User-Assisted PCB Component Placement
Auto-Clustering is one of CircuitSpace's most powerful and time-saving features. In minutes, CircuitSpace can achieve the same results that, by hand, would typically require days of tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone effort.
Manually Clustering Components:
Using conventional circuit board layout tools, components are initially imported from a netlist and quick-placed next to the board sorted by size. (see below)
The old way: Thousands of components are imported and automatically quick-placed.
The layout designer goes through the schematic page-by-page. For each circuit block (which typically span multiple schematic sheets) the designer locates the components in the quick-placed area and gathers them into a local group or 'cluster'. The entire process can take several hours, or days in the case of high-end boards with as many as 10,000 components.
The Old Way: Clusters are hand-formed by gathering individual
components from the quick-placed area.
Auto-Clustering with CircuitSpace:
Using the Auto-Cluster command, CircuitSpace automatically gathers the quick-placed components into clusters. (see below) There are a number of different techniques CircuitSpace can utilize to form these clusters. In the case of a hierarchical schematic, for example, CircuitSpace can base the clusters on the design hierarchy and cluster names are based on the hierarchical block reference in the schematic. Alternatively, in the case of a flat schematic, CircuitSpace can base the clusters on the schematic pages. Here, cluster names are based on the page from which the cluster was formed. When using Cadence Allegro the auto-generated clusters can be based on the "ROOM" property. Cluster names in this case are derived from the ROOM value.
Using CircuitSpace: Components are automatically gathered into
interconnected groups called auto-clusters.
