μWaveRiders: Cadence AWR Design Environment Project Management Tips and Tricks

24 Feb 2022 • 5 minute read

The 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.

AWR Software Tips and Tricks: Project Management 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 fifth in the series of AWR Design Environment Tips and Tricks, this blog highlights project management options in the AWR Design Environment workspace to speed design creation and optimize use of AWR software.

AWR Design Environment projects comprise sets of designs and may include one or more schematics, netlists, EM structures, data files, or system diagrams. A project also includes anything associated with the designs, such as imported files, layout views, graphs, output files, and data sets. When you save a project, everything associated with it is automatically saved as well. AWR Design Environment platform projects are saved as *.emp files.

Setting Global Project Options

Options menu

All options under the Options menu apply per project, except for Environment Options, which apply to all projects under the current user. Options prefaced with "Default" can be overridden on each type document (for example, circuit schematics or graphs).

With the AWR Design Environment Layout feature running, specify global settings for the units used within all schematics in a project via the Drawing Layers option by clicking Units in the LPF Options dialog box. When running without the Layout feature, specify the units via the Project Options option, on the Global Units tab, by setting the desired units for each item.

Specify the simulation frequency used by all simulations performed within a project via the Project Options option, on the Frequencies tab, by specifying a frequency sweep or frequency point.

Specify global interpolation settings to employ during simulations via the Project Options option, on the Interpolation/Passivity tab, by modifying the available options.

Importing Projects

Import schematics, system diagrams, netlists, EM structures, graphs, Switch Lists, symbols, and more from another project by choosing File > Import Project.

The Import Project dialog box lets you choose which of the list of project items you want to import into the current project. Items with names identical to the current project names display in red so you can choose a method for renaming them.

Where host and import project differences occur, standards determine the resolution. For example, if the two projects use different versions of the same PDK, the host project PDK is used.

Saving Projects as Templates

When saved as a template, a project is saved with its options, format information, LPFs, artwork cells, design notes, global definitions, frequency, graph, and measurement information. Simulated documents (for example, EM structures, data files, netlists, system diagrams/schematics, or single source measurements) are not saved with the template. Project templates provide an easy way to specify sets of graphs, measurements, and outputs that are independent of any schematics, EM structures, or data files. You can use this information in other projects, or to perform comparisons between various data files.

To save a project as a template, choose File > Save Project As, and in the Save As dialog box, select Project Template (*.emt) as the type.

To specify a default project template, choose Options > Environment Options and click the File Locations tab. In Default Project Template, browse to the location of the desired template. Every time you open a new project, the designated template is used.

Cleaning Up Projects

The Clean_Project script (choose Scripts > Project > Clean_Project) cleans up a project by deleting any graphs, measurements, schematics, system diagrams, data files, netlists, and EM structures not needed for the current active (not disabled) measurements in the project. This script is commonly used to simplify a complicated project before sharing it.

After the script is run, the AWR Scripting dialog box displays with general options as well as an advanced option that lets you select specific project items to clean up.

Clean_project options

Archiving Projects

The Project Archive capability bundles a project and all its dependencies into one .emz file, making them more portable. To archive a project, choose File > Archive Project and specify an archive name.

These items are stored in a project archive in addition to the standard objects such as graphs, schematics, and system diagrams:

any PDKs loaded in the project
linked data files, schematics, system diagrams, EM structures, and GDS/DXF libraries
global user scripts
data sets (even if the project is not set to save data sets)
extended multipaths

These items are not stored in a project archive:

files under the Signals subdirectory
files that contain symbolic directories such as "$PRJ" in their paths
netlist library (.lib) files referenced in Spectre netlists
files referenced by scripts

Find and open previously archived projects by choosing File > Open Project and selecting Project Archive (*.emz) as the file type in the Open dialog box.

Related Resources

Blogs

Videos

Copying Documents Between Projects

Contact Us

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