WriteDie Installation and Operations Manual

This manual covers the installation and operation of WriteDie Version 1.05 , a utility for exporting the pad and net data of an IC layout design from Cadence's Design Framework II (DFII). At this time WriteDie will export Artwork Conversion Software's AIF v 2.0 format, which can be imported into Cadence's APD, Avanti's Encore and Autodesk's AutoCAD by software available from Artwork Conversion Software.

The next release of Write_Die will include exporting netlist and package/symbol definitions for Encore 4.0 (2000), Cadence APD and PADS PowerBGA.

Installation

You should have downloaded or otherwise obtained the file wdie105b.tar.Z. Choose or create an installation directory. For the purposes of this document we will assume the installation directory is:

 /cad/writedie
Uncompress and extract wdie105b.tar.Z into this directory. 
$ uncompress wdie105b.tar.Z
$ tar xvf wdie105b.tar
You should see about 29-30 files in the directory:

acsunit.eil
aifout.eil
.
.
.
dfe2path.eil
infomsg.eil
wdabout.eil
wdieinit.eil
manual.txt
With the exception of the documents, manual.txt and revision.txt, the files are encrypted Skill and can not be viewed.

Modifying the .cdsinit File

Next, open any .cdsinit file in use. Add these two lines to the file:

ACS_WRITEDIE_DIR = "/cad/writedie"
(load (strcat ACS_WRITEDIE_DIR "/wdieinit.eil"))
The first line should define your installation directory (with no trailing /) and the second line can be copied as is. In order to use WriteDie these two lines must be present in a .cdsinit file which is read when Design Framework II starts. For this reason it is recommended that they be put in the top level .cdsinit file and not just in a user or project .cdsinit file.

The installation is now complete. If Design Framework II is open it must be restarted for the installation to take effect.

Licensing

You should have received a license file string from Artwork that looks something like the following:

!#ACS SFDSfds ASDFDSf ASDFDSf FDSFasd SFDFADF SFADFDF SDFDFDf
Using a text editor such as vi create a file called acs.key and paste this string in as the first line starting in column 1. Save the file. When the WriteDie progam starts it will open this file, read the keystring and verify that the encrypted date and hostid match that of the computer it is runing on. If this file is not present, named incorrectly or the strings are not entered correctly, the WriteDie program will not execute.

Network Licensing
If you have a floating license then the following differences apply:

  1. the acs.key file contains the following string:
    !#ACS NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK

  2. you must have installed the lserv license manager somewhere on your network

  3. you must set the environment variable LSHOST=name_of_license_server

Program Operation

When Design Framework II is now started, WriteDie information should appear in the CIW. Note that the WriteDie menu is available from the layout editor window, not the CIW. Open a layout design. You should see the WriteDie menu. There are two menu items:

    Export AIF - Select this operation to output an AIF v2.0 file. This process requires no user input and will be completed automatically. The file will be output to the user's home directory and will have the current cellview name. Example - if the current cellview is mux2 and user is andrew then the output file will be: /home/andrew/mux2.aif. The AIF is an ASCII format and can be viewed in a text editor.

    About WriteDie - This option displays version and contact information.

Feedback

You are encouraged to send feedback to the programmer, Andrew Wilford. If you encounter a problem with write_die we would like you to email the output AIF file along with a description of the problem.


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