A method of identifying elements in a design layout having multiple levels of hierarchical cells, each cell having one or more geometric elements, may include selecting a cell from a list of candidate cells for a level of a hierarchy; applying a local rule to the selected cell; identifying each selected cell that includes a geometric element that passes the local rule; building a list of candidate cells for a next-higher level of the hierarchy according to the identified cells; repeating the selecting, identifying, and building operations for each higher level of the hierarchy; and when a highest level of the hierarchy has been processed, returning and storing the list of candidate cells as the global solution for the applied local rule.