Abstract: Descriptive data and truncated spatial data associated with elements of an IC design are stored into storage locations, employing a spatial characteristic and logical hierarchy based storage approach. The approach advantageously reduces the amount of storage locations required to store descriptive and spatial data of the IC design. To store the descriptive data and the truncated spatial data associated with an element, a position in the logical hierarchy for the element is first determined, using spatial data of the element. The descriptive data and truncated spatial data of the element (less the spatial data that can be inferred from the position), are then stored into the storage locations, based at least in part on the result of the determination. Accordingly, storage requirement for descriptive and spatial data of IC elements is advantageously reduced.