reuse portions of a design, I'll copy and the designation numbers follow the copy (for example: I'll have U1 and R2, then copying you end up having to U1's and two R2's, I don't want that.). There are sections that I'd like to re-designate (or clear designations to U1->U? for example) or have Altium renumber the designators.

1) Is there a way to make a selection and clear the designators?

2) Is there a way to clear designators in a sheet or redesgintate only a sheet?

I think I remember that you can use a 'special paste' and paste a design without designators labeled. I don't want to know about that way, I'm not a fan. I'm running 15 right now but could update.

Answer 1

You may be looking for the "Reset Parts Designators On Paste" setting available in the DXP Preferences --> Graphical Editing pane:

Answer 2

If you go to Tools>Annotate Schematics you can select a specific sheet or sheets (for just one, click All Off, then select the specific sheet you want) and then the Reset All or Reset Duplicates will apply only to that particular sheet.

Answer 3

You can use the rest designators on paste option as DerStrom8 answered, or if you already have the parts pasted (or don't want to do it that way), you can try Tools->Reset Duplicate Designators. I find this is not always reliable (it sometimes resets the original one that you don't want to reset).

To reset designators on a single sheet, go to Tools->Annotate Schematics, then select the schematic sheet you want to reset in the bottom-left section where the sheets are listed. On the right side the designator for that sheet will be listed. Press Reset All, an accept the changes.

Answer 4

I'm using Altium 22.xx.

To reset all designators on a sheet, I followed the above instruction of Tools -> Annotation -> Annotate Schematics -> Select desired sheet in lower left. But then in the same window I needed to right click the Proposed Changes List Lock icon.

In the right click menu I selected Designator -> Unlock Selected Designators & Part ID -> Unlock Selected Part ID.

Then I hit the Reset All button at the bottom and saw all the designators turn into a ?

Then I had to Accept ECO and Close.

Answer 5

I'd suggest copying and reusing design portions before annotating them at all. Saves you the hassle of doing the clean up later. Only when you are done completely with your schematics, then you may annotate them altogether.

Also, like others suggested, you can "Reset Duplicate Schematic Designators" (sic). But this method resets all duplicate designators (including the original ones, within that sheet) which you might not want.

So, in best practice, finish your schematic. Once done, annotate the designators