Instance bounding box

Hello,

I am trying to find if there is an alternative to the
dbCreateParamInst() function.

We are trying to get the bounding box of the instances(pcells) that
are to be placed into the layout(from schematic).

Is
inst = dbCreateParamInst(blah)
inst~>bBox

The only way?

This would take a lot of time since each of the pcells need to be
actually placed into the layout for cumulative areas to be calculated.
Is there a faster alternative?


Thankyou,
Partha

 

try
cv=dbOpenCellViewByType("LIB" "CELL" "layout" nil "r" nil)
bBox = cv~>bBox
dbClose(cv)

stéphane

 

Badel,
The cell whose bounding box needs to be calculated is a pcell, so i
need to pass it the instance paramaters, that was the reason i used
dbCreateParamInst in the first place. I am looking to find a function
that dynamically creates that cell( (in some scratch memory) so i
neednt actually open a layout/wait for it to place each of the cells
to do that.

Thankyou,
partha

 

Hi Partha,

Open up a scratch view:

cv=dbOpenCellViewByType("myLib" "myscratch" "layout" "maskLayout" "s")

(i.e. open in scratch mode) and then place the instance in there, to figure out the bbox.

That's what happens with the ghosted image of a pcell - you may have seen the "zpcellScratch"
cellview coming into existence...

Cellviews opened in scratch mode can be modified but not saved.

Andrew.

 

Andrew,
That is precisely what I am doing. When going through the hierarchy of
the schematics to calculate the area( in this way) it takes quite a
lot of time..
I was hoping to find an alternative faster way, but if this is the
way It is done, I will have to make my code more intelligent.
Thankyou,
Partha