Manipulate objects:

Most of these operations are modes which operate on the current selected objects. Before you can execute the desired function you must select the objects you want to rotate.

• Undo/Redo Undo does exactly that, it undos the last action which changed the schematic.

  Here is how gschem implements undo: Basically after every action (including zooming and panning) the schematic is saved to disk (in /tmp). Gschem do clean up after itself when you exit. Should gschem crash, the saved files are left alone in /tmp.

  Redo only applies when you do an Undo. You can undo something and then immediately redo it. However if you do anything in between you will lose the undo info. You can undo and redo to your hearts desire up and down till you reach the max undo levels.

  You can change the behavior of undo and redo by changing the defaults in one of the *gschemrc files. Please see the system-gschemrc for more info.

• Select Mode Select mode is the initial mode gschem starts up in.

  In select mode you can select objects.

  You can pick single objects by clicking on them. If an object is already selected than clicking on that object will keep it selected. If multiple objects overlap then clicking in one spot will cycle through the objects.

  If you hold down the SHIFT key and click, you can select and deselect multiple objects. Doing this with multiple overlapping objects will cause the selection to cycle among the possible object selections.

  If you hold down the CONTROL key and click, you will toggle the object in and out of the current selection list.

  To select multiple objects press and hold the first mouse button and drag the mouse till a selection box appears. Drag the mouse (selection box) till it encompasses the objects and release the first mouse button. The objects must be completely encompassed. Using the selection box takes some practice. If any previous objects were selected, they will be unselected.

  If you hold down the SHIFT key while drawing a selection box then you will add to the currently selected objects. Objects cannot be removed using the selection box and holding down the SHIFT key.

  If you hold down the CONTROL key while drawing a selection box then you will toggle any encompassed objects. If an object was selected then it will be unselected and vice versa.

  If you pick an object which has attributes which are attached to it, then these attributes will be selected as well. If you just want to select the object, you must deselect the attributes. Invisible attached attributes are also selected when you pick the object This behavior is handy if you want to manipulate/change an object and all of its attributes (moving/copying the object around).

  The selection mechanisms are not obvious and do require some practice. There are some quirks so please report them as you come across them.

• Edit... Allows you to edit: Text - brings up a dialog box which allows you to edit the text string and size

  Attributes - a much more sophisticated version of above specifically for attributes.

  All attributes attached to a component - brings up a multi-attribute editing dialog box.

  1. Select the item (text/component) to edit.
  2. Pick or type the shortcut for Edit/Edit...
  3. Make the appropriate change and press OK
  Note, only the item will be edited; bulk text/component editing is not supported (yet).

• Edit Text... Allows you to edit text only, regardless if that text is an attribute or just a plain text string.
  1. Select the text item text to edit.
  2. Pick or type the shortcut for Edit/Edit Text...
  3. Make the appropriate change and press OK
  Note, only the item will be edited; bulk text editing is not supported (yet).

• Copy Mode This mode allows you to copy the currently selected objects.

  To copy objects (picking Edit/Copy Mode off of a menu):

  1. Select the desired object(s)
  2. Pick Edit/Copy Mode off of a menu
  3. Pick an origin point for the copy (first button)
  4. Move the outline to the desired position
  5. Pick the destination point (first button)

  To copy objects using the shortcut for copy mode is almost the same as above except that the origin point is selected automatically for you once you hit the copy mode shortcut.

  After finishing the copy, you are automatically put back into to select mode.

  Holding down the CONTROL key as you move the outline around will constrain the movement to be either horizontal or vertical.

• Move Mode Move mode is just like copy (above) except that instead of copying you are actually moving the objects around.

• Delete Delete allows you to remove objects off of the page.

  To delete objects:

  1. Pick the desired object(s).
  2. Select or type the shortcut for Edit/Delete
  3. Objects will be deleted immediately
  Use this with caution since there is NO undo yet!

• Rotate 90 Mode Rotate mode allows you to rotate objects 90 degrees around a pivot/center point.

  To rotate objects (picking Edit/Rotate 90 Mode off of a menu):

  1. Pick the desired object(s).
  2. Select Edit/Rotate 90 Mode off of a menu
  3. Pick the pivot or center point of the rotate
  Rotating objects using the shortcut is similar to above except that the center point is the last mouse position at which you typed the shortcut.

  The objects will be rotate 90 counter clockwise. You can keep rotate objects 90 degrees till you have them in the wanted rotation. Text will always appear upright.

• Mirror Mode Mirror mode allows you to mirror objects horizontally around pivot.

  To rotate objects (picking Edit/Rotate 90 Mode off of a menu):

  1. Pick the desired object(s).
  2. Select Edit/Mirror Mode off of a menu
  3. Pick the pivot point of the mirror
  Mirroring objects using the shortcut is similar to above except that the pivot point is the last mouse position at which you typed the shortcut.

  Objects are mirrored horizontally about the pivot point. If you want to get a vertical mirror then rotate and mirror the object(s) till you get the desired position.

  Mirroring of embedded components is not supported.

• Slot... Slot... allows you to change the slot of a multiple slot component. The component must support slotting (see the Components/Symbols section for more info on this).

  To change the slot:

  1. Select the desired component.
  2. Pick or type the shortcut for Edit/Slot...
  3. Type in the new slot number
  4. Press OK.
  Slotting is still in development so expect some quirks.

• Color... This option allows you to change the color of any selected object (with the exception of components).

  To change the color of the currently selected objects:

  1. Select the desired object(s).
  2. Pick or type the shortcut for Edit/Color...
  3. A dialog box with a drop down menu will appear.
  4. Pick the new color
  5. Press Apply.
  The color change will only take effect once you press Apply. The dialog box will not change to the color of the current object(s) (ie it only lets you change the color and does not get the current color of selected object(s)).

  You can leave this dialog box up and select new objects and change their color by pressing Apply.

• Lock
  Unlock Lock and unlock allow you to lock/unlock components in a schematic. Locking means that a component cannot be selected by a single click. This is useful for title blocks and other components which should not be selectable because you might have other objects inside its boundaries and clicking inside the component (titleblock) would be a distraction.

  To lock/unlock components:

  1. Select the desired object(s)
  2. Pick or type the hot key for lock/unlock
  The components will not be selectable with a single click. To select a locked component, use a selection box to select it. This is the only way to select a locked component.

  You can lock and unlock regular objects (lines/pins/boxes...) which is nice when you are drawing something and an object is in the way continuously. Just lock it and you will not have to think about it when you click to select other objects. However, locking an object is not preserved in the file format so once you quit any locked objects (lines/pins/boxes...) will become unlocked. The locked/unlocked state of components is preserved in the file format though.

• Line Width & Type... This dialog box lets you control the width and type of lines, boxes, circles, and arcs. This dialog box is still under development.

  Select an object and then select this option will bring up a dialog box which lets you set the line width, line type, line dash length, and line dash spacing. Pressing OK will apply the changes.

• Symbol Translate... Symbol translate is used to take whatever is drawn and translate it around using a inputed value (in mils). This operation is mainly used to translate symbols around (mainly to the origin).

  To translate a symbol, just select or type the shortcut for Edit/Symbol Translate... and a dialog box will appear. Enter the amount you want translate (positive or negative) in the X and Y directions (the same value will be applied to both directions).

  If you enter a 0, then all the objects will be translated to the origin. If you are drawing a symbol, zoom in a bit and then execute this (0 for the amount), since there are still some bugs in this operation. It is a requirement that snap be on and that the grid snap spacing is set 100 mils when creating symbols.

• Embed Component
  Unembed Component gschem supports a concept of embedded components which components in a schematics which do not require an external symbol file of any sort. All the information necessary to display a component is placed in the schematic file. This causes schematic files to be significantly larger, but it makes it easy to share schematics with other people or archive schematics away, since you have any dependencies on symbol files. You should only embed components when absolutely necessary.

  Embed Component and Unembed component work exactly alike:

  1. Select any components you wish to (un)embed
  2. Pick or type the shortcut for Edit/(Un)Embed Component
  If you want the unembed a component you must have a symbol with the same name in the component library search path (other wise the unembed will not work).

  You can only embed and unembed components. Also, you cannot embed and then mirror a component (this is a limitation of gschem and will eventually be fixed).

  You can also place embedded components directly in the Add Component... dialog box.

• Show Hidden Text This operation makes all hidden/invisible text visible. To use it, simply pick the option (or type its shortcut) and all the invisible text will appear. Visible text is unaffected by this operation.

  This operation is useful when drawing/debugging symbols.

  When hidden text is visible, the text "Show Hidden" will appear in the lower, righthand corner.