topic MOVE part by typing reference designator in Fusion Electronics Forum

MOVE part by typing reference designator

kevin — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 18:01:38 GMT

Finally starting to migrate to Fusion from EAGLE....
My workflow for placement in the PCB is having one eye on schematic, click move, type the ref des "q5" and move that part. Now typing "q5" does nothing. So I have to use design manager to find a part when I have a ratsnest of 1000's of parts?

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

Evert_2N3055 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 19:50:19 GMT

I think the easiest way to accomplish this is typing in the command line bar move q5.

The part is selected and can be moved.

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

jorge_garcia — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:11:02 GMT

Just to add some additional insight. The old workflow you did can still work, you just have to enable the command line focus by using the forward slash.

Then you can type q5 like you used to. I do recommend @Evert_2N3055 approach though.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

kevin — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 04:24:46 GMT

Well I'm happy that worked - will take some getting used to... thanks guys!

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

Evert_2N3055 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 19:11:03 GMT

I assume that you are using this to group the parts that belong together on the pcb for shorter tracks etc.

The way I'm using to accomplish this is to open on 1 screen the schematic and on the second screen the pcb. When clicking now in the schematic on a part the part will also be highlighted on the pcb and can be found and moved easy.

The advance is that you also can select a group of components in the schematic and move all these parts on the pcb parts to the wanted location.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

kevin — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 03:59:43 GMT

Oh yea, just tried that and that's another good way to do it!

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

kevin — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:20:12 GMT

well now that I'm officially switching over to F360 version - this is massively slowing me down... I have 1000's of parts to place, so not being able to pop the component I want to place in the area I'm working on is super distracting. I was able to select from design manager, but you still have to go out into open space where it is to select and move, then remember the area you were just placing... but I found a work around. Its not clean, but on macOS you can use better touch toolbar software, then create an automation to type "/" delay 0.1sec then type "move " attach that to a keyboard shortcut and you get the same function we had before..

would be nice if the native move dialog accepts reference designators, or even from design manager when you search by ref des and select it, you can just type "m" and it snaps it to your cursor to move around.

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

jorge_garcia — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:05:01 GMT

Hi @kevin ,

Have you tried @Evert_2N3055 's suggestion in message 5 of 7 on this thread? That approach tends to be better because you can select related components on the schematic, switch to the board and then click and drag that selection to wherever you want it to be.

Let me know if you continue to run into problems.

Best Regards,

Re: MOVE part by typing reference designator

lukas.roeder — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:28:50 GMT

I wrote an ULP for this.

The script/ulp combination adds an additional context menu item, "Move in board," to the schema editor.

for this to work, modify the eagle.scr (script directory of fusion 360) with the following lines:

SCH: SET CONTEXT INSTANCE 'Move in Board' 'run toggle-part-sch-brd move';

Put this code to a file named "toggle-part-sch-brd.ulp" and save that file in the ulp-directory of fusion360:

#usage "<qt>Shows the selected part in the other editor (schematic or board). \ This script will do nothing, when: \ - No part is selected. \ - You are in the library-editor. \ - The selected part does not exist in the other editor. \ - Only a schematic or only a board exist. \ Normally, no argument is passed. In this case, the part is shown in the other editor. \ But when you are in the schematic editor, you can pass your own command to the ulp call. \ The passed command will be executed in the board editor. \ Example: run toggle-part-sch-brd.ulp move \ This will move the part in the board editor.<hr>\ Written by lurio - lukas.roeder@bruker.com" #require 9.000 string m_script = ""; void AddScript (string command) { m_script += ";\n" + command; } string GetScript () { return (m_script); } int unt; // fastcall function prepocet real prepocet(real wx) { real wxu; if (unt == 0){ wxu = wx * 1000; } if (unt == 1){ wxu = wx; } if (unt == 2){ wxu = wx * 1000 / 25.4; } if (unt == 3){ wxu = wx / 25.4; } return wxu; } if (project.schematic == 0 || project.board == 0) { exit (-1); } string command = ""; if (schematic && argc == 2) { command = argv[1]; } if (schematic) { schematic (S) { S.sheets(SH) { SH.instances(I) { if (ingroup(I)) { // search element in board project.board (B) { B.elements(E) { if (E.name == I.part.name) { AddScript ("edit .brd"); // copied from qfind.ulp (search google ...), dont understand it at all unt = B.grid.unit; real wx1 = u2mm(E.x) - 40 / 2; real wx2 = u2mm(E.x) + 40 / 2; real wy1 = u2mm(E.y) - 20 / 2; real wy2 = u2mm(E.y) + 20 / 2; real wxu1 = prepocet(wx1); real wxu2 = prepocet(wx2); real wyu1 = prepocet(wy1); real wyu2 = prepocet(wy2); string s; if (command == "") { sprintf(s, "window (%f %f) (%f %f)", wxu1, wyu1, wxu2, wyu2); AddScript (s); sprintf (s, "SHOW %s @", E.name); AddScript (s); } else { sprintf (s, "%s %s", command, E.name); AddScript (s); } exit (GetScript ()); } } } } } } } } if (board) { board (B) { B.elements(E) { if (ingroup(E)) { // search element in schematic project.schematic (S) { S.sheets(SH) { SH.instances(I) { if (E.name == I.part.name) { AddScript ("edit .sch"); string s; sprintf (s, "edit .s%d", SH.number); AddScript (s); // copied from qfind.ulp (search google ...), dont understand it at all unt = S.grid.unit; real wx1 = u2mm(I.x) - 40 / 2; real wx2 = u2mm(I.x) + 40 / 2; real wy1 = u2mm(I.y) - 20 / 2; real wy2 = u2mm(I.y) + 20 / 2; real wxu1 = prepocet(wx1); real wxu2 = prepocet(wx2); real wyu1 = prepocet(wy1); real wyu2 = prepocet(wy2); sprintf(s, "window (%f %f) (%f %f)", wxu1, wyu1, wxu2, wyu2); AddScript (s); sprintf (s, "SHOW %s @", I.part.name); AddScript (s); exit (GetScript ()); } } } } } } } } exit (-1);