General

Displays the shorted net names and lets you specify how the shapes are displayed and lets you add virtual labels.

Preferences

Lets you specify the display preferences such as the color for shorted nets and for the common and other shapes.

Area

Lets you define an area in which the Short Locator is to operate.

Run

Lets you run the Short Locator command on the net of the clicked shape.

Select Area

Lets you select the area on the canvas. When you specify an area, its coordinates are added to the text box.

Shorted Nets

This section shows the name of the shorted nets and the color used to mark the shapes on each net.For each shorted net, the text field below the net name indicates the number of associated pins (P), labels (L), virtual labels (VL), and instance pinFigs (IP), as displayed in the figure below.

Use instance pins

Lets instance pinFigs be considered as sticky points for the shorted nets, in addition to pins, labels, and virtual labels. When the connectivity of devices is known to be correct, using instance pinFigs as sticky points can help locate shorts faster.

Virtual Labels

• Add: Lets you add a virtual label on one of the shorted nets. Adding virtual labels helps narrow down the common shapes, which eventually helps identify the shape that is causing the short.After each virtual label is added, the Short Locator recomputes the number of common shapes.
• Add New Name: Lets you add a virtual label on a new net name.
• Delete: Lets you delete the virtual label from a specific net.
• Delete All: Lets you delete all the virtual labels.

Display

This section lets you select the mode in which the shapes are displayed in the layout canvas. You can also choose to display a diamond shape in the layout canvas for each pin, label, and virtual label in the layout.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorDisplayMode

Common shapes displays

Common shapes haloed in the color selected for common shapes. Shapes on a shorted net that are touching the common shapes highlighted in the color associated with that net.

If True color is selected, common shapes are displayed in their true color and the other shapes are dimmed, as illustrated in the figure below.

All shortest paths displays

• Common shapes haloed in the color selected for common shapes.
• Shapes on a shorted net highlighted in the color associated with that net.

If True color is selected, shapes on the shortest paths are displayed in their true color and the other shapes are dimmed, as illustrated in the figure below.

Entire net

Common shapes haloed in the color selected for common shapes. Shapes on the shortest paths highlighted in the color selected for the corresponding shorted net. Other shapes on the net highlighted in the color selected for other shapes.

If True color is selected, all shapes on the net are displayed in their true color and shapes not on the net are dimmed, as illustrated in the figure below.

Compute

Calculates the shortest paths and common path. This button is enabled only when Ctrl+C is pressed to stop chasing.

Toggle

Enables you to quickly switch the layout display between the Entire net display mode and one of the other two modes — Common shapes or All shortest paths, which ever was last used.

Zoom to Middle

Zooms to the middle common shape. Zooming to middle can help perform a dichotomy to locate the error causing the short for a design that has a large number of common shapes.

Zoom to Fit

Zooms to fit all the shapes in the selected mode—common shapes, shapes on all the shortest paths, or shapes on the entire net—in the available layout window.

True color

Displays shapes corresponding to the selected display mode in their true color. The True color view makes it easy to see the shapes of interest as all the other shapes are dimmed.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorShowPinsAndLabels

Show pins and labels

Displays a diamond shape above each pin and label.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorShowPinsAndLabels

Show instance pins

Displays a diamond shape for instance pinFigs.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorOtherShapesColor

Connection Setup

Specifies the constraint group that defines the connectivity stack to be used. By default, the constraint group used by the connectivity extractor is used.

Stack layers

Specifies a start layer and an end layer to narrow down to a smaller set of extractable layers to be used for shape chasing. The same layer can be used to define the start and end layer for shape chasing.

Colors

Specifies the highlight colors for the following:

• The two shorted nets

Environment variables: extractShortLocatorNetColor1, extractShortLocatorNetColor2

• Other shapes on the net

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorOtherShapesColor

• Common shapes: For common shapes, the section specifies the color to use for creating the halo around the common shapes causing the shorts.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorCommonShapesColor

Auto zoom to fit

Zooms the layout automatically to fit all the shapes in the selected display mode.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorAutoZoomToFit

Show net for virtual labels

Displays in layout canvas a label with the name of the net associated with the virtual labels.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorShowVirtualLabelNetOnShapes

Font size

Specifies the font size for the net used to display the virtual labels .

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorVirtualLabelNetOnShapesFontHeight

Highlight limit

Specifies the maximum number of shapes that will be highlighted for a large net.

Environment variable: extractShortLocatorHighlightLimit

Save

Opens the Save Short Locator View form that lets you specify the view name to use for saving the Short Locator view.

Load

Opens the Load Short Locator View form that lets you load a previously saved Short Locator view.