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  3. Virtuoso router leaves steiners, routes & guides in the...

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Virtuoso router leaves steiners, routes & guides in the database

HiuMinor
HiuMinor over 13 years ago
Hi,

we currently experienced a strange behaviour concening the bounding boxes of routed macros.

First we created a big macro layout using the Virtuoso router. After that we re-used the layout to create some derivates using the Virtuoso layout Editor (actually smaller layouts by deleting parts of the bigger one). All the checks (DRC,ERC,LVS ...) are OK, but the bounding boxes (when instantiating the small macros) are way too large. They still have the size of the original, bigger macro.

When looking into the OA database I found a lot of objects, that seems to be remains from the initial routing of the big macro (steiners, routes & guides). Now I deleted all the objects lying outside the current macros boundary by a SKILL procedure and thus also the bounding box, when instatiating the macro, is OK again.

Now my questions:

  • Can I delete all the steiners, routes & guides, if the routing of a macro is finished, or are these objects in some way relevant for the layout cellView or the final GDS?
  • Is this the normal behaviour of the Virtuoso router to leave these objects in the database, or are they possibly remains of a crash or misuse of the tool?
  • If they can be deleted without any loss of design contents, is it possible to have a clean-up step in the Virtuoso router to get rid of them automatically?

Many thanks in advance, Ronald.

PS: I forgot to mention our tool version: IC6.1.4.500.8

 

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  • Quek
    Quek over 13 years ago

    Hi Ronald

    The problem of stranded steiners is actually not limited to auto-routing. It happens even when wires are chopped. The leftover steiners will make the bBox larger than the cellview. You can remove them safely using SKILL:

    foreach( steiner geGetWindowCellView()~>steiners
       dbDeleteObject(steiner)
    ) ;foreach

    Currently there are no other ways to remove stranded steiners. Would it be possible for you to file a service request with your local Cadence support to highlight the issue so that we can improve on the tool?

    Thanks
    Quek

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  • Quek
    Quek over 13 years ago

    Hi Ronald

    The problem of stranded steiners is actually not limited to auto-routing. It happens even when wires are chopped. The leftover steiners will make the bBox larger than the cellview. You can remove them safely using SKILL:

    foreach( steiner geGetWindowCellView()~>steiners
       dbDeleteObject(steiner)
    ) ;foreach

    Currently there are no other ways to remove stranded steiners. Would it be possible for you to file a service request with your local Cadence support to highlight the issue so that we can improve on the tool?

    Thanks
    Quek

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