1Introduction
Place Components is a productivity add-on for Siemens Xpedition PCB layout. It brings together a set of placement, alignment, grouping, and analysis tools in a single window so you can arrange large numbers of parts quickly and consistently, instead of moving and rotating them one at a time.
With it you can replicate the placement of a finished circuit block onto identical blocks elsewhere on the board, line parts up in tidy rows or columns, snap crooked parts back to clean angles, build reusable groups of parts that you can move and swap as a unit, untangle parts so their connections stop crossing, and generate height, pin-pitch, and location reports. Each task is described in its own section below.
If you take away only one thing from this tool, make it Group Parts by Schematic Sheet.
It is the single most-used feature here. With your schematic open alongside the layout, one click clusters the parts on your board into tidy groups that mirror your schematic sheets — turning a sea of scattered components into an organized starting point in seconds. It is the fastest way to get a head start on placement. Full details are in Section 11.
Most of the controls are small square buttons with a description printed beside them. You click the square to run that action. A few controls are settings — drop-down lists, checkboxes, option buttons, and text boxes — that change how the action behaves.
2Requirements and Getting Started
Before using the tool, have your design open in an active Xpedition layout session. Place Components connects to that running session when it starts. One feature — grouping parts by schematic sheet — also needs the matching schematic (DxDesigner) session open, because it reads sheet information from the schematic.
- An open Xpedition PCB layout session with your design loaded.
- A valid ExactCAD license (the tool checks this automatically at launch).
- For schematic-based grouping only: the design's schematic open in DxDesigner.
The "select first" pattern
Almost every tool here works on whatever components you have selected in the layout at the moment you click. The usual rhythm is: select parts in Xpedition, switch to the Place Components window, set any options, then click the action. If a tool needs a selection and finds none, it will either tell you so or simply do nothing, so it is safe to experiment.
The status indicator
The colored square at the bottom is a busy lamp. It is green when the tool is idle and ready, and turns dark red while an action is running. The line beside it shows a short progress message, and the bar behind it fills during longer operations. Wait for the lamp to return to green before starting another action.
3Copy Placement — Replicate a Layout Pattern
Copy Placement lets you lay out one copy of a repeated circuit (for example, one channel of a multi-channel design), then reproduce that exact arrangement on the other copies automatically. It positions and rotates each part to match the example, and it is smart about telling identical parts apart: it matches them by how they are wired, not just by their part type, so the right resistor lands in the right spot.
How matching works
The tool builds a connection "fingerprint" for every part from the nets attached to its pins. When it copies the placement, it pairs each part to be placed with the example part whose fingerprint is the closest match. A threshold value controls how strict that match must be.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Capture the example parts(square button) | First select the parts of your finished, reference block in the layout, then click this. The selected parts are read in and listed in the upper-left box. Their relative positions and rotations become the pattern to reproduce. |
| Example anchor part(drop-down list) | Choose one part from the example block to act as the reference point. Every other example part's position is measured relative to this one. Pick a part that also exists in each copy you want to place (an IC is a good choice). |
| Capture the parts to place(square button) | Now select the parts of a copy that still needs to be placed, then click this. They are read in and listed in the upper-right box. The tool also tries to pre-select a matching anchor for you. |
| Anchor part to be placed(drop-down list) | Choose the part in the new copy that corresponds to the example anchor. The whole copied arrangement is built outward from this part, and the rotation of the copy follows this part's current rotation, so you can place a block at any angle. |
| Connection matching threshold(text box, default 0.8) | Sets how closely a part's wiring fingerprint must match before it is accepted as a pair. 0 accepts almost anything; 1 requires an exact match. The default of 0.8 works well for most designs. Lower it slightly if some parts are not being placed; raise it if parts are being matched to the wrong spots. |
| Place the parts(square button) | Applies the example arrangement to the captured parts. Each matched part is moved, rotated, and set to the correct board side to mirror its counterpart in the example, measured from the chosen anchor. Each example part is used only once. |
4Align and Condense Settings
These settings control how the align-and-condense actions behave — both for loose components (Section 5) and for component groups (Section 9). Set them before you run an align action.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Direction(option buttons: Horizontal / Vertical) | Choose whether parts are packed into a row (horizontal) or a column (vertical). Vertical is selected by default. |
| Clearance(drop-down list — select or type) | The gap left between neighboring parts when they are condensed, in the design's current units. Pick one of the suggested values drawn from clearances already used in your design, or type your own value into the box. |
| Sort by reference designator(checkbox) | When checked, parts are ordered by their reference designator before they are lined up, so they end up in a clean alphanumeric sequence. |
| Sort by current location(checkbox) | When checked, parts are ordered by their existing position along the chosen direction, preserving their left-to-right or bottom-to-top order as you condense them. |
5Aligning and Condensing Components
This action tidies a scattered set of parts into a single neat row or column with even spacing. It is ideal for lining up banks of resistors, capacitors, connectors, or test points.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Align and condense components(square button) | Select the parts you want to tidy, then click this. Starting from the lower-left-most selected part, the tool lines the parts up in the direction you chose and packs them together using each part's true outline plus your clearance value, so nothing overlaps. The order follows whichever sort option is set (see Section 4). |
6Straightening Component Angles
This action cleans up parts that have drifted to odd rotations, snapping each one to the nearest "clean" angle you specify.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Nearest angle(drop-down list) | The angle increment to snap to. Choose from 1, 5, 10, 30, 45, or 90 degrees. For example, with 45 selected, a part sitting at 47° is corrected to 45°. If left blank, 45 degrees is used. |
| Straighten components(square button) | Select the parts to correct, then click this. Each selected part's rotation is rounded to the nearest multiple of the chosen angle. Positions are not changed — only rotations. |
7Ordering Components by Net Connections
When a row of parts connects to a row of pins on a larger component (or a connector), the connecting lines often cross because the parts are in the wrong left-to-right order. This action reshuffles the parts so their connections run straight across without tangling.
It works in two picks. First you select the pins on the parts that should move; then the tool asks you to select the matching pins on the parts that stay put. It re-sequences the movable parts to line up with their connected counterparts.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Order components by net connections(square button) | Select the pins on the parts you want to reorder (pick the pins, not the parts), then click this. When prompted, select the second set of pins — the connected pins on the parts that should not move — and confirm. The movable parts are then reordered to follow the fixed pins, removing the crossings. |
8Component Groups — Creating and Managing
A component group is a named set of parts that the tool remembers and treats as one block. Once parts are grouped, you can align, swap, and reorder whole blocks at a time (Section 9). Groups are saved with the design, so they persist between sessions.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Select / create new groups(square button) | Creates a group. If you already have parts selected, those parts become one new group immediately. If nothing is selected, the tool switches to an interactive mode: drag a box around each cluster of parts on the board, and each box you draw becomes its own group. The groups are saved when you finish. |
| Select parts on active side only(checkbox) | Affects the drag-a-box mode above. When checked, only parts on the currently active board side are added to a group; parts on the opposite side inside your box are ignored. When unchecked, parts on both sides are included. |
| Update selected group location(square button) | After you have moved a group's parts, select them and click this to refresh the group's stored position so the saved data matches where the parts now sit. |
| Delete component groups(square button) | Select any parts that belong to the groups you want to remove, then click this. Every group containing a selected part is deleted. The parts themselves stay on the board — only the grouping is removed. |
| Clear all component groups(square button) | Removes every saved group for the design at once. The parts are untouched; only the group definitions are cleared. |
| Highlight all component groups(square button) | Highlights every part that belongs to any saved group, so you can see at a glance which parts are grouped and which are not. |
9Working With Component Groups
Once you have built groups (Section 8), these actions let you arrange and rearrange them as whole blocks. For each one, first select any parts in the groups you want to act on, so the tool knows which groups you mean.
9.1 Align, condense, and swap groups
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Align and condense component groups(square button) | Lines up entire groups into a tidy row or column, treating each group as a single block. It uses the same direction and clearance settings as the loose-component version (Section 4). Select parts in the groups you want arranged, then click. |
| Swap component groups(square button) | Exchanges the positions and orientations of two or more groups. Select parts from each group you want to trade places, then click; the groups move to one another's locations. Useful for reordering repeated blocks without re-placing every part. |
9.2 Order groups by net connections
This is the group-level version of Section 7: it reorders whole groups so the connections between them stop crossing. It runs as a short sequence — identify the groups, select the connecting pins, then continue.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Select component groups(square button) | The starting step. Select parts belonging to the groups you want to reorder, then click this to gather those groups as the working set. You need at least two different groups in the selection. |
| Continue — Pin to Pin mode(square button) | After selecting the pins that connect your groups, click this to reorder the groups based on the straight pin-to-pin connections between them, arranging them to minimize crossing connection lines. |
| Continue — Trace to Pin mode(square button) | An alternative to the above that follows the actual routed traces (including the vias along them) to judge how the groups connect, then reorders them accordingly. Use this when the groups are already routed and you want the ordering to respect the real copper path. |
10Height and Manufacturing Aids
These tools help with mechanical height checks and with preparing for selective wave soldering.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Get tallest selected component(square button) | Select a set of parts and click this to find the tallest one among them. The tool selects that single part and shows a message with its reference designator and height in the current units. |
| Select components taller than…(square button + text box, in mils) | Type a height in mils into the box, then click to select every part that is at least that tall. If you had parts selected first, it searches within that selection; otherwise it searches the whole board. Handy for finding components that may collide with an enclosure. |
| Draw component profiles(square button + layer list) | Draws side-view height silhouettes of the selected parts — one profile below the parts and one to their right — on the user layer chosen in the adjacent list. A baseline represents the board surface. This gives you a quick "from the side" picture of relative component heights. Select parts and a target layer first. |
| Component profile layer(drop-down list) | Selects which user layer the height profiles are drawn onto. The list is filled with the user layers in your design. |
| Draw thru-hole wave solder clearances(square button) | For every through-hole pin in the design, draws a keep-clear area around the pad for selective wave soldering. When you click, it asks how much clearance to add beyond the pad size (in the current units), then draws the combined clearance shapes onto a dedicated user layer named WAVE_SOLDER_CLEARANCE, creating that layer if needed. |
11Reports and Sheet Grouping
These tools produce text reports and one schematic-driven arrangement aid. Each report prompts you for a location to save a tab-delimited file you can open in a spreadsheet.
| Control | Purpose & Behavior |
|---|---|
| Report pin pitch data(square button) | Scans the components in the design and, for each one, finds the smallest distance between any two of its pins — its tightest pin pitch. It writes a report listing each component's reference designator, that minimum distance, and its footprint name, then asks you where to save the file. |
| Report component locations(square button) | Writes a report of every component's reference designator, X and Y position, orientation, and board side (top or bottom), then asks you where to save the file. Useful for documentation, assembly hand-off, or comparing revisions. |
| Group parts by schematic sheet(square button) | Reads which schematic sheet each part belongs to and clusters the parts on the board into matching groups, so the layout starts to mirror the structure of the schematic. Parts that bridge more than one sheet are kept together. This action needs the schematic open in DxDesigner as well as the layout. Warning: it moves every part that is not locked — lock any parts you want to keep in place before running it. |
12Typical Workflows
Replicating a placed block onto another channel
- Finish placing one reference copy of the circuit in the layout.
- Select that block's parts, then capture them as the example.
- Choose an example anchor part that also exists in the copies.
- Select the unplaced parts of another copy and capture them as the parts to place.
- Choose the matching anchor in that copy (rotate it first if you want the copy at an angle).
- Click Place the parts, then check the result. Adjust the matching threshold if some parts were missed or mismatched, and run again.
Lining up a bank of passives
- Set the direction (row or column) and a clearance value.
- Optionally turn on sort by reference or by current location.
- Select the parts in the layout.
- Click align and condense components.
Arranging repeated blocks as groups
- Create a group for each repeated block (select its parts, or drag a box around each).
- Use highlight to confirm every block is grouped.
- Align and condense the groups, swap them into the order you want, or order them by net connections to reduce crossings.
- If you move parts afterward, select them and update the group location so the saved data stays current.
13Tips and Troubleshooting
- Nothing happens when I click an action: Most actions need parts (or pins) selected in the layout first. Make your selection in Xpedition, then click.
- The busy lamp is red: An action is still running. Wait for it to turn green before starting the next one.
- Copy Placement skipped some parts: The wiring match was below the threshold. Lower the connection matching threshold a little and place again.
- Copy Placement put parts in the wrong spots: The threshold is too loose, so similar parts were confused. Raise it toward 1 for a stricter match.
- Height tools report zero or skip parts: Those parts have no Height property value. Populate component heights in the design and try again.
- Group parts by schematic sheet does nothing: The schematic must be open in DxDesigner so the tool can read sheet assignments.
- I grouped parts but a group action says it can't find them: Select at least one part from each group you want to act on before clicking, and make sure the groups still exist (they may have been cleared or deleted).
- Draw component profiles asks for a layer: Choose a user layer in the list beside the button before running it.