Locating Short with Large Number of Common Shapes

If the number of common shapes is large, evaluating the common shapes one by one may not be feasible. Instead, using the dichotomy approach can be more efficient. In such a design, virtual labels can be repeatedly set to the middle common shape, until the number of common shapes reduces down to the level when it is feasible to manually locate the error causing the short.

When the number of common shapes is large (hundred-thousand shapes), evaluating the shapes one by one is impractical. Therefore, we can begin the short location with adding a virtual label on the canvas at the middle of the common shapes. To do this:

1. In the Short Locator form, click the Zoom to Middle button to zoom to the shape at the middle of the common shapes.
2. Next, find the closest connected device, and add a virtual label to the shape, as appropriate.
3. To add a virtual label, click the Add button associated with the appropriate net. Then, click the shape in the canvas to which the virtual label needs to be added.
   If the same virtual label can be applied to multiple overlapping shapes, Choose Figure to Create Virtual Label dialog box pops up. Use the dialog box to choose the shape to which the virtual label needs to be added.
   The number of common shapes is reduced due to the addition of the virtual label. For designs that have a large number of common shapes, the addition of a virtual label can reduce the number of common shapes by half.
4. To further reduce the number of common shapes causing shorts, repeat step 1 and step 3 until you arrive at a small number of common shapes that can be manually tracked to identify the error causing the short. The shape can then be stretched, moved, or deleted, to remove the short, as appropriate.

Related Topics

Locating Shorts Using Short Locator

Locating the Shapes Causing the Short