customVias and rodHandles in 6.1.5

We have a MOS pcell that places a symbolic contact in 5.1.41. In the contact are some rod objects and handles that we then access in the MOS code. The code looks something like this:
 

symb1DBid = dbCreateParamInst(…..)

firstConRod = rodGetObj(strcat(symb1DBid~>name "/firstContact") cv)

when(firstConRod

         origLLpoint = rodGetHandle(firstConRod "cutLayVLL")

…
 

This still works in 6.1.5, but we're thinking we should use dbCreateVia instead of dbCreateParamInst. The problem with this is that the resulting customViaDef doesn't have an instance name. How would we go about retrieving the rodHandle from the lower level shape if we are unable to provide it a hierarchical name (symb1DBid~>name is nil).

I tried assigning a rod name to the customVia object and then used that name, but I get the following error when rodGetObj is used:

 

r=rodNameObject(?shapeId symbTmpDBid)
firstConRodUpper = rodGetObj(strcat(r~>name "/firstContact") cv)

 

*WARNING* rodGetObjByName: "via0" in hierarchical name "via0/firstContact" is not the name of an instance

 

In summary, I have two questions:

1. Should we use dbCreateVia instead of dbCreateParamInst?

2. If we use dbCreateVia, how do we access a hierarchical rod object in a customVia?

 

Thanks,

Derek