Workspace Search Order

When you create a custom workspace, whether for your own use or for your site, the built-in Cadence search mechanism determines which configuration appears in a particular situation. CAD staff, project managers, and end-users can define what they consider to be appropriate configurations for a given task or application. Your locally defined workspaces take precedence over any others. The default search order is as follows:

1. Your locally defined workspaces
2. Workspaces defined for your site
3. Cadence workspaces

You can change the search order by editing the setup.loc file. You can find a sample setup.loc file in your_install_dir/share/cdssetup. The setup.loc setup file controls the search order the program uses to determine what workspace should appear. The program looks for workspace files that are stored as follows using the search order specified in setup.loc:

.cadence/dfII/workspaces/appNameDir/workspaceName.workspace

where appNameDir might be any of the following:

Layout
Schematics
Schematics_XL
Symbol
Symbol_XL
VLS-EXL
VLS-EXL_Schematics
Virtuoso_XL
Virtuoso_XL_Schematics
adegxl-schematic
adexl-schematic

For more information about the setup.loc file, see Cadence Setup Search File: setup.loc.

The program uses the first matching workspace definition it finds. Virtuoso Studio Design Environment applications use the following algorithm to determine the set of available workspaces for each application:

• For each registered tool $t in each registered application (such as adexl-schematic)
  • For each search path component $c in the setup.loc file
    • For each matching file $f in $c/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/$t/*.workspace
      Cache the definition of workspace $f for tool $t

The program lists cached workspaces in the drop-down combo box on the Workspaces toolbar and on the Window – Workspaces submenu.

Consider a setup file stored as your_install_dir/share/local/cdssetup/setup.loc and containing the following :

.
$HOME
your_install_dir/share/local/cdssetup
$ (compute:THIS_TOOL_INST_ROOT)/share

For example, consider the following set of available myXLconstraints workspace files:

/home/user/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/myXLconstraints.workspace
/home/user/project/bigchip/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/
myXLconstraints.workspace

If you start Virtuoso Layout Suite XL from /home/user/project/bigchip, the program finds myVXLconstraints.workspace in the following location first:

/home/user/project/bigchip/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/

If you start Virtuoso Layout Suite XL from any other location, the program finds myVXLconstraints.workspace in the following location:

/home/user/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/

Additional notes about workspaces in the context of layout and schematics:

• If you open a schematic from Virtuoso Layout Suite XL, the program searches .cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL_Schematics for workspace files.
• If you open a schematic from Virtuoso Layout Suite EXL, the program searches .cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_GXL_Schematics for workspace files.
• If you open a schematic from anywhere else, the program searches .cadence/dfII/workspaces/Schematics or .cadence/dfII/workspaces/VSE-XL for workspace files, depending on which program you launch.

Consider the following set of basicXL workspace files:

/home/user/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/basicXL.workspace
/home/user/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL_Schematics/basicXL.workspace
your_install_dir/share/local/cdssetup/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/
basicXL.workspace
$(compute:THIS_TOOL_INST_ROOT)/share/cdssetup/dfII/workspaces/
Virtuoso_XL_Schematics/basicXL.workspace

If you start Virtuoso Layout Suite XL from /home/user/project/bigchip, the program finds basicXL.workspace in the following location first:

/home/user/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL/

If you open a schematic at this point, the program finds basicXL.workspace in the following location:

/home/user/.cadence/dfII/workspaces/Virtuoso_XL_Schematics/

Related Topics

Starting Virtuoso Studio