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Option - dialogs

The behaviour of SPICECAD as well as library and model search paths can be influenced a lot. The three options dialogs (can be started using the 'option 2/3' menu entry in the main menu or by using the hotkeys F7, F8 and CTRL F9) are the interfaces to modify everything which can be modified. Below, you can find the pictures of the option dialogs (see pictures 15.1, 15.2 and 15.3 ).

     


  
Figure 15.1: First options dialog
\fbox{
\includegraphics{options.ps}
}


  
Figure 15.2: Second options dialog
\fbox{
\includegraphics{options1.ps}
}


  
Figure 15.3: Third options dialog
\fbox{
\includegraphics{options2.ps}
}

Every dialog box has two buttons Quit editing setup and save setup.
'Quit editing setup' finished the editing session, keeping all changed values. All edits which were done by editing a string have to be finished pressing 'RETURN' to copy the contents of the edited line into the corresponding internal string variable. 'save setup' saves the currrent setting into the setup file 'setup.spi'.  .

Here is the meaning of the dialog entries:


 
Table 15.1: Meaning of the entries of the 'options' dialog window
entry meaning
'show properties' properties are printed in the schematic yes/no
'which simulator' 'spice3' , 'pspice' , 'hspice', 'titan' ,
'mysim', 'adm' etc.
Choice of a simulator. SPICE3 is built-in. A PSPICE interface is not yet available. Any volunteers out there who want to create one? Contact me!
'plottype' 'hpgl' and 'eps' are available
'netlist scale' determines whether the SCALE entry at resistors, capacitors and inductors will be netlisted or not.
'netlist hierarchically' For LVS (layout-versus-schematic) reasons, it might be useful to generate a hierarchical netlist instead of the default flat netlist. During hierarchical netlisting mode, cross-probing does not yet work properly.

    'model path 1..3'

The model paths can be changed here
'library path 1..5' The library (SPICECAD search) paths can be changed here
'spice3 data file' Here, the filename into which SPICE3 results are written into can be changed. By default, this filename is set to 'rawspice.raw'.


 
Table 15.2: Meaning of the entries of the 'options1' dialog window
entry meaning
'move orthogonal' If selected, devices can be moved in horizontal or vertical direction exclusively. If not set to 'yes', devices can be moved in any direction
'copy orthogonal' If selected, devices can be copied in horizontal or vertical direction exclusively. If not set to 'yes', devices can be copied in any direction
'netlist nrs,nrd,as,ad' If set to 'yes', a set of geometry information will be derived for each MOS transistor and added to the netlist if the properties nrs,nrd,as,ad etc. are NOT set. This geometry information is derived from the MOS transistor gate width, the diffusion width and the contact spacing which is defined in the setup-file 'setup-spi'  
'use digital/analog MOS symbols' Here, the style (look) of the MOS transistors inside the schematic can be chosen.
'show contactnames' If set to 'yes', contact names are displayed.
'default editor' Several functions will come up with an editor window which displays useful information (for example, the 'lookat netlist'    . The editor which will be used then can be defined here.

 


 
Table 15.3: Meaning of the entries of the 'options1' dialog window: continuation

'default printer'

The function 'tmp.eps to lpr' will send the file 'tmp.eps' to the printer using the UNIX command 'lpr -P 'default printer' tmp.eps
'default incfile 1..3, else: '(none)' During netlisting, additional files can be added to the netlist. These files might contain simulation or storage commands which are not supported by SPICECAD.
'script file' The netlist can be filtered by a UNIX script before it is executed. This process is described on page [*], section 'Netlist Filtering'. If filtering is not desired , this entry should be set to '(none)'
'batch file' SPICECAD can be used interactively or in batch mode. Using SPICECAD in batch mode is described on page [*] in chapter 'batch execution'
'netlistpath (absolute)' This entry is obsolete
'simulator host' Remote simulator simulations using HSPICE or TITAN are carried out on machines whose names can be defined here.
'simulator host 1..2' It is planned to allow simultaneous remote simulations in the future. This feature is not yet implemented.
'nice priority' Remote simulations can be assigned a nice piority to reduce the CPU power consumption. The nice priority value must be a positive integer between 1 and 19. 1 reduces the CPU power consumption only to a very small degree, 19 reduces it greatly.
'hspice call string' When HSPICE is used as a simulator engine, the 'run_hspice' script is called by default. If you want to use different HSPICE versions, you can copy and rename, customize and modify the script. The script name you wish to use can be defined here.

 

 


 
Table 15.4: Meaning of the entries of the 'options2' dialog window
'show coordinates ?' Display of coordinates in the upper left corner of the schematic display
'show sim-boxes' analysis boxes are shown in the schematic yes/no.
'show contacts' device-contact-boxes are shown in the schematic yes/no
'show a grid' grid in schematic is shown yes/no
'draw circles around transistors' circles around transistors are shown yes/no
'show initial condition ' the initial condition of a net is shown inside the schematic yes/no
'multiprocessing (mysim only)' should always be set to 'no' . Otherwise, the netlist created will not be SPICE3-conform.
'property edittime' 'edit immediately','edit later'
Properties can be edited directly after placing a new device or later.
'show properties or prop values' If set to 'show property values', the property expressions are evaluated during netlisting, and they are shown correctly after the next redraw. If set to 'show property strings', the expression strings are shown all the time.
'bjt-uce saturation voltage' The function 'bad devices' looks for MOS transistors in triode region and bipolar transistors in saturation. Although saturation is operating point dependent, the search for bipolar transistors in saturation is done simply by checking their collector-emitter voltage. If this voltage is below 'bjt-uce saturation voltage', the bipolar transistor is considered to be in saturation

'printoutfile'

by default set to 'tmp'. Printoutfiles, which contain the EPS plot of the schematic, can be renamed this way. The file postfix, '.eps', can't be changed.
'eps scalefactor' Normally, the EPS plot of a schematic is scaled in a way that it fills an entire A4 page. To reduce the size of a plot, this scaling factor can be used. Any scaling factor of less than 1.0 reduces the size of the schematic plot.

'SPICECAD_HELPDIR'

Here, you can set the path where SPICECAD can find the help files. By default, the environment variable is read and copied into this position.

 

 


next up previous contents
Next: Hierarchical design Up: SPICECAD The Schematic Entry Previous: Plotting schematics
Martin Maschmann
1999-10-10