Virtuosity: Tagging Variables and Corners in Virtuoso ADE Assembler

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I’m all about color-coding my emails and spreadsheets. Now I know that doesn't sound like much, but hear me out! When you have a deadline to meet, finding that one important email from a sea of emails in your inbox seems like an exasperating task. Not for me though, because all I need to do is filter the mails in the green category! Simple, isn’t it?

So how about I tell you that you now have a way to filter corners and variables in Virtuoso ADE Assembler without having to scroll endlessly? You can do this by adding variable tags introduced in IC6.1.8 /ICADVM20.1 ISR20 and corner tags introduced in ISR21 to filter or group a long list of variables and corners.

Here’s all you need to know.

Assigning Tags to Corners and Variables

Let’s get the base ready, shall we?

To assign tags to design and global variables:

1. Right-click a variable or a group of variables in the Data View assistant and choose Tags — Add/Edit Tags.

        You can select both design and global variables.

       2. In the Assign New Tags field of the resulting Add/Edit Tags form, specify the tag you want to assign to the selected variables.

3. Click OK.

To assign tags to corners, in the Tags row of the Corners Setup form:

      1. Specify a tag or a space-separated list of tags for each corner.

          Note: This feature is available in Virtuoso ADE Explorer as well.

  Alternatively, edit the corner definitions through a CSV or SDB file and add a tags row as shown in the figure.

  When you import this CSV or SDB file using the Corners Setup form, the specified tags are added to the Tags row.

Filtering Variables and Corners using Tags

After you have assigned the tags, you can use them to filter the variables and corners you want to view.

       1. Specify the tags in the filter field in the Name column of the Data View assistant.

           Use the format tag:tag1 tag:tag2. For example, tag:28nm tag:supply.

           The variables and corners with the specified tags are filtered.

          You can also use variable and corner names to further filter variables and corners. To do this, use the format variablename

          cornername tag:tag1 tag:tag2.

   Another method to filter corner tags is to click Toggle visibility of the Filter column in the Corners Setup. A filter column is displayed between the row header and the Nominal column, where you can specify the tags to filter the corners.

Grouping Variables and Corners using Tags

Now that you know how to assign tags and use them as filters, let’s talk about other ways of organization. Who doesn’t like well-organized setups, right?

You can group variables and corners using the tags assigned to them. To do this:

    1. Right-click the Design Variables, Global Variables, and Corners section of the Data View assistant and select Group by Tags.

This groups the variables and corners according to the assigned tags and creates sub-trees named Tag:tagname. Corners and variables with no tags are displayed under a subtree named Tag:untagged.

Related Resources

Product Manuals	Virtuoso ADE Explorer User Guide Virtuoso ADE Assembler User Guide
Videos	Adding Variable Tags in Virtuoso ADE Assembler Adding Corner Tags in Virtuoso ADE Assembler and Virtuoso ADE Explorer
Rapid Adoption Kit	Virtuoso Analog Design Environment Explorer and Virtuoso ADE Assembler

For more information on Cadence circuit design products and services, visit www.cadence.com.

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Happy reading, and stay safe!

- Shubhangi

About Virtuosity

Virtuosity has been our most viewed and admired blog series for a long time. The series has brought to the fore some less well-known yet very useful software and documentation improvements and has also shed light on some exciting new offerings in Virtuoso. This series broadcasts the voices of different bloggers and experts, who continue to preserve the legacy of Virtuosity and try to give new dimensions to it by covering topics across the length and breadth of the Virtuoso environment, and a lot more.