Graphical Operation (GOp) Locking

A schematic page often contains a large number of different types of objects like parts, pins, buses, wires. A user often needs to perform operations like adding new objects, changing object properties, moving, creating and deleting objects. All these operations require extensive user interaction with the Capture interface. Also, with the increasing complexity of designs, the number of objects on a page and pages in a design has increased exponentially. All these issues raise the need in Capture for providing a methodology to lock the state of a design at a particular point of the design process. For example, a designer should have the ability to maybe lock the layout of a schematic page.

To address such issues, Capture includes a graphical operation locking (GOp) feature that allows you to lock objects (like components, pages, folders and even design) in a Capture project.

When you graphically lock an object, the graphical aspects of the object are locked. This implies that non-graphical aspects of an object such as its properties are still editable. For example, if you lock a part on a schematic page, you cannot delete, or move the part but you can change, say, the PCB footprint of the part.

GOp locking allows you to lock any object in a Capture design. You can lock the design, the schematic folders within the design, the pages within the schematic folders and the objects on the schematic pages.

In this section:

Locking and Unlocking Objects in a Design

You can lock (and subsequently unlock) any object in a Capture project. You can lock the objects on a schematic page, the pages in a schematic folder, the folders in a design, and the design in a project.

To lock an object in Capture:

1. Select the object to lock.
   For schematic page objects, you can use the multi-select feature on the schematic page to select and lock multiple objects simultaneously.
   For project manager objects (pages, folders and designs), you select the objects in project manager.

   You cannot lock multiple Project manager objects simultaneously.

2. From the Edit menu choose the Lock menu item.
   Alternatively, you can right-click on the object (on the page or in the Project manager) and choose the Lock item in the pop-up menu. When you lock a schematic page object the look-and-feel of the object when it is selected is changed. When you lock a project manager object, a lock symbol appears over the icon of the object in the Project manager.

To unlock an object in Capture:

1. Select the object to unlock.
   For schematic page objects, you can use the multi-select feature on the schematic page to select and unlock multiple objects simultaneously.
   For Project manager objects (pages, folders and designs), you select the objects in the Project manager. However, you cannot unlock multiple Project manager objects simultaneously.
2. From the Edit menu choose the UnLock menu item.

Features of a Locked Schematic Page object

• The object cannot be deleted or cut.
• The object cannot be moved to another part of the page (using a cut-and-paste operation or a mouse drag operation).
• The object cannot be moved to another page (using a cut-and-paste operation or a mouse drag-and-drop operation).
• The object can be copied to another page or as another instance on the current page. However, the copied instance of the object is locked as soon as you paste it on the page.
• If the locked object is a part, the part editor for the object is inaccessible. This means that the menu option to open the part editor for a locked part is unavailable.
• The replace or update cache operations will fail if they effect a locked part. Say a design contains multiple instances of a part where some instances are locked and some are unlocked. In this case, the replace or update cache operations on a part with multiple instances will fail if these operations effect the locked instances. This means that these operations will not update even on the unlocked part instances.
• The Update All operation on an unlocked part instance (executed in the edit part procedure) will fail if this operation effects a locked part instance. This means that this operation will not effect even on the unlocked part instances.
  Since, this type of locking is graphical so you are still permitted to edit the properties of a locked part. This implies that you can open the property editor for a locked object and add, modify or delete properties on the part.

Features of a Locked Schematic Page

• The page cannot be deleted or cut.
• The page cannot be moved to another schematic folder (using a cut-and-paste operation or a mouse drag-and-drop operation).
• The page cannot be renamed.
• Schematic page objects cannot be added to the page. This implies that an object cannot be placed on a locked page using the Place command. Also, an object cannot be placed on a locked page by copying the object from another page and pasted it onto the locked page.
• The page can be copied to another folder. However, the copied page is locked as soon as you paste it to the destination folder.
• All the page objects are locked as soon as the page is locked. Also, objects on a locked page may be explicitly unlocked. For details on the cascading and roll-up effects of locking pages see the section Cascading and roll-up effects of Locking.

Features of a Locked Schematic Folder

• The folder cannot be deleted or cut.
• The folder cannot be moved to another design (using a cut-and-paste operation or a mouse drag-and-drop operation).
• The folder cannot be renamed.
• Schematic pages cannot be added to the folder.
• The make root property of a locked schematic folder cannot be modified.
• The folder can be copied to another design. However, the copied design is locked as soon as you paste it to the destination design.
• All the pages are locked as soon as the folder is locked. Also, pages in a locked folder may be explicitly unlocked. For details on the cascading and roll-up effects of locking folders see the section Cascading and roll-up effects of Locking.

Features of a Locked Design

• Schematic folders cannot be added to the design.
• All the folders are locked as soon as the design is locked. Also, folders in a locked design may be explicitly unlocked. For details on the cascading and roll-up effects of locking designs see the section Cascading and roll-up effects of Locking.
• Design operations, netlisting, annotations, DRC and permitted on a locked design. You can also simulate a locked design.
  Note: However, if you run these commands on a locked design, and this causes a graphical change in the design, Capture allows the change but it will immediately be locked onto the design.
  Say you run the DRC on a locked design (or the DRC effects locked objects in the design). If the design has any DRC errors or warnings, Capture allows the process to place the markers even on locked object of the design. However, if a marker is placed on a locked page, the marker is immediately locked and you will need to either unlock the page or the marker if you need to remove the marker.

Cascading and Roll-up effects of Locking

When you lock a container object (a page, a folder, or a design), all the objects within the container are also locked. Also, this process cascades down to the lowest level object.
So, if you lock a page, all the objects on the page are locked. If you lock a folder, all the pages contained in the folder are locked. In addition, the objects on each of the pages are locked.

When you lock a container object, you can unlock specific objects within the locked container by explicitly unlocking these. However, since locking and unlocking does not cause a roll-up effect, the unlock operation does not unlock the object container.

When you lock a container object, a lock symbol appears over the container icon in the Project manager. Now, if you explicitly unlock one or more objects within the locked container, the lock symbol remains but it changes to an open lock. This indicates that the container is locked but one or more objects within the container are unlocked.

The locking operation on an object within a container is specific to the object. This implies that the lock (or unlock) operation on an object overrides the operation on the object container. Consider the example of a folder, SCHEMATIC1, containing two pages, PAGE1 and PAGE2.

1. Lock PAGE2.
2. Lock SCHEMATIC1.
   Since locking is a cascading operation, locking SCHEMATIC1 effects the lock status of its pages. In this case, since PAGE2 is assigned locked state, so the cascading operation will effect only PAGE1.
   The lock operation did not effect PAGE2 not because the page was already locked but because the lock (or unlock) state on an object overrides the locked (or unlocked) state of the container.
3. Unlock SCHEMATIC1.
   Again, due to the cascading effect of unlocking, the pages within SCHEMATIC1 are unlocked.
   However, since PAGE2 was locked specifically and not as part of the cascading lock on SCHEMATIC1, the cascading lock operation will not effect the lock state of PAGE1.