How to find a cell name of a cell deep in hierarchy

semquest

I can see cells from a block of place and route section of the chip. These cells are deep (12 levels deep) in hierarchy. In addition, there are many large cells overlapping this area so that when I try to select the place and route block, KLayout keeps selecting one of those other cells. Is there some way I can find out the name of some of those small cells deep in the place and route block? I don't think there is any way to select a cell by clicking on the edge of a polygon that is inside that cell. Please let me know if you know of some way to do this.

Currently, I am trying to delete those large cells at the top so they are not selected when I click that area. But there are about 10 of them and every time I delete one, KLayout takes about 10 minutes to reorganize the database before I can select the next one.

Thanks for any help

Matthias

Hi,

if you have already selected a polygon inside the small cell, you two options:

• Choose "Edit/Properties" to show the properties of the polygon. Click "Instantiation" (bottom right) to show the instance path. Double-click on an entry to highlight the cell in the cell list. Double click on the cell entry makes the cell invisible - it becomes a cell frame rectangle which is easier to select.
• (My favorite) Press Ctrl+D. This will descend into the hierarchy along the instantiation path of the polygon. The context cell will be highlighted in the cell tree and the layout. Press Ctrl+D repeatedly until you are right above your cell in the hierarchy. That narrows the scope of the edit functions. They will work only in the context of the current cell and overlapping cells will probably be ignored. After you have finished, press Ctrl+A repeatedly to ascend to top level.

I guess you are looking for some "promote selection to cell instance" function. Such a function not available yet since I think the other options provide a reasonable replacement. But maybe I am wrong.

Regards,

Matthias