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In PCB  it can sometimes be useful to be able to group together components so that they can be moved and treated as one object.

With Altium Designer 6 we can not not only group components in PCB but we can include other objects on the PCB and we can also create groups in the Schematic editor.

In this TechWatch we are going to concentrate on the PCB side but the same process and commands apply to the schematic editor.

The example we will use here is a BGA including its fan-out with escape routing with its associated capacitors beneath it on the bottom layer.  Having selected the objects, in this case careful use of the Edit » Select » Inside Area command worked well but you an use any method to select the objects you are interested in.

Once you have selected the objects you with be included in the union use the command Tools » Convert » Create Union from Selected Objects.

You can now move the union around as a single object when clicking and dragging or using Edit » Move » Move (M,M).  While moving you can even rotate using the space bar or flip with X and Y key, if there are components in the union you can use L to change layers.

To break a union apart again you can use the command Tools » Convert » Break All objects Unions or if you want to break single or a selection of objects from the union you can use the command Tools » Convert » Break Objects from Union.  

With the Break Objects of Union command a dialog box opens allowing you select the objects you wish to keep grouped.