Stop View

Specifies the required physical view names to be used to determine the corresponding physical views. When traversing a hierarchy, the tool instantiates blocks using one of the specified stop views. If no matching stop view names are found, a new view is created with the specified Create View field name.

You can narrow down on the lookup to cellviews in a specific library by setting the autoGenHierStopViewsForLib environment variable.

Switch View

Specifies the names to be used to create a physical view for blocks if the stop views are absent in the hierarchy.

Create View

Specifies the name to be used for the new layout view created when no matching stop views are found.

Environment variable: autoGenHierCreateView

physconfig View

Specifies the name of the physical configuration view that provides information about the schematic-layout pairs.

Environment variable: autoGenHierPhysConfig

Boundary Attributes

This section provides options to define the boundary.

Use Area Estimator

Calculates the boundary based on the following area estimator functions:

• PR Boundary Based: Sums up the polygonal area of the individual instances to derive the overall area estimation.
• BBox Based: Sums up the minimum bounding box area of the individual instances to derive the overall area estimation.

Add

Lets you register custom area estimation functions and use them.

Aspect Ratio

Specifies the width-to-length ratio of the boundary. The default value is 1, which specifies a square boundary. An aspect ratio of 0.5 specifies a boundary twice as high as it is wide. A value of 2 specifies a boundary twice as wide as it is high.

Area Utilization

Specifies the percentage of area within the boundary that must be filled. The default is 25%.

Environment variable: autoGenHierDefaultArea

Pin Attributes

This section provides common settings for soft-block pins.

Layer Purpose Pair

Specifies the LPP on which the pins must be generated.

Height

Specifies the pin height.

Width

Specifies the pin width.

Create Labels

Specifies whether labels are to be generated along with the soft block pins. Label texts are derived from their terminal names.

Hierarchy Controls

(Virtuoso Layout Suite EXL) This section defines settings for hierarchical instances.

Generate Hierarchy to Level

Defines the level up to which the hierarchy must be generated. The default (maximum) value is 31.

Environment variable: autoGenHierDepth

Last Level Generation

Specifies the state in which the last level of hierarchy is to be generated. The available options are:

• Black Box: Generates the last hierarchical level as a black box containing only the PR boundary and pins.
• Flatten: Generates the PR boundary and pins in the last level. If any additional stop views are found inside the hierarchy, those levels are flattened and displayed.

Show Unplaced Instances on Descend

Specifies whether unplaced instances are to be displayed when you descend into the hierarchy. The available options are:

• Yes: (default) Shows all unplaced instances.
• No: Hides all unplaced instances.
• Select: Displays a popup message each time you descend into a hierarchy, which lets you specify whether unplaced instances are to be displayed or hidden.

Environment variable: showUnplacedInstances

Place Instances and Pins

(Virtuoso Layout Suite EXL and higher tiers) This section provides the pin placement settings.

Place Instances like Schematic

Places the generated soft block instances inside the PR boundary as in the corresponding schematic view.

Run Pin Optimization

Runs the Pin Optimizer hierarchically on the generated blocks. You can select one of the following modes:

• Top Down: Runs the Pin Optimizer on the level-0 and level-1 soft blocks to get the best possible net length. Any existing pins, for example those of any level-1 hard blocks, are recognized and the soft block pins are aligned to these pins. The pin positions of the level-1 soft blocks, determined in the previous step, are used to derive the pin positions inside them. This process continues until the leaf level is reached.
• Bottom Up: Follows the same behavior as described in Top Down, but runs in the opposite direction. Pin Optimizer is first run on pins of the leaf-level layouts that have been realized. The soft block pin positions are then derived.

Environment variables: autoGenHierRunPinOpt, autoGenHierPinOptMode