AWRout

AWRout is a SKILL & C++ based program that enables the Allegro/APD user to export a 3Di file. It is shipped as a context file, an executable and a menu and is installed in a way that loads the context/menu automatically each time Cadence Allegro or APD starts up.

The AWROut User Interface inside of Allegro

After AWROut has been correctly installed, you will see a menu item across the top of the program window called AWROut. Clicking on this item will display several menu options.

Features

AWRout's most important feature is the ability to extract a limited amount of data from large designs. There are two approaches here:

Geometric Windowing

The user can define a rectangular or polygonal window and only data inside the window will be extracted. However any component and its associated pads that cross the selection window will be extracted in their entirety.

The user can define a net or nets and only conductors, pads and components associated with those nets will be extracted.

In order to support a proper analysis the user can also specify a "distance" and the area of the net will be expanded by the specified distance. This new "footprint" will be used as a template to extract and clip any conductors that lie inside of the footprint.

This behavior was designed to allow a user to collect nets and all nearby influencing metal without extracting the entire ground net.

Tutorials (Flash)

The tutorials below cover the usage and features of AWRout.

Introduction - a short introduction to the AWRout product.

Extracting a Rectangular Region - we will specify a small rectangular window and extract everything inside that window.

Extraction a Polygonal Region - we'll define a polygonal region (useful when the design is not orthogonal) and extract everything crossing that region.

Extracting by Net - we'll specify a set of nets and extract only those nets.

Extracting by Net with Nearby Metal - same as above but we'll specify a net sizing value and extract all of the conductor that "influences" the selected nets.

Scripting AWROut

How to run AWROut from an external script.