The OpenAccess Libs button will appear in the File Menu only if the OpenAccess plug-in has been loaded, in which case there is a connection to an OpenAccess database on the current computer. Pressing the OpenAccess Libs button brings up the OpenAccess Libraries panel. The release number of the OpenAccess database software in use is shown in the panel above the listing of available libraries. The listing displays the names of libraries specified in the OpenAccess lib.defs or cds.lib file.
Similar to the Libraries List panel, the first column in the listing contains an icon which indicates whether the library is open or closed. The comments in that description apply to OpenAccess (OA) cells opened in this manner as well. However, it is possible to list the content of OA libraries whether or not they are open. Regular libraries must be open for the contents to be listed.
Open libraries are searched to resolve cells when a layout file is being read into Xic. Closed libraries are ignored in this case. However, direct references to an OA library from an OA cell are always ``open''. The open and closed status is toggled by the Open/Close button in the panel, which acts on the entry which has been selected by clicking on it.
The Open/Close button toggles the open state of the selected OA library. The Open/Close button is active when a library is selected in the OpenAccess Libraries panel. Without a selection, the button is grayed. Clicking the open/closed folder icon in the selected row will have the same effect as pressing the button. Closing a library merely removes it from the search list, and any cells in memory from the library remain.
The second column in the listing indicates whether or not the library is writable from Xic. By default, libraries created in Xic are writable from Xic, other libraries are not. This prevents, for example, Virtuoso cells from being overwritten from Xic, which could cause loss of data (putting it mildly). The writability of the currently-selected library can be toggled with the Writable Y/N button. Clicking on the Y or N in the selected line will toggle the state, as if the button was pressed. Library writability can also be set with the !oabrand command.
The Contents button is also activated when a library is selected in the OpenAccess Libraries panel. Pressing Contents will pop up a listing of the cells in the selected OA library. The contents items can be selected by clicking on the names. When a selection is active, the Open and Place buttons become active. The Open button will load the selected cell into the main window. The Place button will pop up the Cell Placement Control panel, loaded with the selected cell, with which the cell can be instantiated.
One can specify whether to read and write physical or electrical data from OpenAccess, or both, with the Data to use from OA radio button group. These buttons track the OaUseOnly variable. If this variable is set to ``1'' or any word starting with ``p'' or ``P'', only physical data will be converted. If set to ``2'' or any word starting with ``e'' or ``E'', only electrical data (schematic and symbol) will be converted. If set to anything else or not set, both physical and electrical data will be converted.
The restriction applies to conversion to and from OpenAccess, by any method in Xic.
When a cell is read into Xic from OA, the OA ``layout'' view is read as the physical cell data, the ``schematic'' view is read as the schematic data, and the ``symbol'' view is read as the symbolic representation. These need not all exist. The same view names apply when writing data to OpenAccess.
These view names are the defaults, as used by Cadence Virtuoso. However, any of the OaDefLayoutView, OaDefSchematicView, and OaDefSymbolView variables can be defined to provide alternate default view names.
When reading electrical info into Xic, a simulator-specific view is used for obtaining CDF (component data, from Virtuoso) parameters and properties. By default, this view is named ``HspiceD'', but another view can be chosen by setting the variable OaDefDevPropView. The default choice provides compatibility with Hspice, and therefor WRspice in fair measure. If is not an error if no HspiceD views are found.
These four variables have corresponding entry areas in the OpenAccess Defaults panel brought up with the Defaults button. The text of the variables and entry areas track one another.
The contents listing is a drag source for drag/drop. Names from the list can be dropped into a drawing window, with an effect similar to using the Open button.
When OpenAccess if available, the Open command and similar, when prompting for the name of a file or cell to load, will recognize an OpenAccess library name followed by a cell name (two space-separated words).
When Xic is in CHD display mode, i.e., the Display button in the Cell Hierarchy Digests panel is active, the Open and Place buttons in the contents window are not available. The Place button is not available in the Xiv feature set.
The Create button allows a new library to be created. When pressed, a pop-up appears, requesting a name for the library, which can be any name allowed by OpenAccess. Pressing the Create button in the pop-up will create the library, and its name will appear in the listing. The new library has write permission from Xic. It will attach the default technology if set, otherwise there is no technology associated with the new library, the user will probably need to use the Tech button to either create a local tech database in the library, or link to the tech database in another library. New libraries can also be created with the !oanewlib command.
The Tech button, which is un-grayed when a library is selected, brings up the OpenAccess Tech panel described in 8.14. This panel allows control of the technology database associated with the library. The !oatech command can also be used to set the technology database.
The Defaults button displays the OpenAccess Defaults panel described in 8.15, from which some parameters used by the OpenAccess interface can be defined.
The Destroy button is un-grayed when a library is selected. When pressed, and after confirmation, the selected library and all of its content will be destroyed. Presently, the library is removed from the lib.defs file, but not otherwise touched. To reclaim the disk space used by the library, the user can manually delete the corresponding directory. The !oadelete command can also be used to delete libraries, and to delete cells in libraries.