There are many different tools available in Electric for doing both synthesis and analysis of circuitry. Synthesis tools include routers, compactors, circuit generators, and so on. Analysis tools include design-rule checkers, network comparison, and many simulators. To see a list of tools, including which ones are active, use the List Tools command (in menu Tool). This chapter covers many of the tools available in Electric.

When a tool is running, it may take a long time. You can see it under the "JOBS" entry of the cell explorer (see Section 4-8).

After a tool has run, it may reports errors in the ERRORS section of the cell explorer. To browse these errors, use the Show Next Error and Show Previous Error commands (in menu Edit / Selection) or type the ">" an "<" keys.

A number of common tool controls are available from the "General" preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "General" section, "General" tab), especially in the "I/O" and "Jobs" section.

Most netlisters insert date and version information in the comments at the head of the generated file. You can request that this information be omitted by unchecking "Include date and version in output files".

Most of the commands to generate an input deck for a simulator (a netlist) prompt the user for the desired file. If "Show file-selection dialog before writing netlists" is unchecked, however, the file is written (or overwritten) without prompt. This is useful in repetitive iterations of design/simulate, and saves the cumbersome file-selection dialog. However, it can be dangerous because it overwrites files without asking.

For more information about "Working directory", see Section 3-9-1.

In the "Jobs" section, "Beep after long jobs" requests that any job which runs longer than a minute make a beep sound when done. The "Verbose mode" requests that all changes made by a job be described in the messages window.

You can set the maximum number of errors that will be reported at once. By default, there is no limit to the number of errors.

For more information about "Maximum undo history", see Section 6-7.

For more information about the "Display" section, see Section 1-7 ("Show hierarchical cursor coordinates in status bar"), Section 4-8 ("Side Bar defaults to the right side"), Section 3-5 ("Always prompt for index when descending into array nodes"), Section 4-4-2 ("Panning distance"), and Section 4-3 ("Simplification").

For more information about the "Memory" section, see Section 1-3.