forms pausing SKILL execution

Hi,

I would like to automate entering data into Cadence forms (Virtuoso).
I'm familiar with how to open Virtuoso's forms using SKILL, but I
notice that some forms pause the execution of SKILL code until the
user manually closes the form, e.g. (the form opened by
lxEditPlacementStyle()). I was wondering if there is a way override
this pausing of SKILL execution.

In retrospect, I only open the form to get the form handle.
Alternatively, if I could get the form handle without opening the
form, I wouldn't have to worry about paused execution. Thanks in
advance for any suggestions.

 

Matt,

Forms in DFII are usually blocking. They can be made non-blocking at time of
creation by using the ?noBlock argument to hiCreateAppForm(), but that
doesn't help you if you're using an existing form - you can't change a form
from being blocking to non-blocking.

Unfortunately in this case the form is built dynamically (at least the first
time it is used). I don't think it is populated using cdsenv settings either.

So, one thing you could do is:

hiRegTimer("myFillInTheForm()" 0)
lxEditPlacementStyle()

and define

procedure(myFillInTheForm()
; various field settings, as you want
lxPlacementStyleForm->somefield->value="blah"
hiFormDone(lxPlacementStyleForm)
)

The hiRegTimer() says that 0 tenths of a second after SKILL returns to the
top level event loop, call the SKILL function. Then immediately afterwards,
open the form. When it returns to the top level, your callback can be
called, and it can do the work.

However, this is a bit of a hack. I'd contact customer support and ask for
a cleaner way of automating this (it may well need an enhancement to give you a
non-UI API for setting up the placement style - assuming that there isn't one
already).

Regards,

Andrew.