Additional question: Is it possible to select the netlist view (e.g. schematic or extracted) on a cell by cell base? (in the case both views exist for same cells) 

I've just written some SKILL code to produce a nice HTML report showing info about the views used (and the hierarchy) in each of the tests in an ADE XL view. It's based on some code I already had, but updated to extract info from the ADE XL view.

Take the gzipped tar file and then unpack it (tar xvfz designReport.tar.gz) and then load all the files (keep the suffixes as they are).

Then with the ADE XL view open, run in the CIW:

abDesignReportFromADEXL()

This will create an HTML file in the documents folder of the ADE XL view. Click on this and it will show the report in your web browser.

I'll show a typical report output below (it's not pasted it perfectly).

But before I do that, let me answer your second question. The simple answer is that you should create a config using the hierarchy editor (see the documentation on the hierarchy editor). This will allow you to pick different views to use for each cell, or each instance, or each hierarchical occurrence. You then use the config as the view you are using in the test. If you've not used it before, I suggest you do - it's a very powerful way of controlling what you are simulating.

Kind Regards,

Andrew.

Report for Active Setup

Test: AC

Design Hierarchy

Cellview Summary

Configuration File

//Revision 83
//NOTE
// Default template for spectre
// Note:
//      Please remember to replace Top Cell Library, Cell, and View
//      fields with the actual names used by your design.
//END_NOTE

config full_diff_opamp_AC;
design opamp090.full_diff_opamp_AC:schematic;
liblist myLib;

viewlist spectre, cmos_sch, \cmos.sch , schematic, veriloga, ahdl;
stoplist spectre, spectreStop;


inst (opamp018.full_diff_opamp_AC:schematic).I0 binding :schematic;
cell opamp018.full_diff_opamp binding :schematic;

cell opamp090.ampp binding :schematic;


endconfig

Design Variable Usage

Test: TRAN

Design Hierarchy

Cellview Summary

Configuration File

//Revision 46
//NOTE
// Default template for spectre
// Note:
//      Please remember to replace Top Cell Library, Cell, and View
//      fields with the actual names used by your design.
//END_NOTE

config full_diff_opamp_TRAN;
design opamp090.full_diff_opamp_TRAN:schematic;
liblist myLib;

viewlist spectre, cmos_sch, \cmos.sch , schematic, veriloga, ahdl;
stoplist spectre;


inst (opamp018.full_diff_opamp_TRAN:schematic).I0 binding :schematic;
cell opamp018.full_diff_opamp binding :schematic;


endconfig

Design Variable Usage

The formatting of the report definitely got mixed up a bit - so give it a try yourself to see what it really looks like.

Kind Regards,

Andrew.

 Andrew, thanks for the code and the pointer to cdsHierEditor.

When generating the html I only see one level of hiererchy. Not sure if this has to do with sublevels of hierarchy being in other libraries. Yet, cdsHierEditor finds the hierarchy. In cdsHierEditor it displays that the extracted cellView is not found (view found **NONE**). Not sure how this is handled in the netlisted. In the netlist I have includes at theend introduced by a comment

// Include extracted spice netlists
 

The code does have a hardcoded switch view list - so if you're not using a config, it probably won't even attempt to switch into anything other than schematic and symbol views - this would need fixing on lines 452 and 639 of abDesignReport.ils by passing ?viewList "spectre schematic veriloga symbol" or similar to the call to abSchTree.

If using a config, it should expand the hierarchy using whatever views have been picked in HED.

I'm not sure why the extracted cellView is not working in the hierarchy editor - it suggests that the view being searched for doesn't exist as a view. Have you entered the view name correctly?

That said, I suspect you must be using some non-Cadence extraction tool, because if it was QRC the netlist would be generated from the extracted view. Did you enter the global view list properly in the hierarchy editor? It would typically list all the views you want to include. Or you might have to go over the cell or instance in the hierarchy editor (HED) and do Right Mouse->View to Use and pick the name of your extracted view.

Kind Regards,

Andrew.

Editing the abSchTree calls helped getting the hierarchy.

Yes, the extraction was done with a non-Cadence tool. The extraction cellviews (hspiceerie) are non standard cellViews. So that might be the problem here. I'll have to check with the library onwer about that.   

Thanks so far

 I got more clarification as the extracted cellView is linked to the spectre view. So I just need to switch between schematic and spectre.

Yet, even if the config view (expand.cfg) of the topcell being netlisted contains binding : schematic for a subcell the netlisting is done with spectre. Is the config view not being reread when netlisting after changing the config?

Did you save the config view? You'd need to do that...

Apart from that, I've not seen any cases where changes to the config view are not honoured by the netlister.

Regards,

Andrew.

Found the problem now. I was netlisting the schematic. If I netlist the config, the config's settings are honored.