Assigning Local Names to Template Elements

When a design template is copied into the design model, confusion can arise in the identification of members of the template instance. For example, the penetration/kickplate which we defined in the first part of the exercise included two negative boxes, thus:

These are identifiable in the design model only as NBOX 1 of TMPL 1 of PFIT and NBOX 1 of BOX 1 of TMPL 1 of PFIT. Even if we had named them in the design template, the names would not have been copied to the design instance because an element name cannot be used more than once in a Design database. If the design instance were modified by including other negative boxes, either or both of the original NBOXes might no longer be correctly identified as NBOX 1 and any reference to it in a rule could lead to an incorrect result.

To avoid such ambiguities in identifying members of a design template, these elements can be assigned local names. A local name is stored in the design template definition and is copied into every instance, so that references to local names within rules remain valid.

A local name can comprise up to 20 characters, and each template can store up to 500 local names. Duplicate local names are not allowed within a given design template, but the same local name may be used in any number of different design templates within a single Design database.

To assign local names, navigate to the owning TMPL and use the Modify > Parameterization... menu option.

To refer to a local name in a rule or dataset expression, use the format LNID /localname to specify an element in the current template or MLNID /localname to specify an element in a template which is a member of the current element.