Specman – SimVision Interaction Tips and Tricks

[Team Specman welcomes guest blogger Alex Chudnovsky of Specman R&D]

As we are all creatures of habit, sometimes it's hard to adapt to new work flows no matter how beneficial the change may be. Clearly this is the case in the transition of the Specman GUI from Specview to SimVision; so allow me to share with you some quick tips to ease the transition process and/or make you more productive with SimVision.

Opening SimVision as a Console rather as a Design Browser
Invoking SimVision with a “-input ” parameter will by default open the SimVision Console window and not open the Design Browser window. may be any file, including an empty one or even /dev/null.

Uncluttering your desktop and allowing for better performance
If you run a lot of simulations at the same time and need a GUI for all of them, your desktop becomes cluttered with SimVision windows easily. The farm gets overloaded at ease as well. Just run the simulations in batch mode and use the attach / detach feature of SimVision (“File – Open Simulation”). SimVision can connect to IES, stand-alone Specman, and even Specman running with a 3rd party simulator.

Method and struct / unit extensions now accessible under “Files:” drop down pick list
When a Specman entity is shown in the SimVision Source Browser, its extensions are accessible under “Files:” dropdown.

Forcing SimVision to open Source Browser window upon hitting a breakpoint
Specview users are accustomed to Debug window opening automagically upon hitting a breakpoint. However, SimVision doesn’t open a Source Browser window by default. This is ease to remedy: as shown below, use the “Preferences” dialog to configure the desired behavior.

Happy debugging!

Alex Chudnovsky
Specman R&D