Chapter XI: MENU SUMMARY

icon

The Facets Menu

icon


Figure 11.3

Cell facets are collections of circuitry. Each facet of a cell has a view type (layout, schematic, etc.) and a version number. Since facet instances may be placed inside of other facets, the facet notion defines hierarchy in Electric.

Edit Facet

This command displays an existing facet or creates a new facet in the current window. You are prompted for its name and view type. Use the "New Facet" button to create a new one.
Figure 11.36

Delete Facet

This command deletes a facet. You will be given a list of facets, and can select the one to delete. You must then use Edit Facet before any more editing can be done in the window.

Copy from Another Library...

This command presents a dialog that allows selection of a facet in another library. A copy of this facet is then placed in the current library. If the facet has subfacets inside of it then they too are copied.
Figure 3.5



New Version of Current Facet

This command makes a copy of the facet in the current window. Version numbers appear in the facet name as a semicolon followed by a number (except for the most recent facet which has no version notation). For example, after the duplication of facet MyCircuit, there will be the facets MyCircuit and MyCircuit;1. The current facet, which has no explicit version number in its name, actually is version 2 (smaller version numbers are older).

Delete Unused Old Versions

This command deletes all facets in the current library that are not the most recent version and are not being used as instances in some other facet. It essentially cleans up the library when too many versions have been created. As with all commands, this can be undone with the Undo command of the Edit menu.



Down Hierarchy

This command changes the current edit window so that the facet whose instance is currently highlighted is now the editable facet.

Up Hierarchy

This command returns editing to the higher level of hierarchy in which the current facet is instantiated. It thus travels back up the hierarchy that was descended with the Down Hierarchy command. If an exported port is highlighted, that network is highlighted in the outer facet. If there was no Down Hierarchy, and the higher level facet cannot be determined, a list of possible facets will be presented. Arbitrary depth of hierarchy can be traversed with these two commands by repeating them.



Expand Facet Instances

This command causes the highlighted facet instances to be expanded, which means that their contents will be displayed. If their contents is already being displayed, this will cause the contents of any subfacets to be displayed, repeatedly down the hierarchy. Once expanded, these facet instances will always display their contents until the Unexpand Facet Instances command is issued. For a temporary view of the contents of an instance, use Look Inside Highlighted. Note that the expansion information can also be set in the Get Info dialog of the Info menu.

Unexpand Facet Instances

This command causes the highlighted facet instances to be unexpanded, which means that they will be displayed as black boxes. If there are expanded subfacets, these are closed first and subsequent commands will unexpand up the hierarchy. Note that the expansion information can also be set in the Get Info dialog of the Info menu.

Look Inside Highlighted

This command displays all layout in the currently highlighted area, all the way down the hierarchy. This "peek" into the facet instances is temporary and will not be shown again if the window is redrawn in any way. To get a permanent view into a facet, use the Expand Facet Instances command above or set the "Expand" option in the Get Info command of the Info menu.



Package into Facet

This command creates a new facet that contains all of the circuitry in the currently highlighted area. You will be prompted for the new facet name. The highlighted area is defined as the bounding rectangle of everything that is highlighted. A more precise way of defining a highlighted area is to use the rectangle select button.

Extract Facet Instance

This command takes the currently highlighted facet instance and replaces it with its contents. This is conceptually the opposite of Package into Facet as it removes a level of hierarchy. If multiple facet instances are highlighted, all of them are extracted.



Read Text Facet

This command reads a disk file into the current text window. It replaces the existing contents. See the Text Windows section of Chapter 4 for more information.

Write Text Facet

This command saves the current text window to disk. See the Text Windows section of Chapter 4 for more information.


Prev Previous     Contents Table of Contents     Next Next