Polygon Tab

The Polygon tab has features that deal with adding, editing and moving polygons to new layers.

The following tools are available in the Polygon tab:

• Add Layer
• Set Color
• Set Pattern
• Select Polygons
• Move Polygons
• Clone Polygons
• Clone Array
• Add Line
• Add Rectangle
• Add Square
• Add Polygon
• Erase Rectangle
• Erase Polygon
• Settings
• Polygon Operations
• Regenerate Diffusion

Add Layer

Adds a new polygon layer to the project. A Create Image Layer Association window pops up. This allows the new polygon layer to be associated with images and layer warp grid.

Set Color

Changes the color of the active polygon layer.

Set Pattern

Sets the pattern for the active polygon layer.

Select Polygons

Click and drag to select a single polygon or group of polygons

Move Polygons

With the selected polygons highlighted, click and drag to move that group to a new location.

Clone Polygons

With the selected polygons highlighted, click and drag to copy that group to a new location.

Clone Array

The Clone Array feature allows the user to create multiple copies of one or more polygons, each set placed a fixed distance from the original/previous set in a specific direction. This ability is useful whenever a regular pattern of polygons needs to be created by hand. For example, a grid of 100 squares could be created by creating a square, cloning it 9 times right, then cloning that newly created row 9 times down.

To use the feature:

1. Use the select polygons tool to select all polygons which will be cloned. The Clone Array ribbon button will become enabled.
2. Click the Clone Array ribbon button.
3. In the dialog which appears, specify the direction from the original the polygons should be placed, the number of sets of cloned polygons to create, and the distance each set of polygons will be moved away from the previous set. You can specify a unit for the distance value entered.
4. Click “clone,” and the polygons will be created.

Add Line

Left click anywhere in the overlay window to add a start point to the line, a second click adds the endpoint. After adding the start point holding shift will force orthogonality. The thickness of this line can be defined in the Polygon Settings window.

Add Rectangle

Click and drag to outline a box when the left mouse button is released a rectangular polygon will be added to the active layer.

Add Square

Left click in the overlay to add a square to the active polygon layer. The square size can be specified in the Polygon Settings window.

Add Polygon

Left click in the overlay window to start adding points, once three or more points are connected, the polygon will be added to the active layer.

Erase Rectangle

Click and drag to outline a box when the left mouse button is released any polygons inside the box will be deleted.

Erase Polygon

Left click in the overlay window to start adding points, once three or more points are connected, the polygon will be erased on the active layer.

Settings

The polygon settings windows allows adjustment to the line thickness and square size in microns. There is also a setting to adjust the maximum polygon size

The max polygon size determines the maximum width and height of the polygons in the project. If a tool attempts to create a polygon larger than this size, the polygon will automatically be split until its dimensions no longer exceed the max polygon size. If this value is too high then polygon rendering and netlisting will start to become inefficient.

Select active layer to tell Pix2Net that when selecting layers, the user only wants to select the active layer. Select visible layers to be able to select all visible layers with polygons.

Polygon Operations

Clicking this button opens the Polygon Operations window. The left column lists the available polygon operations. The right column gives the user options for each operation.

Straighten:

Creates a new polygon layer by performing a transformation on existing polygon layers. The operations are as follows:

• Union(self): Merges all overlapping polygons into one single polygon.
• Union: Generates a new layer by merging all polygons from two selected layers.
• Intersection: Generates a new layer by that consists of only the intersection of two selected polygon layers.
• Subtraction: Generates a new layer by subtracting one polygon layer from another.
• Grow: Creates a new layer by expanding all the polygons by a specified amount.
• Shrink: Creates a new layer that shrinks all polygons by a specified amount.

Regenerate Diffusion

Generates a new layer called diffusion minus poly. This is generated by specifying the Polysilicon and Diffusion layers in the Layers Properties window. See Device Properties for further discussion.

More Information

For more information on placing polygons and what the user can do with them, click this link: Polygon Placement