Read one structure through four exploration modes

One structure, four questions

The four exploration modes do not generate separate structures. They divide one calculated structure into exploration units suited to a question, then apply selection, highlighting, transparency, and related process cues to those units.

Composition: what is it made of?

Composition organizes the current process-stage structure into material-based exploration units. Select one or more materials from the structure or the material list, highlight their regions, or make them transparent to inspect internal stacking and occupancy. Volume information in the list represents the geometric volume occupied by that material in the current calculated structure.

Provenance: which step created it?

Provenance organizes regions that remain in the current structure by their creation step and material. A fully removed origin remains as a deleted history row. Selecting a unit marks its creation step and related later steps that changed or removed material from that origin in Process Flow; a deleted row has no current 3D region to show on the canvas. A region that becomes a new material through oxidation, material modification, or implantation uses that transforming step as its new creation origin. This is origin-level process history: it does not recover the exact affected position or volume, a vanished historical shape, or prove the root cause of every physical reaction.

Change: what changed?

Change groups regions that were added, removed, or changed from one material to another between the current comparison target and its previous effective structural process step. Moving into Change from another exploration mode can keep the current structural time while selecting a related process step as the comparison target. Change is not a free comparison between arbitrary projects or any two points in the full history; it explores structural differences within the current process flow.

Connect: what is it connected to?

Connect groups conductive regions that touch within the current structure into electrical-node exploration units. Metals and doped semiconductors are included by default, and general semiconductors can be included when needed. This is grid-based geometric connectivity; it does not calculate resistance, current, voltage, short-circuit likelihood, or circuit behavior.

Selected regions, process time, and exploration context

Picking a point in the 3D structure or a 2D cross-section creates a spatial reference for exploration. If another mode can resolve a related unit at that location, the selection carries across. A selection made without a spatial point, such as choosing a material from the list, can instead map to every related unit that contains that material.

A process time dot determines which structural moment is shown; an exploration mode determines how that structure is read. Selection and transparency in Provenance, Change, and Connect can be remembered per structural state during the current session, but they are not stored as part of the project’s process geometry.

Preparation states and interpretation limits

Composition can use the material information in the current structure immediately. Provenance and Change may show a waiting state while lineage or comparison data is prepared. Change can be unavailable when there is no previous effective structural step, and Connect can be empty when no node exists for the included material scope.

All four exploration modes are visual tools for understanding and explaining a calculated structure. Their selections, highlighting, and transparency do not modify the process result, and the modes do not replace professional TCAD, circuit extraction, electrical validation, or physical fabrication analysis.