If editing a cell from the device library, the Save As command will bring up the Library Cell Parameters panel (see A.5.1), which allows device defaults to be edited, and has provision for saving the cell into a device library file or as a native cell file.
Otherwise, the Save File dialog appears which provides an expandable and selectable tree representation of the directory structure, rooted in the directory where the file was originally read from, or the current directory. The name or path to the file can be modified on the prompt line, or directories can be selected from the pop-up which will modify the prompt line.
If the default is accepted, the cell or hierarchy will be saved in the format of origin: one of the archive formats, or native.
A format change can be coerced by supplying an extension to the name, or, if the path given is a path to an existing directory, the entire cell hierarchy can be saved as native cell files in that directory. In particular, giving ``.'' allows cell files to be written in the current directory. The following extensions are recognized:
CGX | ``.cgx'' |
CIF | ``.cif'' |
GDSII | ``.gds'', ``.str'', ``.strm'', ``.stream'' |
OASIS | ``.oas'' |
Native | ``.xic'' |
If saving a hierarchy in CGX or GDSII format, the file name can be given an additional, final suffix ``.gz'', which will cause the file to be written in compressed (gzipped) format. These compressed files can be read into Xic directly, and can be uncompressed using the widely available GNU gzip or gunzip programs. Compression is supported for CGX and GDSII files only. The ``.gz'' suffix can be removed, if already present, to suppress compression.
The archive formats always save the full hierarchy. Giving the ``.xic'' suffix will save the current cell only, under a new name including the suffix. Giving a directory path allows saving the entire cell hierarchy as native cell files, without name change.
When a file is read into Xic, the full path to that file is saved within Xic, and that file is the default written to during a save. The previous version of a file that has been overwritten is saved in a file in the same directory with the same name, but with a ``.bak'' extension added. Cells that are created within Xic, i.e., that do not have a known origin file, are saved by default in the current directory. This includes native-format versions of cells that were read in as part of an archive file.