The parameter string is shown in the form as saved in the cell, i.e., with all delimiting white space removed and commas separating the name = value pairs. The string entered can be more loosely formatted, with white space added for readability and the separating commas optional. However, giving an unrecognized parameter name or syntax error will abort the operation.
Template cells can also be added from within a script, which may be running in batch mode where user prompting is not available. The PlaceTemplateArgs script function is used to set the parameter string used for instantiation. This overrides the default parameters set in the template cell itself, and the saved parameter set will be used for all instantiations of the template, until changed with another call to PlaceTemplateArgs. The actual placement is done with the Place script function, as for normal cells, however the cell name is the name of the template cell.
For example:
PlaceTemplateArgs("boxXXX", "width=2,height=5")
Place("boxXXX", 10, 25)
PlaceTemplateArgs("boxXXX", "width=4,height=5")
Place("boxXXX", 10, 50)
Place("boxXXX", 10, 75)
This will place three instances of the template cell ``boxXXX'', the first instance with parameter set ``width=2,height=5'' and the others with parameter set ``width=4,height=5''. The PlaceTemplateArgs function sets the default parameter string shown when prompting for parameters in graphical mode, which is automatically applied when there is no prompting.
After creating new template instances, one or more new template-derived master cells will exist in memory. These cells must be written to disk to enable subsequent use of the cell containing the new instances. This is automatic if the current cell is saved in an archive format, as the entire cell hierarchy is written to the file. If saving as native cell files, the UpdateNative script function is a convenient way to save the current cell and any new or modified subcells to cell files on disk.