Virtuoso Video Diary: Tips and Tricks on Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL Markers

Virtuoso Video Diary is envisaged to be an online journal that will relay information about Virtuoso videos that are available in the Cadence Online Support Video Library. For IC6.1.7 and ICADV12.2, over 100 videos on a wide variety of new and exciting Virtuoso features have already been created. Virtuoso Video Diary brings you direct links to these videos and other related material, on a regular basis, in your mailbox. You can subscribe now to receive the e-mail notifications.

The Story of Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL Markers 

Have you explored the various types of markers offered by Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL? If not yet, then probably it’s time. Markers are one of the useful features of Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL graphs and can help you perform efficient graph analysis.

Consider a scenario where you have a myriad of traces plotted in a graph. Somebody tells you to analyze the graph behavior at specific points on a trace or combination of traces, or find out the delta values between two or more points for one or more traces. Yes, all these tasks seem difficult to perform at first glance! In fact, these cases cause a void that can be filled by an easy-to-use, robust, and powerful feature available within the graph.

The good news is that such a feature exists. Use different types of markers!

The Basic Question: What are Markers?

A marker is basically a label used to attach a description to a point on the trace, and by default displays the X and Y coordinates of its intersection with the trace. With the help of markers, you can view and analyze the specific points or areas on the trace and perform further analysis. You can also use the markers to represent expressions. Markers can be of various types, such as point, vertical, horizontal, AB, delta, and so on. Let us have a quick look at the picture below to get an idea of how markers look. In this picture, the trace contains the point (M1), vertical (V1), and horizontal (H1) markers.  

You can use the Markers menu any time to create and work with markers. Here are some useful tips, tricks, and shortcuts that you can use and apply to make the tasks faster and improve the productivity.

Moving Ahead: Some Useful Shortcuts

• Bindkeys

I always find it convenient to use keyboard shortcuts, typically termed as bindkeys in Virtuoso language, to create and work with markers. Sometimes using menu options to perform these operations could turn into a wearisome task.

I'm sure you would like them, too. Here is a list of some useful bindkeys that you can keep handy:

• M, V, H: Creates a point, vertical, and horizontal marker, respectively.
• Q: Opens the marker properties form that you can use to change the various attributes of a marker, such as label, position, intercepts, significant digits, notation, and so on.
• N, P: Moves the marker to next or previous points on the trace based on the snapping criteria selected in the Next/Prev Snap Point drop-down available in the marker properties form. The default snapping criteria is Data Point. The other available options are—Local Maxima, Local Minima, Local Max or Min, Specific Y Value, Specific X Value, Global Maxima, and Global Minima. I must say it’s really an interesting and useful feature and comes handy when you want to analyze specific values on the trace.
• Shift+D: Creates a delta marker between two or more markers: It’s interesting to note that you can mix point, vertical, horizontal marker and get delta values from a point to a line.
• D: Creates a chain of delta markers. Select a marker and wherever on the trace you press the bindkey D, you will get a marker of the selected type and a delta value between them.
• Ctrl+E:  Deletes all the markers at one go. It acts like a savior when you have lots of markers added on the graph. Moreover, if you have delta markers added on to the graph, you can hide their child labels to make the graphs look neat. 

• Drag-and-Drop

Well, it is not a new feature for graphs, but a very convenient one! It’s helpful when you want to instantly view the marker intercept values at different locations on the trace. Undoubtedly, you can also change the intercept values through the marker Properties form, but you need to perform a series of steps to do that.

• Context-Sensitive Menu

Right-click a marker and use the context-sensitive menu options to perform certain marker-specific tasks, such as change the marker properties, snap the marker to the next or previous edge, delete the marker, and so on.

• Horizontal and Vertical Marker Tables

Use these assistants to view the intercept values of all the horizontal or vertical markers added on to the graph. To open these assistants, choose Window – Assistants – Vert Marker Table or Horiz Marker Table. Alternatively, right-click anywhere on the menu bar and open these assistants from the context-sensitive menu. The one thing I like about these assistants is they act as 'one-stop shop.'

•  Special Marker (AB)
  

We call it an AB Marker! This is a special delta marker of type XY and helps view the dx, dy, and slope values between two points on the same or different traces. Note that a graph can contain only one AB marker. To create another pair, you need to convert the AB marker into a normal delta marker.

To explain these shortcuts even better and in an elaborate way, we have a ‘Tips and Tricks: Markers’ video available on Cadence Online Support. Click the Play button below to watch a brief snippet of this video. 

If you find the feature interesting and worthwhile, you might want to learn more about it. We recommend you to watch the full video to get a complete picture. Click the video link now OR visit Cadence Online Support and search under Resources — Video Library for the video titled Tips and Tricks: Markers.

Note: Cadence Help supports native playback of videos (mp4) added to the installed Virtuoso Documentation Library. Look under Video Demos for a video topic of your interest. 

Related Resources

• Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL User Guide
  • Working with Markers

• ViVA Hint/Tips

Virtuoso Video Diary: What's Next

Virtuoso Video Diary will next bring to you an interesting video titled Introducing the Redesigned Virtuoso Forms. The video showcases the redesigned forms across Virtuoso applications. You will notice that the redesigned forms are easy to use, consistent, and visually appealing. Stay tuned…

Ashu Vashishtha