How to convert Wire to a Geometric wire

 In the latest version you don't get the option to create a geometric wire anymore.

You only have "create path" or create wire

I would also be interested to know why it was requested that you use "create geometric wire".

Because you will potentially get more problems later on. (Wire editor features, finish route, etc will not work if you use paths)

FYI: Wires consist of path segments ("pathSegs") and vias.

Geometric wires consist of either pathsegs or paths (depending on your settings when you draw the geometric wires (press <F3> to see ).

I am guessing that you want to wires consisting of paths and at the moment they are pathsegs.

I don't know of any way to do this using existing tools features (SKILL perhaps?) (there is a convert to paths feature in the latest software but it doesn't work for pathsegs.

There are plenty of ways to convert paths to pathsegs. But not the other way round. So the real question back to you is: why do you want to go back to paths (if that is actually what you want)?

Colin

I was discussing this with one of the architects in R&D last night, wondering why you might want to do this. The only thing we could think of was that maybe you wanted to stop EDI ripping up and re-routing these wires - but there must be other ways of preserving existing routing.

The main difference is that geometric wires are not part of a "route" object (and they don't have to be symbolic - i.e. the points don't have to tie up between pathSegs, and they could use paths as Colin said). I think you could potentially convert to a "geometric" wire by selecting a segment on the wire and doing: dbDeleteObject(car(geGetSelSet())~>route . But I'd seriously advise against doing that... as Colin said, we've removed the ability to create Geometric wires because it was confusing and really didn't add any value, so I'd certainly question why somebody is asking you to do this...

Andrew.

Hi Andrew, In Using Mixed Signal On Top (MSoT), One of the cadence guy in our company recommend using Geometric Wires for routing power/ground and special nets, he said that if you use "Wire" the wires and vias will be recognized as regular vias and wires and will be removed by nano route in the EDI.

Yes it is true that on 6.1.6 the geometric wire options has been removed but you can enable it by using envSetVal( "we" "mixedSignalWireEditingEnvironment" 'boolean t )

If cadence is trying to get rid of this Geometric wires, then there should be a way that if you use Wire you have an option to lock them so that EDI would not touch them.

PS: Even if you set the "route status" of the Wire/via to "locked" some of my colleague here says that it is still removed/deleted by nano route. Regards, Gerald

Hello Gerald,

Actually if you set routing status of the wire to "fixed" or "locked" then EDI/Nanouroute should not touch it.

If this is the case then this is a bug and I recommend your CAD group to contact the Cadence support and open a ticket to fix it.

Another solution is to set the net signalType to 'analog' and then to use the following option in EDI:

•  setNanoRouteMode -dbSkipAnalog true

• setTrialRouteMode -dbSkipAnalog true

Another option would be that you use the regular Create > Wire command and then you use Edit > Wire > Compose Trunk command to convert pathSegs and vias into a route to pathSegs and vias not in a route. EDI will see the pre-routes as Special routes and then Nanoroute is not going to touch it.

 Thanks,

Alex 

I believe you may be correct that Encounter removes the vias, even if they are part of a locked net. But the last time I tried this I only had a problem with the vias, not the interconnect.

This was a problem with earlier versions of Encounter.

I believe that a locked net, (or a non-locked net but with a non-default width) should do what you want.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the solution you have provided, I was not aware of the "compose trunk" and "decompose trunk" options which sets "part of the route" to "False" and "True".

thanks for your help, I appreciate it!

Regards,

Gerald

Hi Gerald,

You are welcome. 

In order to better communicate that solution to other people in your company can you please tell me for which company you work?

Thanks,
Alex 

Hi Ferdinand,

Could you pelase tell us which version of EDI you use it could help us to tell you if soemthing has been fixed on that specific issue in the new releases? 

In the meantime could you please use the route status 'firm' or 'fixed' and see if it works better, I remember that it was working for me at some point when the the 'locked' were not respected correctly.

In a private message could you please send me the name of your cadence guy that I could send him the relevant document. 

Thanks,

Alex 

Hi Alex,

Encounter v13.13-s017_1 (64bit)

 Also the following options are already in the EDI flow:

setNanoRouteMode -dbSkipAnalog true

setTrialRouteMode -dbSkipAnalog true

And as soon as we import the analog layout to EDI most of the analog routings (wires/vias) are gone.

Nothing was done yet except importing the layout.

regards,

Ferdinand