Placement Block Directives

The Placement Block directives can appear in the Header Block context, the Source Block context, or within a Placement Block. Thus, they can appear virtually anywhere in the specification file or command line, though the location alters the scope.

If given in the Header Block context, meaning that the directive appears before the first Source Block, or after an EndSource line (-i- option) but ahead of the next Source line (-i option), then the directive will be active as a default in all Source Blocks that follow, until the directive is changed or reset in the Header Block context.

Similarly, if a Placement Block directive is given in a Source Block, it will override a similar directive set in the Header Block scope, and will apply to all Placement Blocks that follow within the Source Block, until changed or reset in the context of the same Source Block. Being given in a Source Block, or in the context of a Source Block, means that the directive appears before the first Place or PlaceTop line (-c or -ctop option), or after an EndPlace line (-c- option but before the next Place or PlaceTop line or equivalent options.

If the Placement Block directive appears within a Placement Block, it will override a similar directive set in the Source Block or Header Block, and will apply to the current Placement Block only.

Placement Block directives are ignored when reading a source that has no Placement Blocks.

The following directives define the transformation applied to an instantiation of the cell in the TopCell. These will be ignored unless a TopCell was given.

Translate x y
(options: -x x -y y)
Specify the translation coordinates. If not given, the default is 0, 0. Note that the keyword corresponds to two command-line options.

Rotate angle
(option: -ang angle)
Specify a rotation angle, which must be a multiple of 45 degrees. If not given, the default is no rotation.

Magnify magn
(option: -m magn)
Specify an instance magnification. If not given, the default is 1.0. Values from .001 to 1000.0 are accepted.

Reflect
(option: -my)
Apply a mirror-Y transformation (before rotation, if any).

NoReflect
(option: -my-)
Turn off the mirror-Y transformation, if the Reflect directive (-my option) is currently in force.

The following directives initiate operations on the cell definition, as it is written to output. These are performed whether or not a TopCell was defined.

Scale scale_factor
(option: -s scale_factor)
The cells read from the source will have all coordinates multiplied by the scale factor, which can be in the range .001 - 1000.0. This is distinct from the Magnify factor, which applies only to the instance created in the TopCell, and will in effect multiply the scale factor. When there are no Placement Blocks, and so Placement Block directives are ignored, the ConvertScale Source Block directive (-cs option) can be used to obtain the same effect.

NoHier
(option: -h)
If given, only the specified cell is written to output, and not its complete hierarchy as is the normal case. This can produce output files with unresolved subcell references, which must be satisfied by some means.

NoNoHier
(option: -h-)
Turn off the no-hierarchy mode, if the NoHier directive (-h option) is currently in force.

NoEmpties [N]
(option: -e[N])
These enable various permutations of the empty cell filtering operations, as described for the Format Conversion panel in 14.10. These are:

``NoEmpties'' or ``NoEmpties 1''
(option: ``-e'' or ``-e1'')
Turn on both pre- and post-filtering.

``NoEmpties 2''
(option: ``-e2'')
Turn on pre-filtering only.

``NoEmpties 3''
(option: ``-e3'')
Turn on post-filtering only.

``NoNoEmpties'' or ``NoEmpties 0''
(option: ``-e-'' or ``-e0'')
Turn off all empty cell filtering.

NoNoEmpties
(option: -e-)
Turn off empty cell filtering, if the NoEmpties directive (-e option) is currently in force (above). These have synonyms ``NoEmpties 0'' and ``-e0''.

Flatten
(option: -f)
If given, all geometry under the cell being read will be written as part of the cell being read, i.e., the cell hierarchy will be flattened. The NoHier directive (-h option) is ignored if this is active.

NoFlatten
(option: -f-)
Turn off flattening, if the Flatten directive (-f option) is currently in force.

Window left bottom right top
(option: -w left,bottom,right,top)
If given, only the subcells (if NoHier is not active) and objects needed to describe the given area in the cell being placed will be written. The coordinates apply to cellname after any scaling is applied, and are given in microns. The four numbers can be separated by commas and/or white space. In the command line, if white space is present between numbers, the four numbers must be quoted, but this is not required in a file.

Clip
(option: -cl)
If Window was given, this will cause geometry to be clipped to the window.

NoClip
(option: -cl-)
Turn off clipping, if the Clip directive (-cl option) is currently in force.