Selection Controls

This section lets you specify options for selection control.

Mode

Defines whether selection is full or partial.

• Full: Selects objects fully inside the area selection box.
• Partial: Selects objects fully if you completely enclose them with the area selection box, and partially selects objects if you partially enclose them with the area selection box.
  In Partial selection mode, the Routing Object Granularity cyclic field is not available.

Routing Object Granularity

Helps select routing objects by automatically expanding the selection based on the modes described below. You can also set these modes from the right mouse button shortcut menu in the layout canvas. Alternatively, you can choose an appropriate mode by clicking the Selection Granularity icon in the Options toolbar.

• Shapes or Vias: Selects a via or shape (either a path, path segment, rectangle, or polygon) used to make a wire. In Partial selection mode, this is the only granularity that is available.
  When zoomed out, a single click selects an individual shape or via. Two clicks extends the selection to include all the connected pathSegs in the wire until a T-junction or via is encountered.
  When zoomed in, clicking in the middle of the shape selects only that shape; clicking on the boundary of the shape selects all the connected pathSegs in the wire until a T-junction or via is encountered.
• Entire Wire: Expands the selection automatically to include all the objects forming the wire when you select a shape or via.
• Connected Shapes: Expands the selection automatically to include all the objects with a physical connection to a selected shape or via, except labels. The Connected Shapes mode does not consider net assignments on shapes and vias. The expansion is abandoned if more than 1000 objects are found – in this case, only the object under the mouse is selected.
• All Shapes on Net: Expands the selection automatically to include all the objects assigned to the same net as a selected shape or via. If the selected shape or via has no net assigned, then the selection is not expanded. The expansion is abandoned if there are more than 20,000 objects assigned to the net – in this case, only the object under the mouse is selected.

• Net: Lets you select nets as well as instances from the canvas. When a net is selected on the canvas, the corresponding net in the Navigator assistant is also selected. The selected net is probed in the layout window according to the options set in the Highlight Options Form.
  The Net granularity behaves similar to All shapes on Net except that in this case the net object is selected instead of the shape. In fact, there is no limit to the number of shapes that can be highlighted. However, if a shape has no assigned net, no shapes are highlighted.
  For performance reasons only Shapes or Vias, All Shapes on Net, and Net modes are supported for area selection. If you perform an area selection when the routing granularity is set to either Entire Wire or Connected Shapes, the selection defaults to Shapes or Vias mode.

Spine

Selects all contiguous pathsegs automatically with the same width as the pathseg on which you click. It excludes pathsegs that branch off from the main spine at a T junction This option is switched on by default; if you switch it off, only the pathSeg you click is selected.

This option is enabled only when Routing Object Granularity is set to Shapes or Vias.

Point Selection Controls

This section lets you specify options for point selection control.

Overlap Mode

Lets you select overlapped objects one by one by using the left mouse button to select any object and continuing to select them by clicking on the original object until you reach the largest overlapped object.

Toggle mode

Lets you change selection between two objects.

1. Click using the left mouse button on one object and the software toggles back and forth between the smaller object and the larger object.
2. Add objects to the selected set by holding down the Shift key and selecting additional objects.
3. Delete selections by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the left mouse button on the original selected object.
4. Objects are deselected in the reverse order to which they were selected.
5. Once you have selected the objects you want in the set you can also click the selected edge of one of the objects.

This deletes all the selections except the one you have clicked on. This does not delete the objects themselves.

Cycle mode

Use Cycle mode when three or more objects overlap at the same point.

Cycle mode always cycles from the smallest object to the largest object. If you continue to click the original object after reaching the largest object, the cycle returns to the smallest object you first clicked on. The cycle repeats by re-selecting the smallest object you clicked on and selecting outwards again to the largest object. If you start by selecting the largest object in the overlapping stack the selection will not cycle back to the smaller objects. You must select a smaller object so that each selected point selects larger and larger objects.

Multiple objects are not retained in the selected set. The final selected object is the selection that is retained. You can deselect by clicking a point outside of all the overlapping objects.

Add objects to the selected set by holding down the Shift key and selecting additional objects.

Delete selections by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the left mouse button on the original selected object. Objects are deselected in the reverse order to which they were selected.

Once you have selected the objects you want in the set you can also click the selected edge of one of the objects. This deletes all the selections except the one you have clicked on. This does not delete the objects themselves.

The objects are selected according to the selection filter set for the Objects panel in the Palette assistant.

Cycle mode is window-based.

User Aperture Mode

Enables the point selection aperture function and lets you specify the Size of the aperture in user units. This helps you select objects that are not directly under the cursor but close to it (within the distance specified by the aperture).

• off: Specifies that point selection does not use the specified aperture.
• on: Specifies that point selection uses the specified aperture.
• visible: Specifies that point selection uses the specified aperture and that the aperture is displayed on the canvas.

Size

Defines a box around the initial point. You can select multiple points within this aperture range and the software will treat it as one point.

Area Selection Controls

This section lets you specify options for area selection control.

Full Mode

Controls area selection in Full selection mode.

• Enclosed Figures: Selects the objects you completely enclose with the area selection box.
• Enclosed and Crossed Figures: Selects the objects you completely or partially enclose with the area selection box.
• Crossed Figures: Selects objects you partially enclose with the area selection box, but does not select any fully-enclosed objects.

Partial Mode

Controls area selection in Partial selection mode.

• Vertex: Selects all the objects you completely enclose with the area selection box, vertices of any objects you partially select with the area selection box, and edges of any objects you enclose with the area selection box.
• Enclosed Edges: Selects all the objects you completely enclose with the area selection box, and the edges of any objects you partially enclose with the area selection box.
• Crossed Edges: Selects the edges of any objects you enclose with the area selection box, and does not select fully-enclosed objects.
• Enclosed and Crossed Edges: Selects all the objects you completely enclose with the area selection box, the vertices of any objects you partially enclose with the area selection box, and the edges of any objects you enclose with the area selection box.

Auto Store Selection Controls

Stores multiple selected sets you have created. You can reload a previously-selected set into the cellview without having to manually reselect the objects in the canvas.

Auto Store

Enables the auto store functionality. The default is off.

• The selected set consists of full or partially selected figures.
• The selected set is a cellview property. The Edit – Select – Save/Restore is not cumulative.Once the cellview is closed the recorded information is not retained.
• You can iterate through the sets by selecting the sets in the in the Save/Restore Selection Set form or by using the Edit – Select – Next or Edit – Select – Previous commands.
• Deleted or modified objects are removed from a saved selection set. If all objects are removed from the selection set, the set is removed from the Save/Restore Selection Set form.
• Restore is independent of the object selectability of the Objects panel in the Palette assistant.
• The command is not compatible with the Undo or Redo commands.
• The command does not work with the Edit In Place or Descend commands if the lower-level cellview is already open.

Max number of Stored sets

Limits the number of sets saved in the Save/Restore Selection Set form. The default is 10, which is also the maximum number that can be stored. When the limit is reached, the oldest saved selection set is removed from the list.

Max number of selected elements within a set

Limits the number of objects you can save in a single selection set. The default is 100, which is also the maximum number that can be saved.