The listing is a drag source -- cell names can be dragged and dropped into drawing windows, to display or edit that cell.
The main window displays a listing of cells presently in memory. Cell names are listed in columns. The top level cells (those that are not used as subcells of another cell) are shown with an asterisk `*', and a plus sign `+' appears for modified cells. A cell name can be selected or deselected by clicking on the name. Only one name can be selected at once, and it will be highlighted. Selected names are acted on by other buttons of the panel.
The cell name taken as input by the various commands in this panel can be supplied as follows. Highest precedence is given to a cell name selected in the listing by clicking on the name. If no such selection exists, and text is selected in the window brought up by the Info button in the Cells Listing panel or the Info button in the View menu, that text, if it is a known cell name, will be taken as input. The intent of this feature is to provide easy access to the cells listed as parents or subcells in the listing for a cell. If no such selection exists, and the Cell Hierarchy pop-up is visible and has a selection, then that selection will be used. This pop-up is created by the Show Tree button in File Menu, and the Tree button in the Cells Listing pop-up. If there is yet no selection, and a cell is selected in one of the drawing windows, then that cell name is used, except for use with the Edit button.
The Clear button in the Cells Listing panel will clear top-level cells (those not used as a subcell by any other cell in memory, and marked with an asterisk in the list) or all cells from memory. If a top-level cell is selected in the text area, that cell and its descendents which are not referenced outside of the hierarchy are removed from memory, after confirmation. There is no ``undo'' of this operation. If the cell is not top-level in both electrical and physical modes, the command exits with a warning message. If no cell is selected, the entire database will be cleared (after confirmation). The user is first given a chance to save any unsaved work. The current editing cell becomes the next cell given on the command line, or the default ``noname'' cell if no other cell was specified. This command can not be undone, and anything cleared is very definitely gone.
The Tree button is used to bring up the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, which can also be initiated with the Show Tree button in the File Menu. If a cell name has been selected in the cell name listing, the Cell Hierarchy pop-up (it might already be visible), or a cell is selected in a drawing window before the Tree button is pressed, the hierarchy of the cell will be displayed in the Cell Hierarchy pop-up.
If no cell name has been selected, the tree mode becomes active when Tree is pressed, so that selecting a cell in the Cells Listing will cause that cell's hierarchy to displayed in the Cell Hierarchy pop-up.
The Edit button is used to select a cell for editing. If a cell name has been selected in the listing or the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, pressing the Edit button will make that cell the current editing cell, just as if it had been read in with the Edit command in the Edit Menu. If the current cell is modified, the user will be given the opportunity to save it before switching to the new cell. The cell name is deselected.
If no cell is selected in the list or the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, pressing Edit on the panel invokes edit mode. In edit mode, clicking on a cell name in the panel will cause that cell to become the current editing cell.
The Master button allows a cell to be selected for placement. If a cell name has been selected in the listing, the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, or in a drawing window, pressing the Master button will cause the selected cell to become the current master cell, and the Cell Placement Control panel will appear. Instances of the master can be created by pressing the Place button in the Cell Placement Control panel, then clicking on locations in a drawing window.
If no cell has been selected, master mode becomes active, in which case clicking on a cell name causes it to become the current master. Master mode is retained until one of the other buttons is pressed, or Master pressed again.
The Copy button allows an existing cell to be duplicated under a new name. The user must explicitly save the copied cell to disk if the new cell is not placed in a hierarchy saved as an archive file, otherwise the copied cell will be lost when the program is exited, though the new cell is marked as ``modified'' so the user will be prompted to save it when exiting. If there are no selections in the cell listing, the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, or in the drawing window, the copy mode becomes active. Selecting a cell in the cells listing will cause a dialog box to appear asking for a new name for the cell. If a selection is active, pressing the Copy button will immediately bring up the dialog box. In either case, a copy will be made if the user enters a valid new name. The new name will become highlighted in the cell listing.
After the copy function in the Cells Listing panel is invoked, if any cells are selected in a drawing window, the user is prompted by a pop-up dialog whether to replace the selected cells with the copy. Thus, to make a custom instance, one selects an instance, uses Copy with replace, then pushes to the new instance and performs the changes, using the Push command in the Edit Menu. In electrical mode, if a name was assigned to the original cell, the new cell retains that name. The replace dialog appears even if no copy is made, if the user does not change the cell name in the copy dialog and just presses Enter or the Dismiss button. The current transform is ignored when replacing cells from this panel, which is different from the Replace function in the Cell Placement Control panel from the Edit Menu.
When a cell is replaced, the placement of the new cell is determined in physical mode by the setting of the Origin/Lower Left buttons in the Cell Placement Control panel (though it may not be visible). When Lower Left is active, the lower left corner of the replacing cell corresponds to the lower left corner of the replaced cell, otherwise the cell's origins are used. In electrical mode, the reference terminal (the first connection point) is always placed at the same location as the reference terminal of the replaced cell.
The Rename button allows a cell in memory to be given a new name. All references to the cell throughout the database will be changed to call the new name. This is useful to avoid name clashes in designs intended to be merged with other designs. Note that the newly named cell should be explicitly saved as a file if in native format, or it may be lost when the user exits. The cell will be saved in the hierarchy if an ancestor cell is written to an archive file.
If a cell name is selected in the list, the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, or a cell is selected in a drawing window, pressing the Rename button brings up a dialog box asking for the new name. If no cell is selected, pressing the Rename button enters a mode where selecting a cell in the cells listing causes the dialog to appear. In either case, the renaming is effective if a valid new name is given. The user must remember to save any cells which call the renamed cell (the `modified' flag is set for these cells, so that the user is warned at program exit).
The Search button enables a mode that lists the subcells contained in rectangular areas of the screen. In this mode, when the user clicks or drags in a drawing window, the subcells contained in the displayed hierarchy that overlap this area are listed in a pop-up window. Each cell that overlaps the click location or rectangle is listed, through the entire depth of the hierarchy. A cell name is listed only once, if it is instantiated multiple times.
The search results show the search area coordinates in microns, unless the InfoInternal variable is set with the !set command, in which case it uses internal units.
The Info button produces a pop-up that provides information about subcells and other objects. If a cell name has been selected in the listing, the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, or in a drawing window, pressing the Info button will display a window containing information about the cell. This information includes the size, number of objects and subcells, and cells for which the selected cell is a subcell. If this button is pressed when there are no selected cell names, the mode becomes active, so that clicking on a cell name in the listing will bring up an Info window describing the cell. A similar capability exists for the Info button in the View Menu.
The Show button enables a mode where cell instances are highlighted in the display. If a cell name has been selected in the listing, the Cell Hierarchy pop-up, or in a drawing window, before the Show button is pressed, all instances of the cell will be outlined in the highlighting color. The outlines apply to all instances of the cell, regardless of the level in the hierarchy or expansion status. This facilitates finding instances of a cell in a complex hierarchy.
If no cell name has been selected, the mode becomes active when Show is pressed, so that clicking on a cell name in the listing will cause that cell to be highlighted in the drawing windows. Only one cell can be highlighted at once.