How to lock the cell placement

The Virtuoso layout editor does not offer a built-in way to lock the placement of a cell. I think you can lock placements when using VXL, but the locking is only going to work as long as the design is opened in VXL. The best way we found to lock cell placements was to make cells unselectable. Cadence provides a trigger function that will call a function that you define to determine if an object is selectable or not. You could then define a property on an instance or cell to indicate if the cell is locked. Your function would then return nil to the selection trigger and make your cell/instance unselectable. If it can't be selected, then the Cadence move and stretch commands can't grab it. Here is what you need:

leRegUserObjectSelectionFilter("myFilterFunction")

procedure(myFilterFunction(obj)
    if(obj~>objType == "inst" && obj~>myFixedProperty then
        return()
    else
        return(t)
    )
)

;This will disable the filter
;leUnregUserObjectSelectionFilter()

This routine needs to be efficient because it is run constantly as you move your cursor around the layout. If you have "Dynamic Hilight" turned on in the Layout Display Options form, then you normally see a yellow dotted outline around selectable objects when you move your cursor. If you register this selection filter, then the dynamic hilight will not display for instances that are not selecatble according to the above filter. You would be responsible for adding the "myFixedProperty" of t on instances that you wish to be fixed. If this property is not defined, then nil will be returned by default and thus the instance will remain selectable.

This filter can also be setup for shapes if you have a need to do so. You could also modify the "myFilterFunction" to lock by cellName rather than by individual instances. It is up to you to decide what is unselectable and when.

-Derek

Thanks Derek .

When i load the script, i got the following warning message. Should i need to  define the myFilterFunction? 

 *WARNING* Can't find skill filter function 'myFilterFunction'.

I am expecting something like this,

--> When i load my script it should find all the  instances

-->It should lock the position of all the instances 

-->If somebody tries to move the locked instances, it should pop up a warning message saying "Instance position is locked,Please unlock it to move"

-->I should be able to unlock selected instances if necessary.

 
Thanks,

Bharath. 

My mistake. I defined the procedure after the call to the procedure. Simply move the call to leRegUserObjectSelectionFilter after the definition of the procedure.

If you want to lock all of the instances for the set of code defined above, do the following:

procedure(lockAllInsts(@optional (cv geGetEditCellView()))
    foreach(inst cv~>instances
        inst~>myFixedProperty = t
    )
)

Call this command to lock all the instances from being selected. Since this approach doesn't allow instances to be selected, there won't be an easy way to print a message indicating that the position is locked. You would have to create wrappers to the move or stretch commands, but this then becomes messy and difficult. I have tried this and actually opened the ticket with Cadence to get this selection filter. This filter made things much easier.

If you want to unlock the instance, you'll need to change the "myFixedProperty" to nil. The following routine unlocks the selected instances.

procedure(unlockInsts(@optional (insts setof(x selectedSet() x~>objType=="inst")))
    foreach(inst insts
        inst~>myFixedProperty = nil
    )
)

I did not intend this code I posted to do all you need it to do. It should serve as an example for you to work from. Take this time to get familiar with the Skill documentation, it is very good.

-Derek

The following command makes all the instances not selectable. hence we cannot move the instances. Therefore it is locked 

 leSetObjectVisible("inst" nil)

 This command will unlock all the instancesand allows user to select the individual instances.

  leSetObjectVisible("inst" t)

Can we make user defined instances as selectable/not-selectable(by using some bindkey)..? not all like above commands

Thanks

Bharath. 

 Where can i get the function defintion for inbuilt functions

For example: leHiMove() 

Thanks,

Bharath. 

 Hi Bharath,

You cannot. In many cases, not in this one, the function is implemented in C not SKILL and therefore not viewable in a SKILL.environment. For Cadence SKILL functions that are implemented in SKILL themselves, these are part of Cadence's Intellectual Property and therefore are protected from being readable by the end users.

This may not be the answer that you wanted to hear, but I hope that it did at least answer your question.

Regards,

Lawrence.

 can someone answer this question also..

The following command makes all the instances not selectable. hence we cannot move the instances. Therefore it is locked 

 leSetObjectVisible("inst" nil)

 This command will unlock all the instancesand allows user to select the individual instances.

  leSetObjectVisible("inst" t)

Can we make user defined instances as selectable/not-selectable(by using some bindkey if possible)..?

I'm not sure how we came back around to this question. At the beginning of this post, I descrbed how you can setup an object selection filter. In the example I described how to check for a property on an instance to determine if it is selectable or not. If all you are missing is the bindkey, you can set it up this way:

 hiSetBindKey("Layout" "<Key>F7" "css()~>myFixedProperty=t") ;This will lock the object
 hiSetBindKey("Layout" "shift<Key>F7" "css()~>myFixedProperty=nil") ;This will unlock the object

This assumes you use the functions defined at the beginning of the post. Also, the above could be used to lock shapes, but if you want to limit to instances, you'll need to check the object type:

 hiSetBindKey("Layout" "<Key>F7" "when(css()~>objType=="inst" css()~>myFixedProperty=t)") ;This will lock the selected instance

-Derek

How about lxHiUnlockSelected() ?

Andrew