Enhancements

ATE-3436Animate's handling of the import of incremental technology derived layers has been improved.
ATE-3439

Animate now uses the mfactor parameter names provided by Virtuoso's "mfactorNames" variable.

ATE-3319

Added the ability to drag-and-drop multiple rows of instances of different shapes and sizes in the Blueprint Editor.

Layout controls are now preserved when a selection is moved using drag-and-drop in the Blueprint Editor.

Improved how and when layout controls on moved instances merge with those at the move destination in the Blueprint Editor.

ATE-3496 When the Animate_Cache library is created and added to the cds.lib, the display is now set to "Invisible" so that it does not appear in the Virtuoso library manager. 
ATE-3486

Improvements made to how cut minimum spacing is handled.

ATE-3463Import of overlapNotAllowed and viaStackingAllowed constraints now supported.
ATE-3434Animate Preview GUI now loads dark gray mode, if the env var CDS_STYLE_THEME=DARKGRAY is set.
ATE-3506When descending the hierarchy in Virtuoso, Animate Preview no longer spawns a new process. The process is shared across descended tabs and windows. The process remains active until the last window for that session is closed.
Additionally, the hierarchy changes are reflected in the selected hierarchy inside the Animate Customize GUI. Selection at the lower levels is not updated between Virtuoso and Animate Preview.
ATE-3020Support added for Virtuoso errorLayer. Animate will now extracts error layers defined in the OA technology and uses them to drive placement. 
ATE-3500Animate resistor routing has been improved for resistor chains with a mix of device widths.
ATE-3503

The Animate Blueprint Editor (Edit button in the top right of the UI) now has the option to merge guard rings, which removes the reinforcement (shared guard ring spine) between neighboring guard rings of the same type and net.

Selecting either an instance from each guard ring to merge, the guard ring itself, or a mix of the two, the context menu offers the option “Merge Guard Rings”.

The tool can merge more than two rings, so long as all rings are the same type and net, and so long as the rings to merge form a single, continuous region within the layout.

ATE-3537

Animate no longer generates layout at the top level of the hierarchy when a useable saved layout has been loaded.

In order to generate new layouts from scratch, un-check the “Use” state of the loaded layouts in the Results pane. This brings the top level in line with how the lower levels work.

If the loaded layout is a saved Animate layout and the schematic has been modified since it was generated, using the Update Components and Nets feature generates new layouts that reflect the changes to the schematic – these new layouts also count as “loaded” layouts and un-checking their “Use” state (and the layouts they were generated from) kicks off fresh layout generation from scratch.

ATE-3487pul_gr() now supports converting multiple paths of cuts.
ATE-3536

Added copy, paste, and delete functionality for the net constraint editor cells.

Also, added undo and redo functionality, which applies to manual edits, as well as any copy/paste and deletes carried out.

To perform these actions, a user clicks on a cell and uses the associated keybind.

Keybinds:

  • Copy:  Ctrl + c
  • Paste: Ctrl + v
  • Delete: d
  • Undo:  u
  • Redo:  shift + u
ATE-3533Added a Split Guard Ring tool to the Blueprint Editor. It enables the selection of some instances, with the option to place these instances into a new guard ring of the same net and type as the old one, so that the new guard ring shares an edge with the guard ring that it split from.
ATE-3527Added a new Move to Guard Ring tool to the Blueprint Editor. It enables the user to move instances into a neighboring guard ring.
ATE-3512 

Softened the tone of pre-condition messages if Animate can continue but the input data has not met certain conditions. In this case, they are not marked as "fatal," and are shown as "failed" instead, to indicate Animate will continue but will not guarantee post-conditions.

Updated precondition stage definition headers, next to the error/warning symbol, to remove ambiguity.

GUI update for the "Precondition Failures" button that accesses the Precondition Summary Report. This is now yellow and has the text "Precondition Warnings" instead, if there are only warnings and no fatal failures in the report.

ATE-3562

There is now an option in the context menu of the layout wall to show all layouts.

ATE-3118

There is now a column in the net constraints editor for "Pin Width", which is only editable for top-level pins, in order to specify their minimum width.

This is not a guaranteed constraint but is applied, if possible.

 

Resolved Issues

ATE-3391

Fixed a bug which caused Animate to create rotated vias with the incorrect enclosures on implant layers when saving to OA.

ATE-3389

Fixed missing override point for incremental technologies in OA preflow.

ATE-3445Fixed crash when creating a group, using Animate training data.
ATE-3458Added better error handling and reporting for incorrect technology overrides.
ATE-3340An issue with incorrectly grouped metal, has now been resolved.
ATE-3396Fixed several shorts associated with large cells not being fully stamped.
ATE-3492Fixed a bug that could introduce an extra grid spacing between instances in some mirror symmetry cases.
ATE-3429 Fixed an issue, resulting in Animate now obeying a rule to enclose poly vias in implant appropriately.
ATE-3499Via size now increases when wider net width is used.
Animate now extracts rules of the type minNumCuts from the OA technology and increases via size on wide tracks according to the rules.
ATE-3507Fixed a crash which could occur when adding dummies on a particular PDK.
ATE-3508Fixed poor quality floorplan for some mosfets with body contacts turned on.
ATE-3515Fixed a potential crash when moving up/down design hierarchy while in single layout view.
ATE-3541Association of powerdowns with their relevant match constraint on cmosE40 has been fixed.
ATE-3538

An Animate precondition requires all instances to have a valid layout view.
Previously, the requirement was for all layout views within the view directory to be valid - failing if any were empty, which is invalid. This would result in the instance being unplaceable and showing as removed on the schematic.

The precondition will now pass, provided there is at least one valid, non-empty layout.
Only the valid layout(s) will be active in the Results pane and available for use in placement.

ATE-3560

When Animate attempts to calculate the distance between blocks, if one block contains no geometry, infinite estimates are no longer produced.

ATE-3544

When looking for powerdown nets, if the net contains pdiff Animate no longer marks the net as a powerdown to improve constraint recognition.

ATE-3543

Probes that are marked as removed by lxRemoveDevice are correctly shorted if there are multiple probes on single nets. Nets named neg and pos are now added to the list of possible gate nets for diff pairs.

ATE-3149

Animate now allows undo/redo of constraints in the net constraints, in addition to the design constraints.


Other Items

ATE-3442, ATE-3390, ATE-3444, ATE-3441, ATE-3438, ATE-3370, ATE-3341, ATE-3366, ATE-3361, ATE-3443, ATE-3394, ATE-3457, ATE-3454, ATE-3437, ATE-3370, ATE-3283, ATE-3281, ATE-3452, ATE-3304, ATE-3462, ATE-3461, ATE-3446, ATE-3428, ATE-3420, ATE-3419, ATE-3393, ATE-3392, ATE-3501, ATE-3498, ATE-3495, ATE-3494, ATE-3485, ATE-3484, ATE-3483, ATE-3480, ATE-3481, ATE-3479, ATE-3456, ATE-3455, ATE-3453, ATE-3202, ATE-3200, ATE-3144, ATE-2916, ATE-2787, ATE-3488, ATE-3305, ATE-3502, ATE-3478, ATE-3477, ATE-3477, ATE-3476, ATE-3475, ATE-3472, ATE-3448, ATE-3425, ATE-3393, ATE-3392, ATE-3493, ATE-3491, ATE-3490, ATE-3489, ATE-3435, ATE-3433, ATE-3432, ATE-3342, ATE-3332, ATE-3331, ATE-3330, ATE-3329, ATE-3328, ATE-3327, ATE-3301, ATE-3300, ATE-3299, ATE-3298, ATE-3297, ATE-3296, ATE-3295, ATE-3290, ATE-3280, ATE-3279, ATE-3278, ATE-3277, ATE-3276, ATE-3275, ATE-3274, ATE-3273, ATE-3272, ATE-3271, ATE-3270, ATE-3269, ATE-3268, ATE-3254, ATE-3252, ATE-3249, ATE-3248, ATE-3514, ATE-3511, ATE-3468, ATE-3465, ATE-3360, ATE-3308, ATE-3528, ATE-3504, ATE-3472, ATE-3448, ATE-3447, ATE-3065, ATE-3064, ATE-3006, ATE-3524, ATE-3516, ATE-3509, ATE-3542, ATE-3540, ATE-3537, ATE-3532, ATE-3505, ATE-3567, ATE-3553, ATE-3546, ATE-3545, ATE-3524, ATE-3516, ATE-3385, ATE-3354, ATE-3539, ATE-3359.