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4: Examining Instances |
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Once expanded, a facet instance will continue to be drawn with its contents shown until the Unexpand Facet Instances command is used. This command returns facet instances to their black-box form, starting with the deepest subfacets that are expanded at the bottom of the hierarchy.
The expansion information can also be set or reset by using the Get Info command of the Info menu and clicking on the "Expanded" or "Unexpanded" buttons.
There are times when you want to see the layout inside of a facet instance, but only temporarily. The Look Inside Highlighted command of the Facets menu displays everything in the highlighted area, down through all hierarchical levels. This is a one-shot display that reverts to unexpanded form if the window is shifted, scaled, or redrawn.
There is a slight difference in specification between the Expand Facet Instances and the Look Inside Highlighted commands. The Expand Facet Instances command affects facet instances only, and thus any instances that are highlighted or in the highlighted area will be completely expanded. The Look Inside Highlighted command affects layout display in an area, and thus only those parts of instances that are inside of the highlighted area will be shown. Thus, the command Look Inside Highlighted is more precise in what it expands and can be used, in conjunction with the rectangle select button, to show only a specific part of the circuit.
Examining facet instances can be quite time consuming, especially if you are looking at an entire chip, fully flattened. To avoid delays, Electric simplifies the display of facets when the scale grows too tiny. These tiny facets get "hashed-out" rather than fully drawn. See section 3-7 for more information.
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