Command: expand

Syntax

expand { <elist> ... }

Description

Expand instance entities.

Parameters

• <elist>
  A group/entity list defining which entities are to be expanded. If omitted, the current contents of the these group are expanded.

Switches

• -c
  Print confirmation of each entity file name as it is being expanded.

• -ch
  Check for out-of-date external class definitions. If a compound or gstructure definition referenced within the file was created later than the file the expand will be aborted. This is the default behavior. Use -no_ch to ignore such situations, but if the class definition has changed since the entity file was created this can lead to unforeseen errors or even system failures.

• -ef=<filter>
  A filter to be applied to all entities within <elist>, further qualifying which entities are to be expanded. If omitted, the filter current_filter is used.

• -pre=<string>
  A string with which to prefix all new entity identifier names.

• -suf=<string>
  A string with which to suffix all new entity identifier names.

• -t
  Load the attach tags from the entity file into the system point array tags.

• -wb=<points>
  Two 3-D points defining a clip box. Only entities which clash with the box are retained after expansion. Without this switch, the default behavior is for all entities to be retained.

Notes

Only top-level instance entities are examined during the expand process. Instances which are children of compounds, and all other entities are ignored.

When expanding an instance, all identifier names within the entity file are checked against other global identifiers. If a global identifier with the same name exists, the expand is aborted, unless the -pre or -suf is present and the resulting identifier is unique.

The -pre and -suf switches are mutually exclusive.

If the -t switch is used and multiple instances are expanded, only the tags from the last instance get loaded.

Examples

Get an instance, locate it via an interactive point read, then expand it.

get /usr/ents/abc.e, -p=pcur
expand this

Expand all the instance entities within the group ga.

expand ga

See Also