Things You Didn't Know About Virtuoso: RTFM

Wait, don't run away!  In this case I really mean "Read The Fantastic Manual".  A recent comment by a reader prompted a spirited internal discussion here at Cadence regarding our Help system.  I suddenly realized it had been ages since I even looked at it.  Seriously, when was the last time you clicked on that "Help" menu at the top of your screen?

So I started doing some exploring and discovered that--what do you know?--there are some pretty interesting and useful things lurking under that menu! 

Now I'm not trying to say all our manuals are "fantastic" or that you'll always get exactly the information you want in the blink of an eye.  No help system is perfect.  Face it, that little Microsoft paper clip guy thinks he can read my mind, but half the time I feel like twisting him into an ornament hanger to see if that wipes the smug little smile off his face.

Anyway, let's take a peek at what's been happening with the Cadence Help system while we weren't looking.  First of all, you don't have to navigate the entire documentation library in order to get help.  The Help menu at the top of each window has an entry to let you open just the document applicable to that window.  So Help->Contents in the ADE L window opens the Table of Contents for the ADE L User Guide.  Better yet, there's a Help button at the bottom of most pop-up forms which opens the relevant documentation for that form.  And if you're using any of the IC 6.1 Assistants (as I keep reminding you to...), the "?" button in the upper right corner will give you the documentation for that assistant, many even with a link to a video demonstration showing you how to use it. 

Really, I'm not kidding.  Try it.

Each document has Find/Search field at the top and an icon which allows you to view/save that manual as a PDF file which you can print or browse in your copious free time on the platform of your choice.  The Help menus also have entries to take you directly to Sourcelink or to the online Cadence Community Forums, where you can ask questions and interact with other users and helpful Cadence experts. 

Now, I realize that everyone's user environment is different and you may not be able to access all these features (e.g. availability of internet access on Linux servers, etc.), but you should at least be able to access the manuals via the Help menus as I described.  If you can't, you should contact your CAD folks and tell them you need "Help".

Until next time,

Stacy

P.S. I apologize that in my recent post, one of the webinars I pointed you to (Webinar 310: ViVA), had difficulties in the recording.  We are working on an alternative delivery mechanism.