Flatten Hierarchy

Expands all cell references (SREFs and AREFs) into a single flat cell, eliminating the hierarchical structure.

When to Use

• When the target format doesn’t support hierarchy
• Before boolean operations that need to process geometry across cell boundaries
• When cell references with transformations complicate downstream processing
• To resolve all array references into individual shapes

Options

Option	Description	Default
Flatten entire hierarchy	Flatten the whole drawing starting from the top cell	On
Cell to flatten	Select one cell to flatten when Flatten entire hierarchy is off	Top cell
Arc Precision	Precision value and units used if curved or complex references need polygon approximation during flattening	32 segments/360°

How It Works

1. Starts from the top cell when Flatten entire hierarchy is enabled, or from the selected Cell to flatten
2. Recursively expands cell references
3. Applies each reference’s transformation (translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring) to the referenced geometry
4. Array references are expanded into individual shapes
5. The result is a single cell containing all geometry with absolute coordinates

Technical Notes

• Flattening is irreversible without undo — the hierarchy information is lost
• Large designs with many array references can expand to millions of shapes
• Memory usage increases significantly for deeply nested hierarchies
• Consider whether your target format actually requires flattening — many formats support hierarchy