Glyph

Editing

Shortcut Action
Ctrl + A Select all in the active cell
Ctrl + I Invert selection
Ctrl + C / Ctrl + X / Ctrl + V Copy / Cut / Paste
Ctrl + D Duplicate in place
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Shift + Z Undo / Redo
Delete / Backspace Delete selection
Arrow keys Nudge selection by one grid step
Shift + Arrow Nudge by 10× grid step
Escape Cancel draft / clear selection
? Toggle keyboard cheat sheet

Right-click on the canvas for a context menu (cut, copy, paste, boolean ops, group, move to layer).

A cross-shaped polygon selected in Glyph with its vertex handles visible, while the Properties panel shows the shape's editable X, Y, width, and height fields.

Very large objects are picked by their edge, not their fill. If an object is bigger than the whole viewport — an outer frame, a whole-chip instance placed in the top cell — clicking inside it does nothing, so a marquee can still start there instead of dragging the giant thing around. Click its visible outline to select it, or zoom out until it fits. If none of its edges are on screen, pick it from the Objects panel or Ctrl + A. Objects small enough to see in full are unchanged: click anywhere on them.

Properties panel is authoritative: typing a number and pressing Enter (or blurring the field) overrides drag-edited values. Escape inside a field reverts. The W and H fields are editable for any shape selection — typing a new width or height non-uniformly rescales the selection around its bounding-box center (the other axis is held fixed). Editing W/H on a bitmap, SREF, or AREF falls back to a uniform scale since those carry a single magnification factor. The Layer dropdown sends the selection to a layer (and its declared datatype/purpose), and the Datatype field sets the GDS datatype on the selection directly — use it for dose classes or pin/label variants that share a layer number (e.g. 1/0 drawn vs 1/10 pin). For a selection of filled shapes the panel shows the true (shoelace) area and perimeter — summed across the selection, so concave combs / rings / van-der-Pauw crosses are measured correctly rather than over-stated by their bounding box; for paths it shows the centerline length. All values follow the active display unit. The Anchor toggle above X/Y switches those fields between the selection's bounding-box Corner (default) and its Center — pick Center to place a mark specified by its centre (e.g. an alignment cross at x = +45 mm) by typing the spec value directly instead of subtracting half its width.

Vertex and edge editing

With a single shape selected:

Construction geometry (SolidWorks-style)

Any shape can be marked For construction in the Properties panel. Construction shapes render with a dotted outline and no fill, participate in snap and measure, and are excluded from .gds export — they are pure visual/alignment guides.


Updated 2026-08-26

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