User 20190913 Saturday 25th May 2019
I'm trying to cut layout objects along non-perpendicular lines. I marked the points I want with permanent Rulers and try to Q, click first point, zoom out, find the second point, zoom in and finish.
But zooming breaks the cut command.
I would expect there to be some degree of "command stacking" so that you can make use of zoom and pan, etc. for tasks that need combinations of range and resolution, more than one screen can deliver (and more accurate than an anyAngle snap can hope for, across distance). But seems not?
Rather, it seems that any command cancels whatever was "in progress"?
Jim LayoutEditorFull Saturday 25th May 2019
I'm not sure what you are referring to. I zoom in-and-out when cutting a shape using the wheel on my mouse to zoom. Basic sequence is
1. Select the shape you want to cut.
2. Check on the lower-right toolbar to be sure this shape is selected.
3. Type "Q" to cut.
3. Left-click to define one end of a line you will cut with.
4. Zoom as you like.
5. Left-click a second time to define the second point (the other end) of the line you will cut the shape with.
Let me know if that works for you.
Jim with PhotomaskPORTAL
User 20190913 Tuesday 28th May 2019
The problem I'm having is that having done 1. - 5. , I have
lost the "anchor point" and then 6. doesn't know I'm still
trying to execute the cut. Not all the time, but it's pretty
repeatable-ish; when I go to the menu-bar zoom icon and
click, command is gone. Same seems to be true of the
middle-button zoom option that appears when the command
is active. The only way I can work is to stay zoomed out to
where I can see both start and stop points (meaning I can't
do fine work, have to rough-cut and then zoom in and do
edge move or whatever).
If it works differently for other folks I'd like to know why and
what to do about it.
As another nicety, polyline / polygon (multi-vertex) and box cut
options, ones that work within a region (not demanding that
start and end coords be outside the object extents) would
be really nice. Can't find a way to make a hole in an existing
shape?
Jim LayoutEditorFull Tuesday 28th May 2019
Can you make a video showing the issue you are having with cutting a shape and what "mouse help" is showing as you progress?
Your last paragraph sounds interesting. Please provide examples of this also.
Jim from PhotomaskPORTAL
User 20190913 Wednesday 29th May 2019
Here's a SImpleScreenRecorder MP4 recording. Can't hear my narrative unfortunately. But all I'm doing, is what I said earlier. Start "Cut" (Q), go to the other edge and try to zoom in, at this point the Cut command line has disappeared and the cut function is overwith. And the mouse option for zoom appears to be entirely nonfunctional, but doesn't break the cut function )just waits for a click and re-establishes the anchor point, rather than completing the cut at the click-point. The menu bar zoom however ends the cut entirely, it's not looking for a start or end click after trying to zoom in.
Not sure how to show an example of something I want but does not exist in this tool (?). I guess I could record off a Silvaco session on my PC but that's a remote-display bodge that may take some figuring out. Just an "area cut" as opposed to a "line cut". Maybe the Booleans are a way to go, make myself a "cutter" shape and see how that plays with ANDNOT?
{edit: I dragged/dropped the MP4 file, looked OK, don't see it here now}
User 20190913 Wednesday 29th May 2019
See a "format not supported" thingy in the Attachments window. No idea what video formats -are- supported... if any. I figured it doesn't get any more standard than .mp4?
User 20190913 Wednesday 29th May 2019
Utilities>Misc>Punch With Selection will make a hole from a layer0 box or polygon.
However it "punches" the same hole in every layer that the "cutter" covers, so beware / disable layers you don't want punched coincidentally.
Jim LayoutEditorFull Wednesday 29th May 2019
Thanks, good point. "Punch (or Crop) with Selection" should remove all underlying hierarchy inside the shape (punch) or outside the shape (crop).
Adding two points:
1. The "cutter" can be on any layer, including the same layer as what you are cutting (or cropping).
2. The "cutter" can be multiple shapes as long as they reside in the current cell (i.e. not a cell reference).
To do this, simply select the shapes you want to cut with in the current cell (verify the selection in the lower-right display) and then select Utilities > Misc > Punch (or Crop) with Selection.
Jim from PhotomaskPORTAL
User 20190913 Thursday 30th May 2019
Any ideas how to post that "Cut command goes away when trying to zoom" video? I can't see any list of supported file types for the 'board (unlike others I inhabit).
Jim LayoutEditorFull Friday 31st May 2019
If you will upload the MP4 file here, I will post:
https://www.photomaskportal.com/upload.html
Jim with PhotomaskPORTAL
Jim LayoutEditorFull Tuesday 4th June 2019
< duplicate post >
Jim LayoutEditorFull Tuesday 4th June 2019
Okay thanks. I received the MP4 file you uploaded. I believe the issue you are having is due to not selecting the shape before you cut. Here's a quick video showing the steps needed to cut a shape: https://youtu.be/NUFslLS6JG4
Let me know if this helps.
Jim with PhotomaskPORTAL
User 20190913 Thursday 6th June 2019
I've tried with the shape unselected and selected, in both cases I can complete the cut if I don't "interrupt it" (like by trying to zoom from the menu-bar) but trying to zoom (as if I wanted a very specific point-of-cut-end) "breaks the cut action".
Similarly, creating a N-point polygon does not "command-stack" either; the function quits if I click anything (bar or menu-pulldown item) outside the drawing window. However if I am only -traversing- the pulldowns the command is still active when I return the cursor to the drawing window.
So I am left with only an ability to crudely cut or form shapes if they are large relative to snap-step, I cannot (as I'm used to doing)
- zoom in to where I can resolve the exact start-cut-point I want
- zoom out to see the full object extent
- zoom in to where I can resolve the desired end-cut-point
- commit
Curious whether this bothers anybody doing layouts that have large features that need fine cutting (or want to create large features when snap is small, like 1000um 45'd busses on 0.05um PDK snap setting) and if so, what's your workaround? Just cut it crude and move points iteratively (move, zoom, move, ...)? Make yourself a "45-degree cutter" object that you can reuse for such things? ???
I would like to request (as I have, but maybe repetition helps) a snap-angle constraint ("any", "ortho" / "manhattan", "45") that applies to geometric operations.
And also a "command stack" that eases the layout "artist's" worlflow. Enabling operations such as within-the-operation zoom, ruler etc. as these are things I do by habit.
Meanwhile any advice from analog / MEMS type users who work with shapes other than instances and perpendicular paths, would be most welcome.
Maybe functions' "mouse options" could have "45 move" added besides "perpendicular move" more easily than trying to add global snap-angle constraints (or, at least to try out the concept), or have the "perpendicular" mouse-option instead pop out an angle-constraint "chooser"?
What about the idea of being able to pre-place "snap targets" as (meta-)objects, similarly to how vertices are sometimes "preselected" with a "+" or "stuck-selected" () at leisure, persistent until removed (maybe a feature of the measurement set, like rulers, but with the purpose of making snapping-from-a-distance-but-not-to-existing-vertices more tractable?
I still would like making 45-degree path segments, etc. more "natural" and be able to move those 45s along 45-degree axes.
User 20190913 Friday 14th June 2019
Another observation:
Cut command fails to do anything when the start or end point lies on an edge of the object. I'm talking about irregular ortho polygons specifically. If I want to "lop off a stick-out" I cannot cut it clean - have to leave a runt stick-out and stretch it to flat (fine-point-select, move). This seems to be a repeatable behavior (lack of). It would be nice to be able to perpendicular-cut right where I wanted, to be able to make a straight edge in one "chop".