This page describes how to set property expressions which can be used to set up property dependencies between INTERCONNECT elements. This is a powerful feature of INTERCONNECT and is essential for creating increasingly complex photonic integrated circuits based on sub-circuit elements.
The value of an element property can be set using an expression. The expression can be a simple numerical value, or it can be a formula using any of the parent's properties.
The user can add new properties in the Root Element, or a Compound Element's Property Editor.
Child elements can inherit properties from from parent elements. To select a property to inherit, right-click on the property row, click on "Inherit:" and select the property to inherit from the list.
Or the property of a parent element can be typed into the expression for the child element.
This allows for the same properties of different elements to become dependent, and changes to these properties at higher hierarchical levels can be cascaded to lower levels. Property dependencies make it easy to create an unrestricted number of layers of hierarchy between compound elements.