What's Good About Cadence Online Support Product Pages? – Check Out This List!

I wrote about the new Cadence Online Support features in one of my blog posts last year.

One of our Silicon Package Board (SPB) Customer Support AEs suggested that I include the Cadence Online Support Product Page URL whenever I write about a specific product’s feature. I will be doing that -- a great idea! While my first post talked about some highlights of the product pages, I thought I’d take this week to review the vast amount of very good information available on each SPB product page.

To access the Product Pages, simply select the Product Pages link at the top of the Cadence Online Support page and then click “Select a Product”. Select a product (e.g. Allegro Design Entry HDL) and then View Product Details.

I’ll use the Design Entry HDL (DEHDL) Product Page as an example.

Release

You can filter the entire page by a Release. The current release (i.e. SPB16.3) is automatically chosen, but any prior release can be selected.

Overview

This displays the supported platforms, when the release first shipped, how long the version will be supported, and other releases available.

Troubleshooting Information

This provides the Known Problems and Solutions details both when the release was shipped as well as new information after the release was shipped. These details are typically provided directly from the various SPB R&D teams. It’s very helpful to understand any known issues before searching the Cadence Online Support database of Solutions and product manuals prior to filing a new Service Request with Customer Support.

Obtain Software And Licenses

A quick link to downloading the base and HotFix versions of the SPB software.

Critical Solution Alerts

The location where critical solutions or important content information is posted. You can select the “View My Alerts” link to control the various automated alerts you’d like to see – Critical Solutions, Host ID and Reference Keys, New Products, and Software Updates.

Documentation

There’s quite a bit here! For each product, you have links to the “What’s New”, Product Manuals, and Application Notes sections. The same information for the entire SPB release is available in this section along with the release installation guide.

Related Links

My favorite section by far! Here is the release specific update training (new product feature details). There’s a New User Reference Guide – this contains a phenomenal resource for any area associated with your SPB software – libraries, services, examples, demos/movies, training – it’s all here under a fun navigation engine. SKILL code, Windows 7 support, CheckPlus Rules Library, Videos, Allegro free downloads, and more! It’s all here chock-full of gems of content for your perusal.

Design Communities

A quick way to access the User Community Forums and Blog posts.

Related Design Tasks

Here are the links to all the SPB Design Tasks as well as all the other Cadence product Design Tasks. Click on the “Board Design” link for a wealth of PCB design tasks available in the SPB software.

Please share your experience in visiting the various Product Pages!

Jerry "GenPart" Grzenia