Rectangle

Creates a rectangular area boundary around the selected virtual hierarchy, a PR boundary for the selected soft block, or a top-level PR boundary.

Enclose by

Specifies the distance between the rectangular boundary and the PR boundary of the instances inside a virtual hierarchy or soft block. If the instances inside the virtual hierarchy do not have a PR boundary, the distance from the instance bounding box is used.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryEnclosure

Instances only

Encloses only instances inside a virtual hierarchy or soft block with a rectangular boundary.

All shapes

Encloses all shapes inside a virtual hierarchy or soft block—such as area boundaries, blockages, and shapes—with a rectangular PR boundary or bounding box.

Maskable shapes, such as rulers, markers, text displays, and labels are not enclosed in a PR boundary or a bounding box.

PR Boundary based

Area estimator adds up the instance PR boundary area, if available, to derive the overall area estimation for the virtual hierarchy or soft block. If the instance PR boundary area is not available, the bounding box of the individual instances is used.

BBox based

Area estimator adds up the bounding box area of the individual instances to derive the overall area estimation for the virtual hierarchy or soft block.

Aspect Ratio (W/H)

Specifies the width to height ratio used to determine the size of the area boundary for a virtual hierarchy or the PR boundary for a soft block.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryAspectRatio

Utilization (%)

Specifies the area utilization percentage to be used when estimating the size of the area boundary for a virtual hierarchy or the size of the PR boundary for a soft block.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryUtilization

Register

Opens the Add Area Estimators form. You can use the form to define a SKILL function that can estimate the area boundary for the selected virtual hierarchy or the PR boundary for the selected soft block.

When registered, the area estimation function is listed on the form by its Nickname, which is the name associated with the function at the time of its registration.

Width

Specifies the width of the area boundary for a virtual hierarchy or the width of the PR boundary for a soft block.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryWidth

Height

Specifies the height of the area boundary for a virtual hierarchy or the height of the PR boundary for a soft block.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryHeight

Constant area

Maintains the boundary of the selected virtual hierarchy or soft block at a specified width, height, or utilization%. This ensures that the area enclosed by the boundary remains constant.

Enclose hierarchically

Adjusts the area boundary of the parent virtual hierarchy when a lower-level virtual hierarchy or soft block has its area boundary adjusted.

• off leaves the parent virtual hierarchy area boundary unadjusted.
• if outside adjusts the area boundary of the parent virtual hierarchy when the area boundary of a virtual hierarchy or a soft block extends outside the parent area boundary.
  Environment variable: adjustBoundaryCheckOutside
• all levels adjusts the area boundary of all parent virtual hierarchies and soft blocks to enclose the selected boundary that is adjusted. If the Utilization option is selected, also adjusts the boundaries of the virtual hierarchies and soft blocks inside the selected area boundary using the specified utilization percentage, and automatically places the contents.
• all levels including top adjusts the area boundary of parent virtual hierarchies and soft blocks at all levels in the hierarchy and the PR boundary at the top level to enclose the selected boundary that is adjusted. If the Utilization option is selected, also adjusts the boundaries of the virtual hierarchies and soft blocks inside the selected area boundary using the specified utilization percentage, and automatically places the contents. The PR boundary area adjustment is performed after all the required area boundary adjustments at lower levels have been made.
  Environment variable: adjustBoundaryIncludeTop

Polygon

Creates a rectilinear area boundary around the selected virtual hierarchy or soft block.

Enclose by

Specifies the distance between the rectilinear boundary and the PR boundary of the instances inside a virtual hierarchy or soft block. If the instances inside the virtual hierarchy do not have a PR boundary, the distance from the instance bounding box is used.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryEnclosure

• Instances only encloses only instances inside a virtual hierarchy or soft block with a rectilinear boundary.
• All shapes encloses all shapes inside a virtual hierarchy or soft block—such as area boundaries, blockages, and shapes—with a rectilinear PR boundary.

For some advanced process node technologies, the Virtuoso placer excludes certain material types such as trim, nwell, nImplant, and recognition layers, when creating the bounding box. To avoid having the materials from ignored during bounding box creation, you can set the calcBBoxIgnoreMaterialTypes environment variable to “”.

Minimum jog length

Specifies the minimum edge length of the polygonal area boundary.

Environment variable: areaBoundaryMinJogLength

PR Boundary based

Area estimator adds up the instance PR boundary area, if available, to derive the overall area estimation for the virtual hierarchy or soft block. If the instance PR boundary area is unavailable, the bounding box of the individual instances is used.

BBox based

Area estimator adds up the bounding box area of the individual instances to derive the overall area estimation for the virtual hierarchy or soft block.

Enclose hierarchically

Automatically adjusts the area boundary of the parent virtual hierarchy when a lower-level virtual hierarchy or soft block has its area boundary adjusted.

• off leaves the parent virtual hierarchy area boundary unadjusted.
• if outside adjusts the area boundary of the parent virtual hierarchy when the area boundary of a virtual hierarchy or a soft block extends outside the parent polygonal area boundary.
  Environment variable: adjustBoundaryCheckOutside
• all levels adjusts the area boundary of all parent virtual hierarchies and soft blocks to enclose the selected boundary that is adjusted. If the Utilization option is selected, also adjusts the boundaries of the virtual hierarchies and soft blocks inside the selected area boundary using the specified utilization percentage, and automatically places the contents.
• all levels including top adjusts the area boundary of parent virtual hierarchies and soft blocks at all levels in the hierarchy and the PR boundary at the top level to enclose the selected boundary that is adjusted. If the Utilization option is selected, also adjusts the boundaries of the virtual hierarchies and soft blocks inside the selected area boundary using the specified utilization percentage, and automatically places the contents. The PR boundary area adjustment is performed after all the required area boundary adjustments at lower levels have been made.
  Environment variable: adjustBoundaryIncludeTop

Points

Specifies the coordinates at which the polygon-shaped boundary is drawn.

The default is nil.

Draw

Enables the drawing pointer on the layout canvas that can be dragged from one point to the other, drawing a side of the polygon-shaped boundary at a time.