Running Commands

You can run EPIC commands many different ways, including.

• Directly from the EPIC Command Line dialog box
  
  
• From a command script
  
  
• As part of a command alias or hot key
  
  
• By selecting from the pull-down menus
  
  
• By selecting a push button in the EPIC window
  
  

Command Conventions

The following are EPIC Command Conventions.

• Any command line field containing more than one word or containing a semicolon must be placed in quotation marks. For example, the button command creates a push button and places this new button in the push button panel. If you want to create a button called “jump in” that zooms in the display one level, you must enter the command in the form button “jump in” “zoom in.” If you entered the command in the form button jump in zoom in (without quotation marks), the command would not work and you would receive an error message in the history area.
  
  
• Some commands call for nested quotation marks (that is, quotation marks within quotation marks). If a command requires nested quotation marks, the inner quotation marks must be of the same type (for example, a single quote and a single quote or a double quote and a double quote) and the outer quotation marks must match and be of a different type than the inner quotation marks.
  
  
• A comment is preceded by a pound sign (#). Text from the pound sign to the end of the line will be ignored; the system will not interpret the text as a command. Comments are especially useful in text files such as the epic.ini and epicuser.ini files or user script files to describe what the commands in the file are doing.
  
  
• A backslash (\) at the end of a command, followed by a carriage return, causes the command to continue on the next text line. For example, the text below is all interpreted as one command line, even though the text appears on two lines.
  
  setattr layer direct_connects \
  view on
  
  Back slashes are used to allow you to place long commands on multiple lines. Back slashes are also used to make text more readable in text files.
  
  Back slashes are also used to escape characters special to EPIC. The characters are.
  
  * (asterisk) used for wild carding
  
  ? (question mark) used for wild carding a single character
  
  # (pound sign) used for comments
  
  ; (semi colon) separates multiple commands on the same command line
  
  “(double quote) used to quote characters to be taken literally
  
  ' (single quote) used to quote characters to be taken literally
  
  \ (back slash) if at the end of a line, continues command to the next line. Otherwise it escapes characters to be taken literally.
  
  

Example 1

If you want to select a net whose name has an embedded space in it, using the command line you would enter.

select net my\ net

The back slash precedes the space character to escape it.

OR

select net “my net”

Example 2

To select a component with special characters in it, you would enter.

select comp COUNT\*

To select all components that start with COUNT, you would enter.

select comp COUNT*

The command name followed by -h provides help for that command.