Chapter XI: MENU SUMMARY

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1: The File Menu

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Figure 11.1

This menu allows you to manipulate libraries of cells, which are typically read and written at one time. Besides basic library manipulation, this menu permits the reading and writing of libraries in various formats including CIF (Caltech Intermediate Format), GDS II (Calma's stream format), EDIF (the Electronic Design Interchange Format), and PostScript (a popular printer interface format).

New Library... [3-9]

This command creates a new library with no facets. It becomes the current library. Use the Edit Facet... command from the Facets menu to create circuitry.

Open Library... [3-9]

This command reads a library of facets from disk. A dialog helps you select the file. Multiple libraries may be in memory at one time.

Import [3-9]

These commands allows a library to be read in a foreign interchange format. The possible file formats are shown in the submenu. For CIF, GDS II, and DXF, design-rule checking is disabled in order to avoid the inevitable errors that exist in the unconnected geometry.
Figure 11.11

CIF This command reads a Caltech Intermediate Format (CIF) file from disk and creates a new library to contain the circuitry. Note that CIF contains no connectivity information, so the new library will have only polygonal information and no topology. To determine the CIF layer names that will correspond to those in the current technology, use the CIF Options... subcommand of the Foreign File Options command.
GDS II This command reads a Stream (GDS II) file from disk and creates a new library to contain the circuitry. On Windows, you can select multiple GDS files, and they will all be read into the current library. Note that GDS contains no connectivity information, so the new library will have only polygonal information and no topology. To determine the GDS layer numbers that will correspond to those in the current technology, use the GDS Options... subcommand of the Foreign File Options command.
EDIF This command reads an Electronic Design Interchange Format (EDIF) file from disk and creates a new library to contain the circuitry.
VHDL This command reads a VHDL file from disk and creates a new library to contain the circuitry.
DXF This command reads an AutoCAD DXF file from disk and creates a new library to contain the layout. Note that DXF contains no connectivity information, so the new library will have only polygonal information and no topology. To determine the DXF layer numbers that will correspond to those in the current technology, use the DXF Options... subcommand of the Foreign File Options command.
SDF This command reads a Standard Delay Format (SDF) file from disk and annotates the current library with the test vector information. Before this data can be used by the simulator, one of the three sets (Typical, Minimum, or Maximum) must be selected with the Annotate Delay Data subcommand of the Simulate command of the Tools menu.
SUE This command reads a Schematic User Environment (SUE) file from disk and adds the circuitry to the current library.
Readable Dump Readable Dump files contain all of the information in an Electric library, except that they are ASCII (readable). This command reads such a file, allowing libraries to easily transport from other computers.

Foreign File Options [7-3]

This command allows you to control the way that CIF, GDS II, DXF, and EDIF files are read and written.
Figure 11.20
Figure 7.10
The CIF Options... command allows you to control CIF layer associations, whether output uses outlines to describe unexpanded facet instances, whether output combines adjoining boxes on the same layer into polygons, and whether output instantiates the top level of the circuit, and whether input treats the "wire" statement as having round or square ends.
The GDS Options... command allows you to control GDS layer associations, whether input includes text, whether input expands facets, whether input expands arrays, whether input ignores unknown layers, whether output combines adjoining boxes on the same layer into polygons, and what the granularity of arcs when converted to lines during output.
Figure 7.12
Figure 7.11
The DXF Options... command allows you to control DXF layer associations, and whether DXF input has its hierarchy preserved or flattened.
The EDIF Options... command allows you to control whether EDIF output writes the schematic or netlist view.



Close Library [3-9]

This command deletes the current library. Since there must always be a library, this operation will not work if only one exists.

Save Library [3-9]

This command writes the current library to disk. Changes become permanent at this point.

Save As... [3-9]

This command allows the current library to be renamed before being written to disk. Both the library and the disk file are renamed.

Export [3-9]

These commands write all or part of the current library to disk in a foreign interchange format. The possible formats are shown in the submenu.
Figure 11.12

CIF This command writes a CIF (Caltech Intermediate Format) description of the current facet to disk. The description includes everything below it in the hierarchy. To determine the CIF layer names that will be used, use the CIF Options... subcommand of the Foreign File Options command.
GDS II This command writes a Calma GDS II description of the current facet to disk. The description includes everything below it in the hierarchy. To determine the GDS layer numbers that will be used, use the GDS Options... subcommand of the Foreign File Options command.
EDIF This command writes an EDIF (Electronic Design Interchange Format) description of the current facet to disk. The description includes everything below it in the hierarchy. It contains connectivity only, and no layout.
DXF This command writes an AutoCAD DXF description of the current facet to disk. The description includes everything below it in the hierarchy. It contains geometry only, and no connectivity.
L This command writes a description of the current facet in the "L" language, readable by GDT design tools.
PostScript This command writes a description of the current facet in the "PostScript" language, a graphics format usable by many printers
HPGL This command writes a description of the current facet in the "HPGL" language, a graphics format usable by many printers.
Readable Dump This command writes the current library in an ASCII format that can be ported to other computers and still read into Electric.

Change Current Library... [3-9]

This command selects an existing library as the current one. It must have been read from disk.



Print [4-10]

This command causes the current facet to be printed. On UNIX systems, a temporary PostScript file is created and spooled to the printer. Another way to print is to use the Write PostScript and Write HPGL options of the Export command above.

Print Options... [4-9]

This command provides a number of options for printing, including encapsulation/color (for PostScript), paper size (for PostScript), image rotation (for PostScript), synchronization of facets to files (PostScript), date inclusion (PostScript and HPGL), scale setting (Encapsulated PostScript and HPGL/2), and a determination of whether the entire facet is to be printed or just the highlighted area. The highlighted area is defined as the bounding rectangle of everything that is highlighted. A more precise way of defining a highlighted area is to use the rectangle select button.
Figure 4.5



Quit

This command exits Electric. If libraries have been changed but not written to disk, you will be prompted to make sure that you want to exit the program.


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