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The Viewport Button: Create Sub-Window

The Viewport button in the View Menu brings up a sub-window, which is a display window similar to the main drawing window. The user is requested to point at the diagonal endpoints of the region to be displayed in the sub-window. Each viewport contains a menu of attribute buttons which apply to that window only. In particular, the sub-window can display cells in either electrical or physical mode, however editing operations are only possible if the sub-window mode and cell match those of the main window.

The sub-window has a set of menus which control attributes which can be set on a per-window basis. When the cursor is in a sub-window, characters entered are delivered to that sub-window, and an unambiguous sequence match will select a sub-window button. Matches are looked for in the sub-window menu, the main menu, and any pop-up menus, in that order.

The View menu button commands are mostly analogous to the commands found in the main View Menu, however there are a few entries in the View menu that have no analogs in the main menu.

Sub-Window View Menu
Label Name Pop-up Function
Dump To File wdump text entry Dump window to image file
Show Location lshow none Show position in main window
Swap With Main swap none Swap contents with main window
Load New load none Load cell or file for viewing

The Attributes menu is identical to the Main Window sub-menu found in the main Attributes Menu. The functions are the same (see 13.11 but apply to the sub-window only. When a new sub-window appears, it inherits the current attribute settings of the main window.

Sub-Window Attributes Menu
Label Name Pop-up Function
Freeze Display freez none Suppress redisplay
Show Context in Push cntxt none Show context in subedit
Show Phys Properties props none Show physical properties
Show Labels labls none Show labels
Label True Orient larot none Show labels transformed
Show Cell Names cnams none Show cell names
Cell Name true Orient cnrot none Show cell names transformed
Don't Show Unexpanded nouxp none Don't show unexpanded subcells
Objects Shown objs none Object display control
Subthreshold Boxes tinyb none Show outline of subthreshold cells
Set Grid grid Grid Parameters Set grid parameters

If a cell shown in a sub-window is the cell shown in the main window, with the same mode (physical or electrical), then all editing operations will work in the sub-window as well as the main window. The sub-window will display all highlighting, terminals, and other special markings. If the sub-window shows a different cell, then in that window selections and editing are not possible, and no highlighting or special markings are shown.

When the Viewport command is used to create a new sub-window, the sub-window will initially show the same cell as the main window.

The sub-windows are sensitive as drop-receivers from the file manager and other listing pop-ups. File or cell names can be dragged from the listing pop-up and dropped in a sub-window, which will cause that cell/file to be opened and displayed in the window.

The Dump To File button in the iew menu of sub-windows will dump the contents of the window to a disk file. When pressed, a file name will be solicited, and the contents of the sub-window will be dumped to the file. The filename extension determines the file type: jpg, tiff, png, etc. This provides a mechanism for obtaining printable output from the Cross Section views. The dumped bitmap will be the same size as the window.

This feature makes use of the imsave system, which is also used in the Image print driver (see 8.6.2).

When the Show Location button in the sub-window View menu is active, and both the sub-window and the main window are in physical mode and displaying the same cell, an outline box is drawn in the main window around the area displayed in the sub-window. This indicates the position of the sub-window display, assuming that the sub-window is showing a zoomed-in part of the display in the main window.

The Swap With Main button in the sub-window View menu will swap the cells, display modes, and views between the sub-window and the main window. This has the effect of making the cell displayed in the sub-window the current cell, allowing it to be modified.

The Load New button in the sub-window View menu will prompt for a new cell or file to display in the window. The command will prompt the user for a file/cell name, in the manner of the Open command. The given file/cell will be opened for display in the sub-window.


next up previous contents index
Next: The Peek Button: Show Up: The View Menu: Alter Previous: The Zoom Button: Zoom   Contents   Index
Stephen R. Whiteley 2024-09-29