Viewing Designs

The View menu commands enable you to change the current view of the drawing area to aid you in working with the image in the window. Additionally, there are a number of commands on the Options menu that display various aspects of design information.

• Zooming In and Out
• Panning and Zooming
• Repositioning a Design to Fit the Window
• Moving the Center Point of a Window
• Redrawing the View in a Window
• Saving and Restoring Views
• Viewing Design Information
• Checking Connectivity Information in Schematic

Zooming In and Out

The Zoom commands enable you to enlarge or shrink the area being viewed. Zoom Window enables you to specify your own view window for zooming, if the other zoom commands do not meet your needs.

To zoom in on a specified point in the window:

1. Choose Zoom In Point.
2. Click to specify a point and the current view is magnified by a factor of two, moving the point you specify to the center of the window.

To zoom out from a specified point in the window:

1. Choose Zoom Out Point.
2. Click to specify a point and the current view is decreased by a factor of two, moving the point you specify to the center of the window.

To specify a particular factor by which to zoom:
Choose Zoom By Factor and choose the appropriate command.

• Zoom In x2 (zooms in by a factor of 2)
• Zoom Out x2 (zooms out by a factor of 2)
• Zoom in x5 (zooms in by a factor of 5)
• Zoom Out x5 (zooms out by a factor of 5)
• Zoom In by ... (and specify the desired factor)
• Zoom Out by ... (and specify the desired factor)

To specify a particular portion of the view for zooming:

1. Choose Zoom Area. You are prompted to enter the first corner.
2. Move the cursor to the point representing the upper-left corner of the desired view window and click left. You are prompted to enter the second corner. As you move the mouse, a flexible box, representing the view window, moves with it.
3. Move the cursor to the point representing the lower-right corner of the desired view window and click left. The portion of your drawing enclosed by the view window is magnified (The magnification amount is determined by the size of the view window you specified.)

To zoom to a selected object(s):
Select the object(s) and choose View > Zoom > Zoom To Selected.

See also, Panning and Zooming.

Panning and Zooming

The pan and zoom features in ADS enable you to display an area of interest from a different perspective or resolution. Using the keyboard arrows to pan, or the mouse features to pan and/or zoom, you can quickly change your perspective while working with your design.

To pan vertically or horizontally:

• Click in the window and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to pan a design left, right, up or down.

To pan vertically, horizontally, or diagonally:

• Right-click a point on your design, holding the right mouse button down, and drag the mouse to pan the point in any direction.
• Left-click, holding the left mouse button down, and drag the mouse to dynamically pan the design to a new location. This may be as you are inserting a shape or during area selection.

To zoom on a particular point in your design, move your cursor above a point in your design and:

• Roll the mouse-scroll wheel forward (away from you) to zoom in on that point.
• Roll the mouse-scroll wheel in reverse (toward you) to zoom out from that point.

Your design will automatically re-center itself and zoom in/out at the location of your cursor.

See also, Zooming In and Out.

Repositioning a Design to Fit the Window

To rescale and reposition your design so that it all fits in the window:
Choose View All. Your design is scaled as needed and repositioned to fit it all, plus a five-percent border, in the viewing area.

Moving the Center Point of a Window

The Pan command moves a point you specify, to the center of your window. Alternatively, you can use the scroll bars to move a different part of the window to the center.

To change the center point:

1. Choose Pan View from the View menu or the pop-up menu. You are prompted to enter the new window center.
2. Click once and the selected point becomes the new center point of the window. Your design is redrawn accordingly.

Redrawing the View in a Window

The Redraw View command refreshes the image in your window without changing anything.
Choose Redraw View from the View menu anytime you make changes and see that an image is not completely drawn.

Saving and Restoring Views

It is possible to save multiple views of your design at various zoom settings.

• Save View enables you to save the current zoomed or panned view with a name.
• Restore View enables you to retrieve a saved view.
• Delete View enables you to delete a saved view.
• Restore Last View enables you to restore the view that was in the window the last time you issued a Pan or Zoom command.

To save the current view:

1. Choose View > Save View. A dialog box appears.
2. Supply a name for the view and click OK.

To restore a view that has been saved:

1. Choose View > Restore View. A dialog box appears.
2. Supply the name of the view you want and click OK.

To delete a view that has been saved:

1. Choose View > Delete View. A dialog box appears.
2. Supply the name of the view you want and click OK.

To restore the view that was in the window the last time you issued a Pan or Zoom command:
Choose View > Restore Last View.

Viewing Design Information

You can display a variety of design information using commands found on the Tools menu:

• Hierarchy displays a listing of the hierarchical information of the current design in the Schematic and Layout windows.
• Info displays a detailed listing of design information including current units, preference and layer file associated with design, instances by name and ID, mask layer information, and a summary.
• Identify lists detailed data for selected instances, shapes, or text.
• Check Representation provides information on unconnected pins, port verses pin mismatch, and nodal mismatch.

Viewing Detailed Design Information

The details on closed shapes include area, perimeter, and layer; for text, it includes the string and font attributes; for polylines it includes length. For components, the Name, ID, X, Y location, fixed/free status and equivalent element are displayed. A short summary is included that shows the number of items and shapes, the layers used, and the total selected area, length and perimeter.

To display detailed information for selected items:

1. Choose Tools > Info and the Information dialog box appears.
2. To view details on items not selected initially, select and click Refresh. The information is updated to display details of the newly selected item(s).
3. Optionally, click Print to send the information to your default printer.
4. Click OK to dismiss the Information dialog box.

Viewing Detailed Instance Information

To display detailed information for selected instances:

1. Choose Tools > Identify and a dialog box appears.
2. To print the information, click Print and it is sent to the default printer.
3. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.

Viewing Hierarchical Design Information

There are two different ways to view hierarchical design information:

• At the design level, for the current project (View > Design Hierarchies, in the Main window)
• At the component level, for the current design (Tools > Hierarchy, in the Schematic and Layout windows)

To view design hierarchies for the current project:

1. In the Main window, choose View > Design Hierarchies.
   
   If the project contains more top-level designs than can be displayed at one time, the arrows on either side of the tabs enable you to cycle through the remaining top-level designs to select the one you want.
2. Double-click any design to open it.

To view the component hierarchy information for the current design:

1. Choose Tools > Hierarchy and the Hierarchy dialog box appears.
   Hierarchical levels are indicated by the level of indentation in the list. Top level items are not indented; each nested level is indented with two spaces.
2. Click Print to send the information to your default printer.
3. Click OK to dismiss the Hierarchy dialog box.

Checking Connectivity Information in Schematic

In the Schematic view, the Check Representation command provides access to information about any of the following characteristics of your design:

• Open Connections - Displays the total number of unconnected pins and wires. For each item with an unconnected pin, it lists the component name and ID, the pin number and the coordinates of the unconnected pin. For each wire with an open end, it displays the coordinates of the wire segment. The affected items are highlighted in the design window.
• Bus connectivity - Reports failed connections listing the bus or bundle, its width, and the Instance Name of the component to which you have attempted to connect the bus or bundle.
• Nodal mismatches (schematic vs layout) - Reports items that are connected differently in one representation than they are in the other. The report lists the name of the item, the pin that is connected differently and what the pin is connected to. The affected items are highlighted in the design window.
• Port/Pin mismatch - 1. Checks every instance in the design (against the source design it represents) and reports any discrepancy between the number of pins on the symbol in the current design and the number of ports on the schematic in the source design. 2. Compares the number of pins on a given symbol to the number of ports on the schematic the symbol represents and reports any discrepancy.
• Parameter values mismatches (schematic vs layout) - Reports items that have different parameter values in one representation than they have in the other. The report lists the name of the item and the parameters that have different values. The affected items are highlighted in the design window.
• Overlaid components - Reports the IDs of any overlapping items where the items contain the same number of pins and pin 1 of each item is placed in the same location.

To view this information:

1. Choose Tools > Check Representation and a dialog box appears.
2. Select the desired information category (or categories) and click OK. A dialog box appears displaying the requested information.
3. Click Print to print the report, if desired.
4. Click OK to dismiss the report dialog box.
   For information on how to check connectivity from a layout, see Checking Connectivity Information in Layout under the section on Editing a Layout.

Cross-Probing

To see the layout representation of a specific node in your schematic, choose Layout > Show Equivalent Node and click the pin or wire that you would like to see in the layout. When you view the layout, the objects that belong to the node of the wire or pin that you selected in the schematic will be highlighted.