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μWaveRiders: Cadence AWR Design Environment Graph Measurements Tips and Tricks

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Team RF logoThe Team RF "μWaveRiders" blog series is a showcase for Cadence AWR RF products. Monthly topics will vary between Cadence AWR Design Environment release highlights, feature videos, Cadence Academic Network news (including the former AWR University Program), as well as software tips, tricks, customization, and feature spotlights. Subscribe to receive email notifications about our latest μWaveRiders blog posts. 

AWR Software Tips and Tricks: Working with Measurements on Graphs in the AWR Design Environment

The AWR Design Environment platform provides RF/microwave engineers with integrated high-frequency circuit (Microwave Office), system (Visual System Simulator), and EM (AXIEM 3D planar/Analyst 3D FEM) simulation technologies and design automation to develop physically realizable electronics ready for manufacturing.

Did you know you can try AWR software products today for free at Try AWR? See for yourself how easy and effective it is to streamline your design process, improve end-product performance, and accelerate time to market for MMICs, RFICs, RF PCBs, microwave modules, antennas, communications systems, radar systems, and more.

The eighth in the series of AWR Design Environment Tips and Tricks, this blog highlights tips and tricks for adding, modifying, and simulating measurements on graphs in the AWR Design Environment platform.

Adding Measurements to a Graph

The Add/Modify Measurement dialog box is the primary means of specifying the measurements that you want to output as a result of simulations. To access this dialog box, choose Project > Add Measurement, or right-click a graph under the Graphs node in the Project Browser and choose Add Measurement.

Add Measurement dialog box

To modify an existing measurement, double-click the measurement in the Project Browser or right-click in the associated graph and choose Modify Measurement to open the same dialog box, or choose Edit All Measurements to open the Measurement Editor, which displays the active project measurements for quick editing individually or in collections. Measurement changes are reflected in real-time on the applicable graph.

Measurement Editor

The Measurement Editor provides various ways to manage the measurements in your project, such as changing their sort order, filtering on specific criteria, editing multiples, and pre-populating the filter selection by choosing to open the Measurement Editor from a particular source. To edit multiple measurement options, Ctrl-click or Shift-click the desired measurements. To sort the measurements in any column in ascending or descending order, click (toggle) the column header. Filtering to find specific measurements is enabled for every column by clicking in the filter text box below the column name and typing. This text box supports regular expressions such as "*", "?", and "!".

Searching for Measurements

When adding measurements to a graph, click the Search button in the Add/Modify dialog box to locate specific measurements.  A Select Measurement window opens for sorting by column as above, with a text box at the bottom of the window that filters the selected column by characters typed.

In the Add/Modify dialog box, you can also select a measurement and specify it as a favorite by clicking the Favorite button. New favorites display in a submenu of the Add Measurement command when invoked from a schematic or system diagram after restarting the AWR Design Environment program. After choosing a favorite measurement from the submenu, a Select a graph for new measurement dialog box displays to prompt you to select the graph to which you want to add the measurement. You can also click New Graph to add the measurement to a new graph. After selecting the graph, the Add/Modify Measurement dialog box displays to allow you to edit the measurement if needed.

Select graph for new measurement dialog box

Choosing a Simulator

When creating or modifying measurements, the available simulators display under Simulator in the Add/Modify Measurement dialog box. Depending on the type of measurement and the licensing options with which you start the program, there may be several simulators available for the measurement.

Ordering Measurements

To order a new (copied) measurement amongst existing measurements, drop it on top of the measurement above which you want it to display. To place it at the bottom of the list of measurements, copy the measurement and then drop it onto itself as if moving it.

To reorder existing measurements, select the measurement you want to move and press Alt + Up Arrow or Alt + Down Arrow to move the measurement accordingly. You can also simply drag the measurement to the position you want. The graph legend will reflect the revised order of measurements.

Additional Measurement Options

Additional measurement options are available by right-clicking a measurement in the graph legend. Equivalent commands available by right-clicking a measurement in the Project Browser are shown in parentheses.

  • Modify Measurement - displays the Add/Modify Measurement dialog box for editing measurement properties. (Properties)

  • Toggle Enable Measurement - enables or disables the measurement in the graph. (Toggle Enable)

  • Delete Measurement - removes the measurement from the graph. (Delete)

  • Duplicate Measurement - displays the Add/Modify Measurement dialog box for adding a new measurement. (Duplicate)

  • Simulate Measurement - starts a simulation and displays the results on the graph. (Simulate for measurement)

  • View Source Document - opens the data source document of the measurement. (View Source Document)

  • Add Optimization Goal - displays the New Optimization Goal dialog box for adding an optimization goal. (Add Optimization Goal)

  • Add Yield Goal - displays the New Yield Goal dialog box for adding a yield goal. (Add Yield Goal)

  • Format Measurement - displays the graph Options dialog box Measurements tab with the measurement selected.

  • Modify Trace Properties - displays the graph Options dialog box Traces tab with the measurement's trace selected.

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