Change Default Altium Footprint Part Designator Top Overlay Text Size

Question

I got an Altium question. I'm trying to speed up my Altium workflow.

Everytime I Design > Update Schematics, when I import all the footprints into the .PcbDoc the part designator overlay text is way too big.

Usually I go through PCB Filter > PCB List and manually set the text size for the designators by hand.

That's getting old, and I'm getting better at Altium. Time to take it to the next level!

Where is that default text size parameters coming from? How can I just have the part designator text be the size I want whenever I update a schematic?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Go to DXP > Preferences > PCB Editor > Defaults and select Component from the list of primitives. Click the Edit Values button and change the designator properties as required.

Answer 2

In case anyone else found this question, there is a slight change with Altium 18. The Designator now has its own menu:

EDIT: Here is an example of 0.025" text height and 0.005" width silkscreen on a PCB next to some actual components. The resistors are 0603 and the caps are 0402.

Answer 3

Just go "Panels" button at bottom right corner of the window:

Then click on that. You will see a pop-up list like this:

Then you will get "PCB Filter" window like follows:

Do the all the mentioned in above picture, then you can see all the designators are already selected on PCB. Then go again "Panels" ------> "PCB List" in the pop-up list, as follows:

Then you will get "PCB List" window.. In this window you have to select "Edit" at upper left corner:

Then you can edit whatever you want to all selected designators at once. Every property of the designators are in column wise. So you can change them. Then you are done.