Xic has a ``side'' menu of buttons, typically displayed along the left edge of the application main window, next to the layer table. This menu contains buttons specific to editing, and is shown only when editing is enabled (meaning that it never appears in the Xiv feature set). The content of the menu differs between electrical and physical modes.
If the environment variable XIC_MENU_RIGHT is set when Xic starts, the menu and layer table will be placed along the right edge of the main application window. This might be more convenient for left-handed users. If the XIC_HORIZ_BUTTONS environment variable is set, the ``side'' menu buttons will instead be arrayed horizontally across the top of the main application window, above the top button menu.
This section describes in detail the commands available in the side menu in physical and electrical modes. These include commands for geometry creation and other frequently used operations.
Again, the side menu is only visible when cell editing is possible.
Side menu commands are executed by clicking with button 1 on the buttons. Typing the first few letters of the command name while pointing in a drawing window will also initiate a side menu command. The characters typed are displayed in the key press buffer area to the left of the prompt line in the main window, or in the upper-right corner of sub-window pop-ups. Commands can be exited by selecting the same or another command in most cases, or by pressing the Esc key.
In the command descriptions, reference if often made to the ``current transform''. This is a rotation, reflection, and magnification specification for moved or copied objects, and for newly created subcells. The current transform is set with the pop-up produced by the xform button in the side.
Reference is also made to ``selected'' objects. Objects are selected by clicking the left mouse button (button 1) while pointing at the object, or by pressing and holding button 1 so that the object is enclosed in the rectangle formed with the press and release locations. Selecting a second time will deselect the objects, and all selected objects can be deselected with the desel button in the top button menu. Selected objects are displayed with a blinking highlighted border. Objects can also be selected with the !select command typed in the prompt area.
Reference is made to various commands that start with an exclamation point ``!'' such as ``!set''. These commands can be entered from the keyboard. Since most of these commands are used infrequently, they are not assigned command buttons. The most important of these commands is probably !set, since this allows certain variables to be set which control the behavior of some side menu commands. These ``!'' commands are described in chapter 19.
The tables below summarize the command buttons provided in the side menus in physical and electrical mode. Note that the side menu is different between physical and electrical modes, and that the operation of some commands which appear in both may differ slightly. These differences are noted in the descriptions. In the text, side menu commands are referenced by their internal names, since the command buttons contain an icon and not a label.
The side menu is not available in the Xiv feature set, and is invisible when certain modes are in effect, such as in CHD display mode, where editing is not allowed.
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