The tool selector buttons reside below the layer controls. They are used to select which layout tool to use in the drawing area. Each tool performs its function when Btn1 is pressed. Every tool gives the cursor a unique shape that identifies it. The tool selector buttons themselves are icons that illustrate their function. Each layout tool can also be selected from the keyboard:
Escape key Panner tool F1 key Via tool F2 key Line tool F3 key Arc tool F4 key Text tool F5 key Rectangle tool F6 key Polygon tool F7 key Buffer tool F8 key Delete tool F9 key Rotate tool Insert key Insert-point tool F10 key Thermal tool F11 key Arrow tool F12 key Lock tool
Some of the tools are very simple, such as the Via tool. Clicking Btn1 with the Via tool creates a via at the cross hair position. The via will have the diameter and drill sizes that are active, as shown in the status line. The Buffer tool is similar. With it, <Btn1> copies the contents of the active buffer to the layout, but only those parts that reside on visible layers are copied. The Rotate tool allows you to rotate elements, arcs, and text objects 90 degrees counter-clockwise with each click. Holding the Shift key down changes the Rotate tool to clockwise operation. Anything including groups of objects can be rotated inside a buffer using the rotate buffer menu option.
The Line tool is explained in detail in Line Objects. Go read
that section if you haven't already.
Activate the Line tool. Set the active layer to the solder layer.
Try drawing some lines. Use the U key to undo some of the
lines you just created. Zoom in a bit closer with the Z key.
Draw some more lines. Be sure to draw some separate lines by starting
a new anchor point with Ctrl-Btn1. Change the crosshair snaps to pin/pads
behavior in the Settings menu. Now draw a line. Notice that
the new line points must now always be on a grid point. It might not
be able to reach some pins or pads with this setting. Increase the active line thickness
by pressing the L key. Note that the status line updates
to reflect the new active line thickness. Now draw another line. Before completing the
next line, make the component layer active by pressing the 4 key.
Now finish the line. Notice that a via was automatically placed where
you switched layers. Pcb
does not do any checks to make sure that
the via could safely be placed there. Neither does it interfere with
your desire to place lines haphazardly. It is up to you to place
things properly when doing manual routing with the Line tool.
The Arc tool is explained in detail in Arc Objects. Its use is very similar to the Line tool.
The Rectangle tool, Polygon tool and Thermal tool are explained in detail in Polygon Objects. Go read that section. Remember that the Thermal tool will only create and destroy thermals to polygons on the active layer. Use the Rectangle tool to make a small copper plane on the component layer. Now place a via in the middle of the plane. Notice that it does not touch the plane, and they are not electrically connected. Use the Thermal tool to make the via connect to the plane. Thermals allow the via or pin to be heated by a soldering iron without having to heat the entire plane. If solid connections were made to the plane, it could be nearly impossible to solder. Click on the via again with the Thermal tool to remove the connection to the plane.
The Insert-point tool is an editing tool that allows you to add
points into lines and polygons. The
Insert-point tool enforces the 45 degree line
rule. You can force only the shorter line segment to 45
degrees by holding the Shift key down while inserting the point.
Try adding a point into one of the lines you created. Since line
clipping is turned on, you may need to move the cross hair quite far
from the point where you first clicked on the line. Turn off the
line clipping by selecting all-direction lines
from the
Settings menu (or hit
the Period key). Now you can place an inserted point anywhere.
Try adding a point to the rectangle you made earlier. Start by clicking
somewhere along an edge of the rectangle, then move the pointer to
a new location and click again.
The delete-mode deletes the object beneath the cursor with each Btn1 click. If you click at an end-point that two lines have in common, it will replace the two lines with a single line spanning the two remaining points. This can be used to delete an "inserted" point in a line, restoring the previous line. Now delete one of the original corner points of the polygon you were just playing with. To do this, place the cross hair over the corner and click on it with the Delete tool. You could also use the Backspace key if some other tool is active. Try deleting some of the lines and intermediate points that you created earlier. Use undo repeatedly to undo all the changes that you've made. Use redo a few times to see what happens. Now add a new line. Notice that you can no longer use redo since the layout has changed since the last undo happened. The undo/redo tree is always pruned in this way (i.e. it has a root, but no branches).
The Arrow tool is so important, it has its own section: Arrow Tool. Go read it now.
The Lock tool allows you to lock objects on the layout. When an object is locked, it can't be selected, moved, rotated, or resized. This is useful for very large objects like ground planes, or board-outlines that are defined as an element. With such large objects, nearly anywhere you click with the Arrow tool will be on the large object, so it could be hard to draw box selections. If you lock an object, the Arrow tool will behave as if it didn't exist. You cannot unlock an object with undo. You must click on it again with the Lock tool. If an object is locked, previous changes to it cannot be undone either. When you lock an object, a report message about it is popped up and will always tell you what object it is, and that it is locked if you just locked it. Other than noticing your inability to manipulate something, the only way to tell an object is locked is with a report from the Info menu. Use the Lock tool sparingly.