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AWR Software Tips & Tricks: Design Environment and Project Browser

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.

The first in the series of AWR Design Environment Tips and Tricks, this blog highlights general design environment and Project Browser actions to speed design creation and optimize your use of AWR software.

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.

Design Environment

The AWR Design Environment workspace displays a separate tabbed window for each object you add to your project, including: schematics, EM structures, system diagrams, layouts, graphs, and other objects. Simulation results also display in the workspace.

Try out these tips to enhance your user experience:

Window Management

• Classify a window as floating by right-clicking the window title bar. You can move a floating window outside of the AWR Design Environment software. This feature is useful when using dual monitors. To maximize the floating window, double-click the title bar. Double-click again to restore the window to its previous size.
• Use the Ctrl + Tab keys to switch between open windows inside the AWR Design Environment platform.
• Use a two-click entry mode for defining a draw or view window. In this mode, you click once to start a draw or view window, and click a second time to define the window size, rather then holding down the mouse button and dragging to define the window. To enable this option, select Options > Environment Options > Mouse tab and set the Entry mode setting to Two Click.
• Open the window manager to provide options such as cascading or tiling for the currently opened windows by choosing Window > Windows.  
• Create a window-in-a-window by dragging and dropping an item from the Project Browser onto an active window. The cursor changes to allow you to click and drag to draw the desired window size. You can insert multiple, pre-sized windows at once by choosing Draw > Insert Windows. If you select more than one window for insertion, an Align Shapes to Array dialog box displays to allow arrangement into an array pattern.
  • Resize and align multiple windows by right-clicking the toolbar and choosing Align to display the Align toolbar with various alignment options, and then selecting the "window-in-window" objects and the proper align command. You can also size each selected window identically.
  • Edit "window-in-window" views by double-clicking the view or by selecting it, right-clicking and choosing Activate View. When editing these windows you are editing the original object (for example, the schematic or graph). Click once to select and move an object.

Zooming/Scrolling

These keystrokes are common to most window types (circuit schematic, system diagram, layout, EM structure, global and output equations). Choose Options > Environment Options > Mouse tab to customize mouse wheel operations.

Method	Action	Method	Action
mouse wheel	Scroll up and down	Shift+mouse wheel	Scroll left and right
Ctrl+mouse wheel	Zoom in and out (centered on cursor)	Num+ or Num- keys	Zoom in or Zoom out
Up or Down Arrow keys	Scroll up or down	Home or End keys	View All or View Previous
Left or Right Arrow keys	Scroll left or right	Ctrl + W	View Area

 Getting Help

• F1 key: Press the F1 key anytime during design creation. The Help topic that displays is context sensitive-- it corresponds with the active window or type of object selected. Select the Graphs, Circuit Schematics, or Data Files nodes in the Project Browser for an example.
• Find Help specific to a model or measurement or a dialog box by clicking the Element Help, Meas. Help, or Help button respectively, in a dialog box.
• View detailed Help for a specific element in a schematic or a system block in a system diagram by pressing F1,or right-clicking the object and choosing Help.
  
• When clicking menus or toolbar items, view the Status bar at the bottom of the main program window for more information about that command or selected item.

Opening projects

• Open your latest project by typing Alt+F and then 1.
• Show all previously opened projects by choosing File > More Projects to display and filter by rank, project (name), (date) last opened, or path. Ctrl-click a column header to filter by that column.
• Browse to specific files and folders by choosing Help > Show Files/Directories to display all of the files and folders the AWR Design Environment platform uses. Double-click a folder or file to open it.

Project Browser

The Project Browser is active when the AWR Design Environment platform starts, and contains the entire collection of data that defines the current project, including schematics, system diagrams, EM structures, graphs, and other data documents. This data is organized in a tree-like structure of items that you can manipulate.

Try out these general tips to enhance your user experience:

• Display additional context menu options in the Project Browser by Shift-right-clicking a Project Browser node.
• Open a project item by name by right-clicking in the Project Browser and choosing Open Project Item to view and select an item in your project. The list of items is filtered as you type.
• Add/delete/rename/... an item by right-clicking it to display a context menu with options to add, delete, rename, duplicate, import/export, collapse/expand, link to, view properties for, and other actions.
• Bypass the default deletion confirmation by pressing the Shift key while deleting Project Browser items such as graphs or schematics.
• Duplicate schematics/system diagrams, data files, EM structures, graphs and measurements by dragging the item up to its parent node in the Project Browser and dropping it. The new item has the same root name appended with "1" so it displays next to the original item in the Project Browser. You can also right-click an item and choose Duplicate or press Ctrl + D.
• Copy between different instances of the AWR Design Environment platform by selecting the item you want to copy and pressing Ctrl + C. Select the parent node in the second instance and press Ctrl + V to paste.

User Folders

This folder node in the Project Browser allows you to create a customized folder structure and then place any project item (for example, a schematic or graph) into those folders.

• Create a user folder by right-clicking the User Folders node and choosing Add New > Folder. You can also create subfolders under any folder.
• Add new items to a user folder by right-clicking the User Folders node or existing user folder, choosing Add New and then selecting the item type you want to add.
• Add existing items to a user folder by dragging the item(s) to the user folder. You can also right-click the User Folders node or existing user folder and choose Add Existing Item to select items from a list.
• Reorder items in a user folder by selecting the item and pressing the Alt key and Up or Down arrow keys to move it.
• Organize items in a user folder by type by right-clicking a folder and choosing Group by Type, or alphabetically regardless of type by choosing this option again to toggle it off.
• Organize folders by type by right-clicking a folder and choosing Show Grouping Folders.

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Related Resources

Blogs

• μWaveRiders: Cadence AWR Design Environment V16 Software Release Highlights

Videos

• Configuring the Project Browser

Examples

• Zoom and Pan with the Mouse
• Two-Click Windowing Mode
• Cleaning Up Your Project
• Using the Design Checker Utility
• Setting Up Global Definitions

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Contact Us

For questions, general feedback, or suggestions for future blog topics, write to team_rf_blogs@cadence.com. 

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