automatically populate [@cellName] instead of [@partName] when generating a symbol from schematic

There are a number of potential different templates that can be used for symbol generation (there's a cyclic field on the form to allow you to pick different choices). The default list is defined by a SKILL variable that you can override in  your .cdsinit:

tsgTemplateMasters = list(
  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"))
)

Which is used by default is controlled by a cdsenv variable:

schematic tsgTemplateType string "digital"

(so you can find the setting using the SKILL function envGetVal("schematic" "tsgTemplateType") and you can set using envSetVal("schematic" "tsgTemplateType" 'string "analog") for example).

In fact the "analog" or "artist" (which are the same) actually use cdsName/cdsTerm/cdsParam labels which are better for ADE users as they provide placeholders for displaying names, net/terminal/voltage/current info and design parameters/operating point parameters etc. So maybe you want to use that instead?

If you really want the "digital" style symbols but with [@cellName] instead of [@partName] then I suggest you copy the default.tsg from <ICinstDir>/tools/dfII/samples/symbolGet/default.tsg to some other location, and edit it to replace the section:

            defLabel(
                name("[@partName]")
                location("(xleft + xright)/2:(ytop + ybottom)/2")
                labelType(NLPLabel)
                orientation(R0)
                justification(centerCenter)
                layer(device)
                purpose(label)
                fontHeight(0.062500)
                fontStyle(stick)
                apply(cellview)
            )

with this:

            defLabel(
                name("[@cellName]")
                location("(xleft + xright)/2:(ytop + ybottom)/2")
                labelType(NLPLabel)
                orientation(R0)
                justification(centerCenter)
                layer(device)
                purpose(label)
                fontHeight(0.062500)
                fontStyle(stick)
                apply(cellview)
            )

You'd then need to define or update tsgTemplateMasters to reference this file (either changing the path for the default, or adding a new entry which you could select via the cdsenv variable).

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

What's the difference between partname and cellname. I understand cellname is just the name of the cell. What's the part name? (It's also displaying cell name even if I don't change it)

Thanks

Venkman

Hi Venkman,

cellName is an attribute of the database, which is always going to be the actual cell name of the component. partName is a user-defined property typically stored on the instance when created (e.g. by the symbol generation template) and also updated via the copy updater when the cellView is copied. However, it's perfectly possible for the partName property on the symbol to not match the cellName (which you can see with Edit->Properies->CellView when editing the symbol - although symbols generated with the "analog" or "artist" tsg template file don't have it) - you can edit it to be something different.

So partName is a bit of a legacy thing - a lot of this came from the older PCB tool infrastructure.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew. Which cdsenv variable?

Thanks

Andrew Beckett said:

(so you can find the setting using the SKILL function envGetVal("schematic" "tsgTemplateType") and you can set using envSetVal("schematic" "tsgTemplateType" 'string "analog") for example).

(from the post above)