A method and apparatus for defining a circuit operation, such as a charged particle beam operation to perform a circuit edit and define a probe point. Circuit operation definition is performed in a front-end environment with access to integrated circuit computer aided design tools providing logic level and layout level information concerning the integrated circuit. The front-end environment incorporates circuit operation optimization methods to identify optimal locations for a circuit operation. A back-end environment, such as a charged particle tool computing platform, is adapted to receive one or more files, which may include a truncated layout file with circuit operation location information, for use in further defining a circuit operation and/or performing the circuit operation.