Virtuoso XL Layout Editor User Guide

Using the Virtuoso Custom Placer

Choose Component Types Form

Search scrolls the list to the component type name you type into the field. The name must match exactly. This field is useful if you have a long list of types. To select a device or devices on which you want to perform an action, click on the device you want to select, or hold down

Control and click to select more than one device.

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Using the Virtuoso Custom Placer

Pin Placement Form

Display Control allows you specify what pins will be displayed in the Pin Placement form.

Display allows you to specify from a combination of two cyclic fields which pins will be displayed. The choices are All, Placed, Unplaced, Left, Top, Right, Bottom pins, along with All, Fixed, User-moveable, Ordered, Unordered, I,O,IO pins.

Select edge from layout displays the pins on the selected edge of the boundary.

Sort By name lists the pins in alphabetical order. By order sorts each pin entry per edge, ordered pins, in their order, first and unordered pins after themFor. Pitch lists placed pins in a special manner related to their possible Pitch values with each other.

Select allows you to type in a pin name and press the Tab key to select the pin in the Pin

Name list box. You may use wild characters ‘?’ and ‘*’ to select more than one pin. The wild character ‘?’ replaces any single character and ‘*’ replaces any substring of characters, including a single character in the pin names.

Link to layout Allows you to select pin(s) in the layout window and have them highlighted in the Pin Name list box. You can also select pin(s) in the Pin Placement form and they will be selected in the layout. Click Link to layout and click anywhere in the layout window to link the Pin Placement form to the layout window, then select the pin(s) that you want highlighted in the Pin Placement form.

Unlink from layout unlinks the Pin Placement form from the linked layout window.

Place as in: specifies where the pin placement information comes from.

Schematic view takes a snapshot of the relative position of the pins in the schematic and updates the pin placement in the layout window.

Template file the information from the template file is loaded into the pin placement form.

Pin Name is the name of the pin.

Edge is the edge of the boundary that the pin will be placed on.

Order defines how the pins will be ordered.

Pitch the distance between neighboring pins.

Note: Press the Tab key to activate the Apply button.

Fixed indicates that the pin is fixed and M indicates that the pin is fixed but also User-Movable the location that the pin is fixed at.

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Type I, O, or IO.

Layer the layer the pin has been created on.

Change Order allows you to change the order of ordered pins.

Arrow to the left/down moves the selected pins down in the list box.

Arrow to the right/up moves the selected pins up in the list box.

Swap inverts the order of two selected pins in the list box.

Iterated Pins lets you expand or collapse the listing of iterated (bus) pins.

Expand expands the pin lists to show all bits of one or more iterated pins.

Collapse condenses the pin lists to show bus notation for one or more iterated pins.

All performs the expand or collapse function on all the pins in the list box.

Selected performs the expand or collapse function on highlighted pins in the list box.

Edit Selected Pin (or Select Pins from list) allows you to edit pin settings including placement of them on a boundary edge.

Edge determines the edge that the pin will be placed on. The options are Left, Top,

Right, Bottom, Any, and As Is. The As Is setting allows you to edge settings of pins intact when you may want to change other pin properties.

An alternative way to do this is to use the Select Edge from Layout option. This is best used for polygon boundaries.

Order entry of “-” or a blank space indicates that the selected pins should be placed as unordered pins. Entry of a digit indicates a specific order for the selected pins.

Pitch lets you assign a specific distance between two or more neighboring pins. The pitch value may be set for ordered, unordered, or a combination of the two.

Location defines the final placed positions of the pins.

Fixed at Placed Location commits the selected pin (s) at its current position for good.

Floating changes previously set fixed pins or user-movable pins to be unfixed or non- user-movable.

Fix after Placing The pin is placed in a location by the pin placement algorithm and then fixed. Only appears if the pin is not fixed to an edge.

User-movable at Placed Location allows you to move the pin(s) to a new location.

This option is similar to a Fixed constraint, but you may use the Edit-Move command to

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move the pin to another location. The pin will automatically be fixed to the new location.

If you move a fixed pin to a different location, the placer will put the pin back to its original

fixed location.

As Is option does not constrain pins to a certain location.

Place as in: specifies where the pin placement information comes from.

Schematic view takes a snapshot of the relative position of the pins in the schematic and places the pins in the layout as the corresponding pins are placed in the schematic.

Template file the information from the template file is loaded into the pin placement form.

Vrail elongates the select pin (s) from one end of the boundary to another vertically.

HRail elongates the selected pin(s) from one end of the boundary to another horizontally.

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