Delete instances of a cell

stefan

Hi,
great code which I am using for viewing large gds files.
However, I just wanted to set up a simple design in the editor mode where I defined a cell and placed several instances
of the cell at the top cell.
When I select one of these instances and want to delete it, all copies / instances of the cell disapear -
how can I delete just one instance of a cell?
Thanks
Stefan

KLayout 0.21.19 on WinXP SP3

Matthias

Hi Stefan,

I guess you use "Delete cell" from the cell tree. This operation deletes the cell as a whole (and in consequence of that all instances of it).

To delete a specific instance, reduce the hierarchy levels such that the instance you want to delete is shown as a box rather than by content. Then you can select this box and simply delete it as you would do with a shape. This operation does not delete the cell itself.

Regards,

Matthias

Canny

Hi, Matthias,

I want to delete specific cells in batch mode, if there is simple way to do it?
Ex, the structure of example.gds is like following,

1sttopcell
2ndtopcell --> which is under 1sttopcell
3_1topcell --> which is under 2ndtopcell
3_2topcell --> which is under 2ndtopcell

there are cells A, B, C, D, E under 3_1topcell
there are cells A, E, X, Y, Z under 3_2topcell
I want to delete cells A, Z in example.gds.

Please tell me how to do it, thank you.

Regards,
Canny

Matthias

Hi Canny,

do you mean to delete cells "A" and "Z" by name? Like selecting cell "A" in the hierarchy browser and use "Delete Cell" and do the same on "Z"?

There is a huge difference whether that has to be done on a cell or instance basis.

Regards,

Matthias

Canny

Hi, Matthias,

Thank you and yes, I want to delete the cells by cell name, like you said.
I also want to it could follow the option "Deep delete (delete cell plus subcells that not used otherwise" of delete cell function.

Regards,
Canny

Matthias

Hi Canny,

the method you are looking for is the "prune_cell" method of the Layout object. Use "-1" as the second parameter to indicate that all hierarchy levels shall be considered.

I.e.

ly = .. # the layout
[ "A", "Z" ].each do |name|
  ly.prune_cell(ly.cell_by_name(name), -1)
end

The code above is basically equivalent to using "Delete all cells plus subcells that are not used otherwise" on "A" and "Z".

Regards,

Matthias

Canny

Hi, Matthias,

It is very helpful and thank you for this nice function.

Regards,
Canny