Unable to open/find categories

It is possible that sometimes you end up with categories listed in the "TopCat" file in the library which no longer exist as categories themselves - they may have been deleted. The library manager only lists the categories that actually exist. So for example, in this example:

libId=ddGetObj("ether")
cats=ddCatGetLibCats(libId)
("ADC" "AEQ" "BIAS" "BLW" "CUST_CELLS"
"DIG" "LEVEL_SHIFTERS" "MDIX" "PI" "PLL"
"SHEETS" "TBENCH_PARTS" "TENBT" "TOP" "TOP_PNR"
"TRANS" "VIAs" "work"
)

Then I do:

foreach(cat cats printf("CAT %s ID %L\n" cat ddCatOpen(libId cat "r")))

I get:

CAT ADC ID dd:0x2a188090
CAT AEQ ID dd:0x2a1880c8
CAT BIAS ID dd:0x2a188100
CAT BLW ID dd:0x2a188138
CAT CUST_CELLS ID dd:0x2a188170
CAT DIG ID dd:0x2a1881a8
CAT LEVEL_SHIFTERS ID dd:0x2a1881e0
CAT MDIX ID nil
CAT PI ID dd:0x2a188218
CAT PLL ID dd:0x2a188250
CAT SHEETS ID dd:0x2a188288
CAT TBENCH_PARTS ID dd:0x2a1882c0
CAT TENBT ID dd:0x2a1882f8
CAT TOP ID dd:0x2a188330
CAT TOP_PNR ID dd:0x2a188368
CAT TRANS ID dd:0x2a1883a0
CAT VIAs ID dd:0x2a1883d8
CAT work ID nil

Notice that both MDIX and work are returning nil, because they no longer exist on disk. Because of this a few years back I wrote this function which filters the list of categories to only those where the category definition file exists:

/* abGetExistingCats.il

Author     A.D.Beckett
Group      Custom IC (UK), Cadence Design Systems Ltd.
Language   SKILL
Date       May 06, 2016 
Modified   
By         

Wrapper around ddCatGetLibCats which returns only the categories
that actually exist, similar to what is shown in the library manager

***************************************************

SCCS Info: @(#) abGetExistingCats.il 05/06/16.12:54:01 1.1

*/

/***************************************************************
*                                                              *
*                   abGetExistingCats(libId)                   *
*                                                              *
*         Return the category names that really exist          *
*                                                              *
***************************************************************/

procedure(abGetExistingCats(libId "b")
  let((catId)
    setof(catName ddCatGetLibCats(libId) 
      catId=ddCatOpen(libId catName "r")
      when(catId 
        ddCatClose(catId)
        t
      )
    )
  )
)

So in the above example, if I use:

cats=abGetExistingCats(libId)
("ADC" "AEQ" "BIAS" "BLW" "CUST_CELLS"
"DIG" "LEVEL_SHIFTERS" "PI" "PLL" "SHEETS"
"TBENCH_PARTS" "TENBT" "TOP" "TOP_PNR" "TRANS"
"VIAs"
)

Now you can see it's filtered out the two which returned nil and don't really exist on disk. As you can see from the screenshot here, this is what the library manager shows:

Regards,

Andrew

It is possible that sometimes you end up with categories listed in the "TopCat" file in the library which no longer exist as categories themselves - they may have been deleted. The library manager only lists the categories that actually exist. So for example, in this example:

libId=ddGetObj("ether")
cats=ddCatGetLibCats(libId)
("ADC" "AEQ" "BIAS" "BLW" "CUST_CELLS"
"DIG" "LEVEL_SHIFTERS" "MDIX" "PI" "PLL"
"SHEETS" "TBENCH_PARTS" "TENBT" "TOP" "TOP_PNR"
"TRANS" "VIAs" "work"
)

Then I do:

foreach(cat cats printf("CAT %s ID %L\n" cat ddCatOpen(libId cat "r")))

I get:

CAT ADC ID dd:0x2a188090
CAT AEQ ID dd:0x2a1880c8
CAT BIAS ID dd:0x2a188100
CAT BLW ID dd:0x2a188138
CAT CUST_CELLS ID dd:0x2a188170
CAT DIG ID dd:0x2a1881a8
CAT LEVEL_SHIFTERS ID dd:0x2a1881e0
CAT MDIX ID nil
CAT PI ID dd:0x2a188218
CAT PLL ID dd:0x2a188250
CAT SHEETS ID dd:0x2a188288
CAT TBENCH_PARTS ID dd:0x2a1882c0
CAT TENBT ID dd:0x2a1882f8
CAT TOP ID dd:0x2a188330
CAT TOP_PNR ID dd:0x2a188368
CAT TRANS ID dd:0x2a1883a0
CAT VIAs ID dd:0x2a1883d8
CAT work ID nil

Notice that both MDIX and work are returning nil, because they no longer exist on disk. Because of this a few years back I wrote this function which filters the list of categories to only those where the category definition file exists:

/* abGetExistingCats.il

Author     A.D.Beckett
Group      Custom IC (UK), Cadence Design Systems Ltd.
Language   SKILL
Date       May 06, 2016 
Modified   
By         

Wrapper around ddCatGetLibCats which returns only the categories
that actually exist, similar to what is shown in the library manager

***************************************************

SCCS Info: @(#) abGetExistingCats.il 05/06/16.12:54:01 1.1

*/

/***************************************************************
*                                                              *
*                   abGetExistingCats(libId)                   *
*                                                              *
*         Return the category names that really exist          *
*                                                              *
***************************************************************/

procedure(abGetExistingCats(libId "b")
  let((catId)
    setof(catName ddCatGetLibCats(libId) 
      catId=ddCatOpen(libId catName "r")
      when(catId 
        ddCatClose(catId)
        t
      )
    )
  )
)

So in the above example, if I use:

cats=abGetExistingCats(libId)
("ADC" "AEQ" "BIAS" "BLW" "CUST_CELLS"
"DIG" "LEVEL_SHIFTERS" "PI" "PLL" "SHEETS"
"TBENCH_PARTS" "TENBT" "TOP" "TOP_PNR" "TRANS"
"VIAs"
)

Now you can see it's filtered out the two which returned nil and don't really exist on disk. As you can see from the screenshot here, this is what the library manager shows:

Regards,

Andrew

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your reply. I always find your replies very crisp and easy to understand.

I have checked the *.TopCat file of our PDK, the following two categories for which the catID value was nil, are commented

#PRIMLIB/_Legacy.Cat type="category"
#PRIMLIB/Preliminary.Cat type="category"

My doubt is that the prefix "#" is not identified as a comment for TopCat file. Is it true? Or the ddCatGetLibCats() skill API doesn't exclude the comments?

The library manager treats the # as a comment in the TopCat file, but the ddCatGetLibCats() simply ignores the #, so it returns it anyway. I think that's a bug with ddCatGetLibCats. 

I've not found any reports of this - I would suggest you contact customer support to get this addressed.

Andrew

Hi Andrew

Just received the reply from the customer support team. Using ";" instead of "#" will solve the problem.

Thanks and Regards

Saurabh Raj "SrB"

Even so, you should still ask them to file a change request (CCR) because ddCatGetLibCats() should be consistent with the behaviour of the library manager. If the library manager treats it as a comment, so should ddCatGetLibCats.

Andrew.