Virtuoso Layout Editor User Guide -- 3. Using Layout Editor Commands

Virtuoso Layout Editor User Guide, Product Version 5.0

3

Using Layout Editor Commands

This chapter contains these topics:

Command Functions

Using Command Forms

Getting Help for Commands

Using the Pop-Up Menu

Discarding All Edits

Ways to Use the Mouse

Layout Editor Strokes

Starting Commands with Bindkeys

Unexpected Results Commands Might Produce

Command Functions

Starting Commands

To start Virtuoso^® Layout Editor commands you can

Choose a command from a layout editor menu

Click on an icon

Move the pointer into the cellview, and press a bindkey

Choose a command from the layout editor pop-up menu

Draw a stroke in the design window

Canceling Commands

To cancel a command without changing your data, or to stop a command that automatically repeats, do one of the following:

Press Escape.

If the command has a form, the form closes.

Click Cancel in the form.

Undoing Commands

You can undo the effects of a command that you just completed.

To undo a command, do one of the following:

Choose Edit - Undo.

Press u.

Click on the undo icon in the icon menu.

To reinstate a change you canceled with Undo, do one of the following:

Choose Edit - Redo.

Press Shift-u.

You can undo up to 10 previous commands. To set the number of commands you can undo,

In the Command Interpreter Window (CIW), choose Options - User Preferences.

Set the Undo Limit field to the number you want.

Click OK.

Repeating Commands

Many layout editor commands automatically repeat. For example, each time you finish drawing one rectangle, the Create Rectangle command prompts you to draw another one.

By default, the following commands are set to repeat:

On the Create menu: all commands

On the Edit menu: Move, Copy, Stretch, Reshape, Delete, Chop, Split, Merge, and Paste

On the Window menu: Create Ruler

To set the automatic repeat (on or off),

From the cellview window menu, Choose Options - Layout Editor [Shift-e].

The Layout Editor Options form appears.

Set Repeat Commands on (or off).

Click OK.

To stop a repeating command,

      Do one of the following:

Press Escape.

If the command has a form, click Cancel in the form.

Nesting Commands

You can pause before completing one command to perform a second command. This is called nesting a command. You can nest any display command. You cannot nest edit or create commands.

Choose Edit - Move (to move an object across the cellview).

Choose Zoom - Out by 2 (to zoom out the cellview display).

You are now nesting the Zoom command while using Move.

Finish the Move command (click to move the object, or press Escape to cancel).

You can nest up to 20 commands. To set the number of commands you can nest,

In the CIW, choose Options - User Preferences.

Set the Nest Limit field to the number you want.

Click OK.

Using Command Forms

A form is a window that appears when you use a command. You use the form to change command settings. For example, in the Create Polygon form, you can change the snap mode to any of the options listed in the Snap Mode cyclic field.

There are two types of forms in the layout editor:

Standard forms let you change command settings before you execute commands. They appear automatically when you start a command.

Options forms let you change command settings while you are running commands. Options forms do not appear automatically if you have Options Displayed When Commands Start turned off in the Options - User Preferences in the CIW. In this situation, you must double-click middle or press F3 to see the command forms.

Displaying Forms

There are two ways to display forms, depending on whether the command has a standard form or an options form.

Whenever you choose a menu command that has three dots (...) after it, a standard form appears automatically.

Whenever you double-click middle or press F3 while using a command, an options form appears.

If you are not sure whether a command has a form, double-click middle or press F3 while you use the command. If a form is available, it will appear.

Using Form Buttons

The buttons on a standard form work as follows:

OK: Completes the command and closes the form.

Cancel: Closes the form without executing the command.

Defaults: Resets default values for options on the form.

Apply: Completes the command and keeps the command active and the form on the screen.

The buttons on an options form work as follows:

Hide: Closes the form and lets you go on with the command.

Cancel: Closes the form and stops the command.

Defaults: Resets default values, if any, for options on the form.

Note: Many forms do not have a Defaults button because there are no appropriate default settings for that command. Some commands may have more or fewer buttons than those shown here.

Filling in a Form

In addition to the buttons at the top of a form, there are several types of fields and buttons inside a form, as shown in the following examples.

Making Command Forms Appear by Default

To set options forms so they display automatically whenever you choose a command,

Choose Options - User Preferences in the CIW.

In the User Preferences form, turn the Options Displayed When Commands Start button on.

Click OK.

Getting Help for Commands

The Help button on forms and in windows displays information about the layout editor.

To display a page of information about the command you are using, click Help in the command form or options form.

To display the Virtuoso Layout Editor User Guide table of contents from which you can navigate to the information you want to see, click Help in a layout design window and choose Contents.

Another way to display Help is to press the F1 key at the top of your keyboard. F1 is the bindkey for Help.

To display a page of information about a command, press F1 while your cursor is in the design window and the command is running.

To see the Virtuoso Layout Editor User Guide table of contents, press F1 while your cursor is in a layout design window and no command is active.

Using the Pop-Up Menu

The layout editor pop-up menu lets you start a few commonly used layout commands. To start a command from the pop-up menu,

Move the mouse pointer into a layout cellview.

Press and hold the middle mouse button.

Slide the pointer to the command you want and release the middle mouse button.

To close the pop-up menu without using a command,

      Move the pointer off of the pop-up menu and release the middle mouse button.

      For information about creating your own pop-up menu, see the User Interface SKILL Functions Reference manual.

Discarding All Edits

The Discard Edits dialog box ignores all edits you made since the last time you saved.

To cancel your edits,

Choose Design - Discard Edits.

A Discard Edits dialog box appears and asks you to confirm that you want to discard your edits.

Click Yes.

Discard Edits Form

Yes deletes all of the edits you made since the last time you saved.

No cancels the command without deleting your edits.

Ways to Use the Mouse

You can use the mouse to perform several functions in the layout editor.

The Mouse Pointer and Cursor

As you move the mouse around in a layout cellview, you see two objects that show where the mouse is pointing.

The mouse pointer changes shape after you select an object, to show that you can either move or stretch the object.

Mouse Buttons in the Layout Cellview

While editing a layout cellview, use the mouse buttons as follows.

Mouse Buttons in the Layer Selection Window

When you click on layer names in the Layer Selection Window (LSW), the mouse buttons work as follows.

Looking at the Mouse Button Settings

The mouse button settings appear at the bottom of a layout cellview. They show you what will happen if you click the left, middle, or right button. For some commands, new mouse settings appear when you press Control or Shift.

Each time you start a command, the mouse settings line changes to show what the mouse buttons do when you use this command. For example, while using the Copy command, the mouse button settings look like this:

When you move the mouse cursor into the LSW, the mouse settings line shows what clicking mouse buttons do in the LSW. For example:

Layout Editor Strokes

A stroke is a unique shape you draw in a cellview by pressing and holding the right mouse button. Cadence ships a set of predefined strokes for the layout editor that you can load.

Note: Before you can use strokes, you must load them from the Cadence installation hierarchy.

To start a command with a stroke,

      Press right and draw one of the following strokes.

The arrows show the direction in which you draw the strokes. Note that there are two ways to start Zoom In with strokes.

Loading and Unloading Strokes

To use the predefined layout editor strokes, you must first load them.

To load the strokes,

      Type the following in the text line of the CIW:
load(prependInstallPath( "dfII/etc/sted/stroke.il")) 
load(prependInstallPath( "dfII/etc/sted/defstrokes.il")) 
hiLoadStrokeFile("def.strokes" "Layout") 
The stroke.il file defines mouse key bindings and the applications that recognize strokes. The defstrokes.il file lists the Cadence^® SKILL language functions used by the predefined strokes. The def.strokes file defines the stroke shapes.

You can also add these commands to your .cdsinit file, so the strokes are loaded whenever you start the Cadence software.

Note: After you load strokes, you cannot use the right mouse button for any other functions.

To unload the strokes,

Quit the current session of the Cadence software and restart the software.

Remove the load strokes commands from your .cdsinit file, if you have added them to that file.

Starting Commands with Bindkeys

Many layout editor commands can be started using bindkeys. If the bindkeys are loaded, they appear to the right of the command name on the menu.

To start a command using a bindkey,

Move the cursor into the design window and press the bindkey on your keyboard.

For example, to start the Fit All command, you press f.

To start the Clear All Rulers command, you press Shift-k.

Window Menu

Pan tab

Name of key means press that key (Tab).

Fit All f

Lowercase f means press f.

Fit Edit ^x

Carat (^) with x means press Control-x.

Clear All Rulers K

Uppercase K means press Shift-k.

This document refers to commands by full menu names. If a bindkey is available for a command, it is included in brackets after the command name. For example, Zoom - In [z].

The physical representation of the bindkeys on the keyboard is in Appendix A.

Entering Startpoints with Bindkeys

You can set the layout editor to automatically use the current cursor location as the starting point whenever you start commands with bindkeys. This is called infix mode.

To set infix mode on or off,

In the CIW, Choose Options - User Preferences.

In the User Preferences form, turn the Infix button on or off.

Click OK.

After you set Infix on, it affects all commands you start with bindkeys.

For example, if you press Tab (the bindkey for Pan), the layout editor does not prompt you for a panning point but immediately centers the image in the design window around the current cursor location.

Loading Bindkeys

Your system administrator might set your .cdsinit file to automatically load the bindkey definitions. If this is not the case, and your .cdsinit file does not load the layout editor bindkeys, you can add the line as follows:
In a UNIX window, open your .cdsinit file by typing
vi ~/.cdsinit
Your .cdsinit file might be in your home directory, your working directory, or in your site startup directory. The example assumes the file is in your home directory.
Add the following line to the .cdsinit file:
load(prependInstallPath("samples/local/leBindKeys.il"))
Save and close the .cdsinit file.

The next time you start the Cadence software, the .cdsinit file will load the default bindkey settings.
To load the bindkeys while the Cadence software is running,

In the CIW, type the following command:
load(prependInstallPath("samples/local/leBindKeys.il"))
Defining Bindkeys in SKILL

To set your bindkeys, you can edit the leBindKeys.il file.

Make sure that your .cdsinit file includes a line to load the bindkey file, described in "Loading Bindkeys".

Note: This document assumes you use the default bindkeys for the layout editor. If you change your bindkeys, remember that the bindkey instructions in the documentation might not apply.
In a UNIX window, copy and then open leBindKeys.il for editing by typing:
cd your_install_dir/tools/dfII/samples/local 
cp leBindKeys.il ~ 
vi ~/leBindKeys.il 
The file defines groups of bindkeys. It uses an alias (bk) for the hiSetBindKey() function that sets bindkeys. Here are some examples from the bindkey file:
The application name Layout in the syntax means that the bindkey applies whenever you run the layout editor.
Type hiSetBindKey() to create new settings.

You can set a bindkey to perform any Cadence SKILL language function.

When you are finished editing the file, save and close it.
Type the following in the CIW to load the new file:
load "your_install_dir/leBindKeys.il"
Try your new bindkeys in a layout window.
To load the new bindkeys automatically whenever you start the Cadence software, do one of the following:
Add a line to your .cdsinit file that loads the new bindkey file. For example:
load "path_to_file/leBindKeys.il"
Append the new bindkey file to the end of your .cdsinit file.
Note: There is another sample bindkey file in the samples directory called leSchBindKeys.il. This sample bindkey file can be used with both the layout and schematic editors. These bindkeys are mapped to similar functions in both editors and are based on the default layout editor bindkeys.

Unexpected Results Commands Might Produce

Canceling or Undoing Edits

You might find that you want to cancel an edit you made. What you do depends on whether you completed the edit and how many edits you want to cancel.

If you are still running the command, press Escape or click Cancel to stop the command and cancel the edit you were just doing.

If you just completed a command and want to cancel it, choose Edit - Und o [u].

Undo cancels the last command you completed.

To reinstate a change you canceled with Undo, press Shift U or choose Edit - Redo.

If you completed a number of edits and do not want to save any of them, you can discard all edits you made since the last time you saved.

Note: Discarded edits are deleted from memory. You cannot restore them with Undo.

The Command Starts Before I Enter Points

If you press a bindkey to start a command and the command seems to start before you click a point, infix mode is probably on. When infix is on, any command you start with a bindkey uses the current cursor location as its first point.

If you do not want bindkey commands to use infix mode, you can turn infix mode off.

Stopping a Command

If you cannot stop a command, one of the following might be happening:

Each time you finish the command, it restarts. This means you are using a command that automatically repeats.

A form appears on screen, and you want to close it without executing the command.

In either case, do one of the following to cancel the command:

Press Escape.

Click Cancel on the form.

It is not always necessary to cancel a repeating command, however.

If you are running a repeating command and then start a nonrepeating command, the repeating command pauses while the new command runs. After you are finished with the nonrepeating command, the repeating command continues.

If you start another repeating command, the first repeating command stops.

The Command Does Not Repeat and It Should

By default, editing commands repeat automatically only if you first choose the command, then select the object.

Commands do not repeat if you first select the object, then choose the command.

If you chose an editing command before selecting an object, and the command still does not repeat, one of the following might be the cause:
An object is selected that you cannot see. Look at the number next to Select in the status banner to see if one or more objects is selected. For example, if one object is selected the banner displays
Select: 1
Zoom out the cellview so you can see all objects.
The Repeat Commands setting for the editor has been turned off.
To turn the Repeat Commands setting on,

Choose Options - Layout Editor.

In the Layout Editor Options form, set Repeat Commands on.

Click OK.

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Window Menu
Pan tab	Name of key means press that key (`Tab`).
Fit All f	Lowercase f means press `f`.
Fit Edit ^x	Carat (^) with x means press `Control-x`.
Clear All Rulers K	Uppercase K means press `Shift-k`.