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I have a situation where my polygon looks like the teeth of a comb. I don't want to have multiple polygons and I don't want to manually route the shapes. I'd like to make one "tooth" and then just duplicate it across and where the polygons overlap, merge them into one.

I can't seem to find an option where I can merge polygons together and I would think that this would be built into the software.

efox29
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4 Answers4

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Building on the answer by Lovre Gaz, select both polygons that you want to merge by shift + click. Then right click and Polygon Actions -> Combine Selected polygons.

The thing I want to add is that I had trouble getting this command to work unless I made the polygons overlap. This command didn't do anything, even if their edges were aligned to the same grid.

So before you do this command, edit your polygons so that they overlap a bit.

sgdsgyhetwaraw
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If I'm understanding you correctly, it's actually very simple. Pour your polygons and place them where you want them. Make sure they are all set to the same net. Then select all of them (holding Shift + click), right-click, and select Unions-->Create Union from Selected Objects. This will "join" them so that you can move them all as one piece. As long as they are the same net, they will be treated (electrically) as the same object. Hope this helps!

DerStrom8
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  • I was aware of creating a union and its not much a difference than what I'm doing right now and thats overlapping them. But when I look at the polygon manager, I see every single copy, and what I would like is to only have one copy for that net. – efox29 Mar 24 '15 at 12:18
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    Ahh, I see what you're saying. The only other thing I can think of is to not use the polygon tool yet--Use the line tool (or other drawing tool), make the outline of one of the "teeth", copy it as many times as you need it, select the segments (make sure they're all touching), and go to Tools-->Convert-->Create Polygons from Selected Primitives. It will probably ask if you want to use the outside edges, in which case you should say "yes". Once the polygon is created you should see it as one polygon in the manager – DerStrom8 Mar 24 '15 at 13:14
  • Oh that's a new one! I'll give that a go. – efox29 Mar 24 '15 at 13:27
  • I just tried this out and the only thing to note is that it will still allow you to select the individual primitives. If you want to move the polygon, you'll have to select the entire thing first (select all the primitives) EDIT: It actually looks like the primitives might still exist on top of the polygon. If you delete them the polygon will be left behind. Don't quote me on this though =P – DerStrom8 Mar 24 '15 at 13:37
  • Just verified this. Delete the primitives after creating the poly from selected objects and you're left with just the polygon :) – DerStrom8 Mar 24 '15 at 13:48
  • @destrom8, the usual thing to do is put the primitives on a mechanical layer instead of a copper layer. Then you can keep them around for future modifications, but they don't affect the manufacturing outputs. – The Photon Mar 24 '15 at 14:53
  • @ThePhoton, not seeing how that would help the OP....? – DerStrom8 Mar 24 '15 at 14:55
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    In case you want to change the shape later, you'd still have the original tracks available to modify, instead of having to start over. – The Photon Mar 24 '15 at 15:01
  • I gotcha, so you were offering that more as a response to my comment about deleting the primitives then. I see what you're saying now, thanks for that! – DerStrom8 Mar 24 '15 at 15:09
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Select both polygons, right click and select Polygon Actions -> Combine Selected polygons.

Dmitry Grigoryev
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Lovre Gaz
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If you are trying to merge polygons (or, really, perform any other right click action) and the options that normally appear for right clicking aren't there, ensure that you are on the same layer as the object you want to perform an action on.

For example, if you want to merge two polygons and you follow the above answers and right click, if you aren't on the correct layer the option to merge won't appear.

[Altium 20, but likely applies to other versions as well]

Null
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Helbino
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