1. A method for designing an electronic circuit design, comprising: identifying an island based at least in part upon proximity of one or more objects to one or more other objects; merging shapes associated with the island to identify an effective width or an effective edge length, wherein the effective width is obtained by performing a Boolean OR to merge the shapes and then by identifying a width of interest, the effective edge length is obtained by performing a Boolean OR to merge the shapes and then by identifying an edge of interest, and the act of merging the shapes is performed by a computer processor; evaluating a design rule using the island against a layout object; inserting the layout object into the electronic circuit design based at least in part upon the analysis; and displaying a result of the act of inserting the layout object into the electronic circuit design on a display apparatus or storing the result on a tangible computer-usable storage medium or a storage device.