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Saving and Recalling Context

Once a set of objects has been saved, partitions refined and FastHenry terminals added (these operations are described below), pressing the Clear Saved or exiting Xic will send all of the hard work to bit-heaven, unless the data set has been saved. This is accomplished with the Dump Saved button in the RLC Extraction panel.

Every data set has a name. The data set can be given a name in the text field provided in the RLC Extraction panel, or if no name is supplied, the name will be ``unnamed''. This name will be used as the file base name when files are created from the panel for the current data set.

In the case of the Dump Saved operation, the default file name is the data set name with a ``.sav'' extension. This is a text file, in a unique format, that contains all of the layer, geometry, partitioning, and other information currently saved in the interface. The file is not expected to be edited or used otherwise by the user, so at this point the format will not be documented, though it should not be too difficult to reverse engineer.

The data set can be recalled with the Recall Saved button in the RLC Extraction panel. When this is engaged, any data set presently in memory will be overwritten (so save it first if necessary), and the saved data set will be read into the interface. In addition, the editing context will switch to a dummy cell that contains the objects saved in the interface. Unlike in the normal operation, the objects as displayed are the ``real'' objects as saved in the interface, and thus show the effects of Manhattanization and polygon decomposition. Again, though, what is displayed on-screen is separate from the data in the interface, so modifying or deleting the objects will not affect the interface. To change geometry, the interface must be cleared, and the new objects saved with the Save Selected button or equivalent.

If the technology saved in the ``.sav'' file differs from the current technology, a warning will be issued. New layers will be created as needed, and one can use the interface normally, for this data set. If cleared, however, any new data set will build up a layer sequence from the current technology file, plus any new layers that were created.


next up previous contents index
Next: Defining FastHenry Terminals Up: The FastCap/FastHenry Interface Previous: Geometry Specification   Contents   Index
Stephen R. Whiteley 2006-10-23