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Altium Schematic component – Create a new component, draw schematic symbol

The main goal of this article is to explain how to:

1. Create a new Schematic component in Altium Schematic Library
2. Add component name
3. Draw Schematic symbol for a new Schematic component
4. Add and place a new pin on a Schematic symbol
5. Add and place a new rectangle on a Schematic symbol
6. Set a rectangle property
7. Add and place a new Line or PolyLine on a Schematic symbol
8. Set a Poly Line property
9. Set a Pin property

Create a new Schematic component in Altium Schematic Library

The first step is to create or open a Schematic Library in which you can create a new Schematic component. In our previous article in Atium Designer tutorials you can find out how to create a new Integrated Library and Schematic Library.

Select Tools->New Component from the menus (top left Main Menu of Altium window)
See image below for the details.

Add component name

Next step is to add a new Component Name. In our example it is RES 10K 1% 0603 and left click OK. See image below for the details.

A new component RES 10K 1% 0603 was added in a schematics library Resistor.schlib. See image below for the details.

Draw Schematic symbol for a new Schematic component

Now we can draw a schematic symbol. First we will place a new pin. Go to Place -> Pin. See image below for the details.

Add and place a new pin on a Schematic symbol

After placing a first pin you can add new pins as many as you want. You can rotate pin with Space key. In our example, we added two pins.

Add and place a new rectangle on a Schematic symbol

Now we can add Rectangle graphic schematic body symbol. Go to Place -> Rectangle. See image below for the details.

Place Rectangle symbol by clicking on the left down corner and right up corner of the rectangle. See image below for the details.

Set a rectangle property

With left mouse double click on a rectangle symbol you can open Rectangle window. In this window user can set rectangle properties like Draw Solid, Transparent, Fill color, Border Color, Border Width and coordinate positions of down left (Location X1 and Y1) and upper right (Location X2 and Y2) corners of a rectangle.

Add and place a new Line or PolyLine on a Schematic symbol

The next step is to add Line graphic symbol to connect pi with component body. Go to Place -> Line. See image below for the details.

Place two lines from pins to component body. See image below for the details.

Set a Poly Line property

With left mouse double click on just added lines you can open Poly Line window. Poly Line property window has two tabs: Graphical and Vertices. In Graphical tab user can set Poly Line or Line properties like Start Line Shape, End Line Shape, Line Shape Size, Line Width, Line Style and Color.

Set a Pin property

We can hide pin name (display name) and pin designator because it is not important for resistor component. With left mouse double click on pins you can open Pin Properties window. Pin properties window has two tabs: Logical and Parameters. In Logical tab we will tick off Visible for Display Name and Designator.