Virtuoso Studio: Layout Editor Productivity Enhancements Blog Series: Part 1

Our new AI-powered custom design solution, Virtuoso Studio, leverages our 30 years of industry knowledge and leadership, providing innovative features, reimagined infrastructure for unrivaled productivity, and new levels of integration that stretch beyond classic design boundaries. In this blog series, learn how the best analog design tools just got better to help you keep pace with your challenging design issues.

Welcome back to the Virtuoso Studio: Layout Editor Productivity Enhancements blog series. In the first blog post, we introduced several updates designed to improve layout creation efficiency, usability, and consistency across the Virtuoso Studio Layout Editor.

In this blog, we focus on enhancements to group arrays. Group arrays are central to layout productivity, enabling designers to efficiently manage repeated structures while maintaining precise control over design intent. With the Virtuoso Studio IC25.1 release, several new capabilities have been added to improve clarity, flexibility, and performance when working with arrays of instances and shapes.

Group Arrays: Key Enhancements

New and Enhanced Creation and Editing Methods

In Virtuoso Studio IC25.1, you can now directly create group arrays from the Create Instance form. For designers accustomed to the mosaic workflow, this feels instantly familiar. The options closely mirror what you already know about mosaics, but with the added advantage of a streamlined, single‑step creation flow. This consistency helps minimize the learning curve for anyone transitioning from using mosaics to the more powerful, group array mechanism.

Talking of where group arrays can be really helpful, think of mixed‑connectivity patterns. You can select the Group Array option in the Create Instance form, define your parameters, and the editor automatically handles array creation. It's an ideal fit for analog and mixed‑signal layouts, where connectivity often varies from device to device across the array.

IC25.1 also brings a suite of improvements that make editing more intuitive and predictable:

• Add Layout Members to an Existing Group Array: You can now quickly add existing layout instances to a group array by using the Add to Group Array option in the shortcut menu. This enhancement eliminates the need to rebuild arrays as designs change. Bound instances keep their schematic links intact when added.

• Enhanced Stretch Behavior for Irregular Arrays: The Stretch command now supports irregular group arrays, allowing you to reshape asymmetric layouts without breaking array relationships. Also, for irregular arrays, the Property Editor assistant now displays clearer, more granular controls. It makes it easier to inspect and adjust per‑member attributes. When performing Stretch on an irregular group array, the number of members in the group array remains same, and you can easily change the dimension of the group array.

• Connectivity Assignment for All Block Members: You can now apply connectivity to all block members in a group array at once, speeding up bulk updates. This is helpful for analog and mixed‑signal designs that require consistent electrical definitions. Connectivity of any block can be updated with Edit-In-Place command, and then select any member or block using the Property Editor.
• Improved Array Pattern UI for Managing User-Defined Presets: The Array Pattern interface has been enhanced to make saving, loading, and deleting custom presets simpler. Maintaining personalized presets is now much easier.

Optimizing Layout Flexibility with Group Array Member Swapping

Have you ever faced difficulty while changing the placement of members within a group array? With the IC25.1 release, you can now easily rearrange group array members using the enhanced Array Pattern UI. This enhancement provides you with more control and flexibility when organizing your layout. It gives you flexibility to:

• Swap columns, rows, or any individual members
• Drag and drop members within the preview panel
• Optimize placement and routing with a few clicks
• Maintain connectivity patterns even after rearrangement

This feature eliminates the need for manual rebinding, keeping your logical intent intact while you streamline placement.

In Virtuoso Studio IC25.1, you can now use a group array directly as a clone source, making it easier to create synchronized clones while preserving the original array structure. Any changes made to one synchronized member automatically update across the others, resulting in a cleaner and more predictable cloning process.

This enhancement simplifies editing for analog and custom layout teams who rely on replicated structures with precisely controlled symmetry.

Support for Nested Group Arrays

In Virtuoso Studio IC25.1, you can now create a group array of existing group arrays, commonly known as a Nested Group Array. You can create these nested structures using the Copy command or Synchronous Cloning. With Nested Group Array support, you can:

• Edit any member and have changes propagate across all related arrays
• Change spacing and dimensions at any level even across nested structures
• Swap members to optimize placement and routing
• Maintain synchronous editing behavior across all hierarchy levels

This enhancement gives you a flexible way to scale repeated layout patterns.

With the group array enhancements in Virtuoso Studio IC25.1, you can now manage repeated layout structures with greater precision and confidence, leading to increased layout productivity. By simplifying array creation, enhancing editing workflows, and introducing smarter member control features, this release minimizes manual effort while maintaining design intent. Stay tuned for the next post in this series for more productivity-boosting updates.

Related Resources

Product Manual	Group Arrays Creating Group Array as a Clone Source
Video	Group Array - Create using Create Instance Group Array - Swapping of Members Using Array Pattern Editor Support of Nested Group Array(s) in the Copy command Support of Nested Group Array(s) in Generate Clones Command GroupArray - Synchronous Editing for Multiple Arrays Group Array - Editing enhancements Part 1 Group Array - Editing enhancements Part 2

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Happy Reading!

Rohini Garg