After the header information, each cell is described. A cell consists of a cell declaration ("C") followed by a number of node ("N"), instance ("I"), arc ("A"), and export ("E") lines. The cell is terminated with a cell-end line ("X"). Inside of a cell, all nodes come first and are sorted by the node name; arcs come next and are sorted by the arc name; finally come exports, sorted by the export name. Also, when there are multiple cells, their appearance in the file is sorted by the cell name. The syntax is:

C<name> | <group> | <tech> | <creation> | <revision> | <flags> [ | <variable> ]*
<name> | the name of the cell in the form "NAME;VERSION{VIEW}".
<group> | the name of this cell's group (if different than expected). This field may be omitted in earlier-format libraries.
<tech> | the technology of the cell.
<creation> | the creation date of the cell (Java format).
<revision> | the revision date of the cell (Java format).
<flags> | flags for the cell.
<variable> | a list of variables on the cell (see Section 10-4-1).

The Java format for dates (the creation and revision dates) is in milliseconds since the "epoch" (Midnight on January 1, 1970, GMT).

The <flags> field consists of any of the following letters, (sorted alphabetically):

"C" if this cell is part of a cell-library.
"E" if the cell should be created "expanded".
"I" if instances in the cell are locked.
"L" if everything in the cell is locked.
"T" if this cell is part of a technology-library.

Example:

`CrxArray;1{lay}||mocmos|1092185029000|1092185060000|I`

Declares cell "rxArray{lay}", version 1, associated with the "mocmos" technology. The cell was created at date 1092185029000 and last modified at date 1092185060000. All instances in the cell are locked.