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Other CAD Tools >> Entry Tools >> sub schematic can not be edited
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Message started by jay_lin on Jun 5^th, 2005, 7:59pm

Title: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by jay_lin on Jun 5^th, 2005, 7:59pm

teachers:

I am a beginner in using the Cadence to draw schematic, in the past I can descent into a sub schematic for editting from a symbol, but resently when I descent into a sub schematic, I find that it can not be edited, I don't know what happend, and who can tell me how to correct this.

Thanks a lot

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by Andrew Beckett on Jun 6^th, 2005, 9:17pm

Did you use Design->Hierarchy->Descend Edit or Design->Hierarchy->Descend Read? Perhaps you were using a bindkey which is bound to the Descend Read function? (look at the bindkey indicator next to Descend Read on the Hierarchy menu to see if it is what you're using).

Can you use Design->Make Editable? If not, take a look at the CIW (Command Interpreter Window) for any messages. Perhaps it's because it is genuinely readonly, or perhaps it is because it is locked - someone else (you perhaps?) has it open for edit in another session.

Regards,

Andrew.

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by jay_lin on Jun 6^th, 2005, 9:35pm

Andrew,

Thank you very much! It is OK now, just as you said, each time I needed to select the "make editable" to edit the sub schematic yesterday, but this morning the work-station was reset, and every thing is OK.

And last Friday I can not close my computer normally, maybe some schematics are still openning, so it result in sub schematic not editable.

Regards and have a nice day

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by svensl on Jul 19^th, 2005, 2:52am

It happened to me quite a few times that the symbol or subcircuit was locked. I had to go to the corresponding directory and delete the locked *lck file. Then I could edit the circuit in Cadence again.

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by Andrew Beckett on Jul 19^th, 2005, 11:06am

In general you should not need to delete lock files, and in fact you should be very cautious when doing so.

Provided there is a daemon "clsbd" running on each machine which can run the IC tools - this is normally auto-started the first time you run the software, but it's a good idea to start it at boot time - things should work smoothly.

What happens is that when you try to open a cellView with a lock file, it sees from the lock file which machine it was locked on, and the process id of the process which locked it. It then tries to ask the clsbd on that machine whether that process is still running. If it manages to talk to clsbd and clsbd indicates that the process is no longer running, the lock can be reclaimed. If the process is still running, or it can't communicate with clsbd, then the lock remains.

So, provided that clsbd is running, and your network is responding properly, the only things that should require lock files to be removed are:

a) the machine which formerly had the lock is no longer on the network (for example, it has died and has gone to meet its maker)
b) somebody tarred up something from their network with lock files in and sent it to you (which happens to us in customer support all the time!).

If you are sure that this is the case, then it is safe to remove the locks. It's a good idea to use clsAdminTool to find and inspect the locks first, and then delete them. Note, clsAdminTool doesn't check that it's safe to remove the locks - because you wouldn't be running it if it could determine that!

The danger of removing lock files is that somebody else might be editing the files, and there's a chance of lost data since both editing sessions think they control the file. For example:

1. User A opens and locks the cellView, and starts making
edits.
2. User B finds that the cellView is locked, and so blows away the locks and starts editing.
3. User B saves his changes and closes the cellView (which clears the lock).
4. User A saves his changes (which re-locks the cellView).

As if by magic, everything user B did got lost. I saw this recently at a customer who was blindly deleting lock files without considering the impact, and then complaining about things going missing...

Regards,

Andrew.

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by franck on Jul 22^nd, 2005, 8:59am

how come user B can delete the lock file? He is not the owner!!
????

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by Andrew Beckett on Jul 31^st, 2005, 9:49pm

Because the lock files have global permissions on them (if I remember rightly). Normally you would not delete the locks, as I said, but it would be a right pain if we required a sysadmin to cleanup stray locks for a user that didn't exist (and the machine keeping the lock doesn't exist either).

Most importantly, the stranded lock recovery mechanism needs to be able to delete locks "owned" by other users. Imagine the scenario where user A opened a design in edit mode, and then has a DFII crash which leaves the lock behind. He then goes on vacation for 2 weeks. User B opens the same design, and the locking mechanism will check (via the clsbd process) whether the process owning the lock still exists; if it doesn't, the lock will be removed and user B will re-lock it. If only user A could delete the lock file, then the stranded lock recovery could not proceed, and lots more manual intervention would be necessary (which users hate ; this used to be necessary with previous locking systems we had).

Regards,

Andrew.

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by franck on Aug 3^rd, 2005, 6:48am

Hi,

You're scenario happened to me many times and there is no way to edit a cell which has a lock file except by asking a sysadmin to help you. Which seems to me the way it has to be.
Also in any other cases I remembered you can't edit a cell which has a lock file even a cell which is lock by you on another machine.
So maybe we don't talk about the same thing. But I really want to clear this point because in all the companies I worked for it doesn't work as you said. So is it a config point or icfb works like that?

Regards,

Franck

Title: Re: sub schematic can not be edited
Post by Andrew Beckett on Aug 4^th, 2005, 2:49am

Are you using IC446 or earlier? You may be using the old locking system in conjunction with the new locking system. The old (cdsd) based locking system was using a lock daemon, and old versions were pretty poor at releasing stranded locks.

I'm surprised you need sysadmin involvement for recent versions though.

Andrew.