Changing Default Symbol Pin Type

This .cdsenv setting:

schematic symbolPinUsage string   "block"

or in your .cdsinit:

envSetVal("schematic" "symbolPinUsage" 'string   "block")

Regards,

Andrew

Hi Andrew

Thank you for your response, it took me a couple of days to get back to this.

I've tried both the .cdsenv and .cdsinit setting you suggested, but neither worked--I'm still getting the default pin style. I've also tried to enter envSetVal("schematic" "symbolPinUsage" 'string   "block") directly in the CIW. It promptly reports back with "t", but again no change in the actual behavior when creating a new symbol.

Do you have any idea how to fix this?

Thanks very much.

Note that this will only have an effect before you've opened the symbol editor for the first time (I think). Before anything else, did you try entering this in the CIW immediately after starting Virtuoso and before opening the symbol editor?

Can you then (after opening the symbol editor and trying to create a pin) enter:

envGetVal("schematic" "symbolPinUsage")

in the CIW to see what it returns?

Andrew

Thanks. I played with the suggested setting again and realized that it does indeed set the "block" type when creating a new pin in an existing symbol. But to avoid having to manually replace every pin in a symbol, I'd prefer that the pins are already created that way with the command:

Schematic: Create -> Cellview -> From Cellview

Is there a way to realize this? Thanks very much.

sgcad said:

Is there a way to realize this? Thanks very much.

Yes. You need to create a "tsg" file to control the template used by the symbol generator. This is covered in the documentation (search for "pinConnector" to find it). What I did to try this out was:

1. Copy the starting template that I normally use - in my case <ICinstDIr>/tools/dfII/samples/symbolGen/artist.tsg (the "analog" template) to a local file
2. Modify the symbolParam section to add pinConnector="block" as follows:
   

           symbolParam(
               origin = topLeftPin
               wireSpacing = 0.125000
               wireLength = 0.250000
               labelHeight = 0.062500
               vSideLength = 0.000000
               hSideLength = 0.000000
   	    pinConnector = "block"
           )

3. Update the tsgTemplateMasters variable in your .cdsinit to refer to the new file (see <ICinstDIr>/tools/dfII/samples/local/schConfig.il for an example of the usual default):
   

   tsgTemplateMasters = list(
   	list("andrew" "/the/path/to/andrew.tsg")
   	list("digital" (prependInstallPath "samples/symbolGen/default.tsg"))
   	list("analog"  (prependInstallPath "samples/symbolGen/artist.tsg"))
   	list("artist"  (prependInstallPath "samples/symbolGen/artist.tsg"))
   	list("PCB"     (prependInstallPath "samples/symbolGen/package.tsg"))
   	list("metric"  (prependInstallPath "samples/symbolGen/metric.tsg"))
   )

4. [Optionally] change the default template using this cdsenv var:
   envSetVal("schematic" "tsgTemplateType" 'string "Andrew")
   
5. Alternatively, pick it via the load/save button on the symbol generation options form.

Andrew

Thanks very much. It will take me some time to implement this as a tapeout is asking for priority, but I've found the documentation and it looks exactly like what I'm looking for.