How to Master the Game of Setting Rules: Constraint Manager 

Every game has rules and in order to master a game, you have to follow these rules.

The more rules you have, the better – this doesn’t always mean that you’re restricted or limited by these rules, but rather that you have a more specific frame of reference for which direction to take to achieve precisely what you desire.

Rules are everywhere and are presented in different forms, for PCB designers it comes in the form of constraints.

Setting constraints can be tricky sometimes as you must be aware of your design requirements, determine the desired end result, and then identify the needed steps to achieve it.

The Xpedition Enterprise flow provides a constraint-driven design methodology that reduces design costs and your time-to-market.

Constraint Manager is a spreadsheet-based interface that provides the same editing environment in design tools from schematic capture through PCB layout. Both electrical and physical constraints are in a single database and viewable through the same application.

The Constraint Manager spreadsheet is shown in the image below; as you can see, it includes Menu Bars, Toolbars, a Navigator window, an Output Window, and an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs at the bottom.

You can rearrange the Constraint Manager interface to suit your needs.

Constraint Manager provides many rules that covers both net constraints and board-layer rules.

• Net constraints like delay, topologies, overshoot/ringback, crosstalk, FPGA constraints, constraint classes, auto bus, simulated delay and auto diff pair .
• Board-layer rules like net classes, rule area schemes, trace and via rules, clearance rule sets, class clearances, package clearances, general clearances, parallelism rules, surface mount and embedded resistors.

This is the first of many  upcoming blogs that will go over the various constraint manager rules in greater detail.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use the Xpedition Enterprise® Constraint Manager, you can take our on-demand training course Constraint Management in Xpedition Flow. This course is also offered in instructor led format by our industry expert instructors and can be tailored to address your specific design goals..  Also, you can now earn a digital badge/level 1 certificate by taking our Constraint Management in the Xpedition Flow Exam. If you successfully pass the Level 1 Certification Exams, you can display your digital badge on LinkedIn or your email signature.

For additional questions or assistance on this topic, contact a Siemens representative at xceleratoracademy_eda.disw@siemens.com .

Author: Angela Emil , Customer Training Engineer, Siemens EDA Learning Services