PR Boundary

Lets you specify how the area boundary of a virtual hierarchy is estimated.

Hierarchy

Lets you specify if virtual hierarchies are updated based on the schematic and if soft blocks are generated for missing schematics.

Area Estimation

This section lets you specify how the area of a virtual hierarchy or a soft block is estimated for update.

Area Estimate CSV File

Specifies the path to a CSV file containing soft block sizes to use for estimating the area of the soft blocks to be updated.

Environment variable: areaEstimationCSVFile

Virtual Hierarchy Area Boundary

Specifies the options for generating the area boundary of a virtual hierarchy.

Enclose by

Specifies the distance from the objects inside the virtual hierarchy at which the area boundary is created.

Utilization (%)

Specifies the acceptable area utilization percentage for deriving the size of the area boundary for the virtual hierarchy. The utilization percentage also takes into account the size of each sub-virtual hierarchy to account for the additional space required.

Environment variable: useAreaBoundaryUtilization, which can switch the option to use either the Enclose by option (areaBoundaryEnclosure) or the Utilization (%) option (initUtilization)

Top Level

Specifies that the selected area boundary settings be used for creating virtual hierarchy area boundaries only at the top level.

All Levels

Specifies that the selected area boundary settings be used for creating virtual hierarchy area boundaries at all levels within the virtual hierarchy of the top-level design.

None

Specifies that the virtual hierarchy area boundaries are not created, instead existing virtual hierarchy boundaries are used.

Soft Block

Specifies the option for soft block area generation.

Area

Specifies the area of the soft blocks to be generated.

Design Planning

Specifies if the virtual hierarchy is updated to match the schematic hierarchy and if soft blocks are automatically generated for missing layouts.

Virtual Hierarchy

Generates a virtual hierarchy using the area boundary options selected on the PR Boundary tab of the Update Components and Nets form, or updates an existing virtual hierarchy to match the schematic hierarchy. When updating an existing virtual hierarchy, the area boundary of the virtual hierarchy is not updated.

Environment variable: generateVirtualHierarchy

Auto Generate Soft Blocks

Generates soft blocks for top-level virtual hierarchy blocks that have no schematic available. Because there is no schematic available, soft block generation uses the bound symbol view to generate pins. Soft block boundary is generated using the options defined on the PR Boundary tab of the Update Components And Nets form.

Environment variable: generateSoftBlocks

Update soft blocks when symbol is modified

Updates the soft block in the layout to match the schematic symbol.

Environment variable: updateSoftBlocksFromSymbol

Auto place generated instances inside existing virtual hierarchy

Automatically places instances missing from a virtual hierarchy inside the virtual hierarchy, if the placement status of the virtual hierarchy is set to None. The option retains the placement of the instances already inside the virtual hierarchy. After placement, if the virtual hierarchy contents extend beyond the area boundary and the area boundary is rectangular, the boundary automatically adjusts to enclose the contents. Rectilinear area boundaries that have their contents extending beyond the boundary need to be manually adjusted and placed.

Environment variables: updateBelowBoundary, autoAdjustBoundary

The autoAdjustBoundary environment variable is used to automatically adjust the rectangular area boundary if the updateBelowBoundary environment variable does not automatically place the virtual hierarchy contents within the area boundary.