Invisible cell?

DanielS

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to clean up my cell view a little bit and came across a problem I didn't think about before.

I usually start my layout by designing one cell by inserting multiple different shapes.
This cell and also the top_cell is created by calling the 'create_cell()' method of the layout object:

top_cell = layout.create_cell("Top")
cell1 = layout.create_cell("Cell1")

After this one cell is finished I create CellInstArrays containing hundreds of references to this cell.

cellArray = pya.CellInstArray(cell1.cell_index(), pya.CplxTrans(1,rot,False,x0,y0), pya.Point(dX,0), pya.Point(0,dY), nX, nY)

This CellInstArray is then inserted into my top_cell which gives me a nice hierarchical order I am looking for.

top_cell.insert(cellArray.transformed(pya.CplxTrans(1, rot, mir, pya.DPoint(x0,y0))))

However, that one cell at the beginning (cell1) is still located in the top level next to the top_cell.
When I delete it, all the references in the CellInstArray are also deleted.

I tried to create a new cell by just calling the constructor of the Cell class and take that as my "cell1", but this didn't work for me (should it work?).
And I tried the same thing with an additional layout object which didn't work either.

My question is, is there a possibility to make cells "invisible" for the hierarchy view? Or do you know a better solution for my problem?

Thanks in advance and best regards
Daniel

Matthias

Hi Daniel,

maybe by chance you have selected "Flat cell view" in the cell list? Please right click on the cell list an check whether this option is selected.

Matthias

DanielS

Hi Matthias,

thanks for the reply.
The "Flat cell view" option is disabled and the top_cell shows the hierarchical order I am aiming for.
If I flatten the cells, the cell view list gets huge (>100 entries) in contrast to 20 cells if I disabled the flatten view.

Daniel

Matthias

Hi Daniel,

I'm still trying to understand what you need. There is no way to make a cell "invisible" for the hierarchy tree. The tree depicts the relationship, so tweaking it does not look like a good idea.

If you see "top_cell" and a "Cell1" below the "top_cell" everyhing works as it should. "Cell1" then is a child cell of "top_cell".

If I knew what your problem really is I could propose a solution.

Matthias

DanielS

Hi Matthias,

sorry if my question was unclear.
My hierarchy created by my code above looks like this:

• top_cell

  • CellInstArray_of_Cell1

• Cell1

and cell1 is the cell I want to get rid of (leaving the CellInstArray filled).

Daniel

Matthias

Hi Daniel,

that can't be correct. If you really produce a correct instance of Cell1 then the hierarchy will be

top_cell
  -> Cell1 

and nothing else. So I think there is something wrong with the code.

Please paste a complete sample (reduced one if you want) which demonstrates the issue. I don't want to guess what's going on.

Matthias