Unlock Cursor

The Unlock cursor is a special cursor mode designed to allow you to edit objects within symbols or groups without affecting the hierarchy of the symbol or group.  For example, using the Unlock cursor you can click on a piece of text in a symbol and edit it without breaking the relationship between that text object and its parent symbol.

When in Unlock mode the cursor displays a padlock 'glyph'.  Use the Unlock cursor to select, edit, move or delete objects within symbols (or groups).  Do not use this cursor mode to try to add objects to symbols: new or copied objects will not be connected to the parent symbol.  To add objects to symbols you should create a User Defined Product and use the Symbol Editor to modify the UDP.

One common use of the Unlock Cursor in Block Schematic drawings is to 'flip' a port e.g. to switch a bi-directional port from the left side of a symbol to the right side, to help optimize the layout of the Cables in the drawing.  Use the Unlock Cursor to select the IO stub and label of one or more ports on one side of a Block Schematic symbol, then use Arrange | Mirror | Horizontally (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+H) to flip the port(s) over, then move it/them to the correct location on the other side of the symbol using the Unlock Cursor or arrow keys.  Note: when flipping ports, ensure that Snap to Grid is ON.