Chapter VI: ADVANCED EDITING

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Making Arrays

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If one copy is not enough, you may want an array of nodes.

The Array... command of the Edit menu takes the currently highlighted node and replicates it many times. You can specify the replication in the X and Y directions and can even request that alternate rows/columns be flipped or staggered.

There are two ways to specify spacing: edge overlap or centerline distance. The edge overlap amounts indicate the amount by which the rows and columns will be squeezed together (zero overlap causes the new nodes to touch each other, negative overlap can be specified to spread the nodes apart). Centerline distance is the distance between node centers, and defaults to the node size (which causes them to touch). Note that the default unit for typed values is lambda, unless another unit is explicitly mentioned (see the Change Units... command of the Technology menu for more on lambda and units.

Figure 6.2

The "Generate array indices" check box at the bottom requests that the array entries be drawn with index information. When this is checked, array entries are labeled with the index of each entry. The original node is labeled "0-0" and the entry to its right is labeled "1-0". These names are simply visual tags that have no bearing on the node contents (use the Get Info command of the Info menu to set or remove these names).


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