Cell Flags

Cells in memory contain a number of flags. Most of these are used internally and can not be set by the user. All set flags can be seen in the Info windows when cell data are shown.

The table below lists all flags, with a brief description.

Flag Name	User Set	Set When, or Description
BBVALID	N	Cell bounding box is valid
BBSUBNG	N	A subcell has unknown bounding box
ELECTR	N	Cell contains electrical data
SYMBOLIC	N	Cell has active symbolic representation
CONNECT	N	Connectivity info is current
GPINV	N	Inverted ground plane current
DSEXT	N	Devices and subcircuits extracted
DUALS	N	Physical/electrical duality established
UNREAD	N	Created to satisfy unsatisfied reference
COMPRESSED	N	Save hierarchy in compressed form
SAVNTV	N	Save in native format before exit
ALTERED	N	Cell data were altered when read
CHDREF	N	Cell is a reference
DEVICE	N	Cell represents a device symbol
LIBRARY	Y	Cell is from a user library
IMMUTABLE	Y	Cell is read-only
OPAQUE	Y	Cell content is ignored in extraction
CONNECTOR	Y	Cell is a connector
SPCONNECT	Y	SPICE connectivity info is current
USER0	Y	User flag 0
USER1	Y	User flag 1
PCELL	N	Cell is a PCell sub- or super-master
PCSUPR	N	Cell is a PCell super-master
PCOA	N	Cell is a PCell sub-master from OpenAccess
PCKEEP	N	PCell sub-master read from file
STDVIA	N	Cell is a standard via sub-master

The flags with a Y in the second column can be set by the user, with the SetCellFlag script function and in other places, depending on the flag.

The first two user-modifiable flags are normally controlled by Xic, however it is possible for the user to change their state through the Flags button in the Cells Listing panel, and through the SetCellFlag script function.

LIBRARY
This flag is set for cells that were read into memory through the library (see 8.12) mechanism. By default, these cells are not included when a hierarchy is written to disk.

IMMUTABLE
This indicates that the cell is read-only and can't be edited. This will be set for cells read into memory through the library mechanism.

The remaining flags are completely under control of the user, they are not set by Xic. These are set via the properties mechanism, from the Cell Property Editor (Flags property) or with the SetCellFlag script function. Using a property to control these flags provides persistence when saved to disk.

OPAQUE
The physical contents of the cell should be ignored in extraction.

CONNECTOR
The cell is a via or other connector that contains no devices.

USER0, USER1
Convenience flags for the user. Xic does not use these, but they may be useful in some application.