In order to manipulate hierarchical circuits, it is useful to create and delete levels of the hierarchy. The Package Into Cell... command (in menu Cell) collects everything in the highlighted area into a new cell. You will be prompted for the cell name. The most convenient way to specify an area for packaging is to use the Area Selection commands (see Section 2-1-3). Every node touching the area is included in the new cell. All arcs between nodes in the area are also included. The highlighted circuitry is not affected.

After packaging circuitry into a new cell, that circuitry can be deleted and replaced with an instance of that cell.

The opposite function is the removal of levels of hierarchy. This is done with the Extract Cell Instance subcommands (in menu Cell), which takes the currently highlighted cell instances and replaces them with their contents. The One Level Down subcommand just replaces the selected instances with their contents. The All the Way subcommand continues to extract instances inside of instances until there are no more instances, just primitives. The Specified Amount... prompts for a number of levels of hierarchy and extracts that many levels deep. All arcs that were connected to the cell instances are reconnected to the correct parts of the instantiated circuitry.