Global Ports

A global port serves as a means of common connection – in effect, a connection to a bus – within a given design, across hierarchical levels. You can define one or more circuit nodes to connect to global ports that cross hierarchy and schematic page boundaries. Within a design, all global ports with the same name are treated as if they are connected.

The nature of the port, electrical, fluidic, thermal, and so on, is determined by the first connection made to the port. Once a global port has a specific nature, additional connections in the same or other levels of hierarchy can only be made to pins of that nature.

• Bringing in a model with global variables or ports will generally add those variables or ports to the project or design, unless they are already present. If a model's global port has one nature and a same-named global port in the target design has another, the model (and referencing component) will be rejected with an error message.
• Similarly, pasting a design into another may cause a similar conflict and will be also rejected with an error message.

To place a global port, select the schematic that will contain it. Then do one of the following:

• On the Draw menu, click Global Port.
• On the Schematic ribbon, click .

The cursor, now associated with a global port symbol for placement, moves to the center of the schematic window. To place the port, click at the desired location.

If Multiple Placement is turned on for global ports in the Schematic Options dialog box, click additional locations to place additional ports. To stop placing global ports, do one of the following:

• Press Enter, the SPACEBAR, or Esc on your keyboard.

• Right-click and select Place and Finish, Finish, or Cancel.