Symbol Editor: Moving Axes to Background Such That Graphical Elements are not Covered

This is all to do with the layer purpose priorities in the tech file. You can adjust this by doing this (say):

tf=techGetTechFile(geGetEditCellView())
axis=techGetLP(tf list("axis" "drawing"))
grid=techGetLP(tf list("grid" "drawing"))
grid1=techGetLP(tf list("grid" "drawing1"))
techSetLPPriorityInContext(tf axis 1)
techSetLPPriorityInContext(tf grid 2)
techSetLPPriorityInContext(tf grid1 3)

You should make sure that the grid/drawing1 has a higher priority than grid/drawing as otherwise the major grid may get obscured by the minor grid.

Andrew

This is all to do with the layer purpose priorities in the tech file. You can adjust this by doing this (say):

tf=techGetTechFile(geGetEditCellView())
axis=techGetLP(tf list("axis" "drawing"))
grid=techGetLP(tf list("grid" "drawing"))
grid1=techGetLP(tf list("grid" "drawing1"))
techSetLPPriorityInContext(tf axis 1)
techSetLPPriorityInContext(tf grid 2)
techSetLPPriorityInContext(tf grid1 3)

You should make sure that the grid/drawing1 has a higher priority than grid/drawing as otherwise the major grid may get obscured by the minor grid.

Andrew

Hi Andrew
Thank you very much for the response. As I'm not particularly familiar with customizing Virtuoso I think I need a bit more guidance to what to do with the code you posted. So far I put it at the end of my .cdsinit-file, and upon re-starting Virtuoso (version 6.1.8) I get the following output, with no change in symbol appearance:

*WARNING* (TECH-2000010): techGetTechFile: nil is an invalid ID. The valid ID is dbCellViewId or ddId for a cell or library. Specify the valid ID and rerun the function.
*Error* techGetLP: argument #1 should be a database object (type template = "dg") - nil
*Error* techGetLP: argument #1 should be a database object (type template = "dg") - nil
*Error* techGetLP: argument #1 should be a database object (type template = "dg") - nil
*Error* eval: unbound variable - axis
*Error* eval: unbound variable - grid
*Error* eval: unbound variable - grid1

Apparently already the first code line fails. So should the code be used in another way? Thanks.

The code works if there's a window open - so it's not suitable for running from the .cdsinit as-is. Instead, you can change the first line to:

tf=techGetTechFile(ddGetObj("yourLibName"))

where yourLibName is the name of the library that you're designing in - or you could use the name of the technology library that your design library is attached to (usually the main library from the PDK; when you create your design library it's whatever you attach to). Note that it wouldn't normally matter if you use the design library or technology library name here (if you use attach) because the tech file being updated would be that from the technology library in either case.

Regards,

Andrew

Perfect, thanks very much!

Is it possible to read or modify the value for the major grid spacing from here?

I tried grid~>?? but it did not return any meaningful numbers

Karam Gh said:

Is it possible to read or modify the value for the major grid spacing from here?

This should really be a new question (see the forum guidelines), but for an existing window it is:

hiGetCurrentWindow()~>gridSpacing=0.125 ; that's the default for schematics and defines the minor grid
hiGetCurrentWindow()~>gridMultiple=8 ; that's the default for schematics and defines the number of gridSpacings between major grid points

There are also two cdsenv variables to control the defaults for new windows:

schematic                          schGridSpacing                                                 float    0.125
schematic                          schGridMultiple                                                int      8

Andrew