Dynamic Highlight Sets for Hierarchical Layout Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional integrated circuit design tools lack effective visual cues for hierarchy information, making it difficult for users to understand object associations and hierarchy in dense or complex designs, which hinders productivity and decision-making during editing processes.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of dynamically and automatically adjusted highlight sets in a graphical user interface, based on the relationship between the cursor position and shapes, provides enhanced visual information about hierarchical levels, including distinct visual indicators for instances and figgroups, to improve user understanding and productivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional textual information display methods are used in dense designs, then information can be provided about shapes, but hierarchy information is not effectively conveyed and user productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color changes by displaying highlighted shapes in different colors or shading to indicate hierarchical levels. When a shape is selected, the system highlights not only the selected shape but also related shapes at different hierarchical levels using distinct visual styles, enabling users to perceive hierarchy information through color and visual emphasis rather than text alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional textual information to multi-dimensional visual representation by displaying hierarchical relationships through spatial arrangement and visual emphasis. The system highlights shapes across multiple hierarchical levels simultaneously, adding a visual dimension to hierarchy perception that goes beyond flat text descriptions.
2Loss of information
If detailed visual information is provided for all shapes in dense designs, then complete information is available, but visual complexity increases and makes it harder to understand hierarchy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing detailed visual information selectively rather than uniformly. When a shape is selected, the system highlights only relevant shapes at different hierarchical levels with distinct visual styles, while leaving other shapes in their normal state. This localized highlighting approach provides necessary information without overwhelming the user with visual complexity across the entire design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments visual information display by treating different hierarchical levels differently. Instead of displaying all shapes with the same visual treatment, the system divides shapes into categories based on their hierarchical relationship to the selected shape, applying different highlight styles to different segments (selected shape, parent shapes, child shapes) to reduce overall visual complexity.
3Device complexity
If hierarchical design levels are used to simplify design, then visual complexity is reduced, but users lack visual cues to understand object associations between levels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses color changes and visual highlighting to make object associations across hierarchical levels detectable. When a shape is selected, the system highlights related shapes at different hierarchical levels using distinct visual styles, enabling users to perceive relationships between objects at different levels without increasing the fundamental hierarchical structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces visual highlights as an intermediary that mediates between the hierarchical structure and user perception. These highlights act as a visual mediator that connects objects across hierarchical levels, making associations detectable without requiring users to mentally trace relationships through multiple levels of hierarchy.
Data Source
AI summary
The present embodiments relate generally to integrated circuit design, and more particularly to techniques for providing enhanced visual information about a shape of interest in a hierarchical design. For example, embodiments relate to automatically and dynamically creating or adjust a highlight set in a graphical user interface for providing hierarchical information about shapes in a hierarchical design in a more productive manner, and possibly concurrently with other textual information about shapes that is being displayed. In these and other embodiments, these automatic and/or dynamic highlight sets can be based on the relationship between a current cursor position and shapes of a hierarchical design that is currently being edited using a GUI of a layout editor tool that is adapted with the functionality of the present disclosure.