Creating a Routing Constraint File

The routing constraint file is a text file with the extension .rcf. The file format is line-oriented; each command is on a single line with spaces between the data.

To make it easier for you to create assignments, the Efinity software can dump all routing data into a template file when routing finishes. (See Generate .rcf Template) You copy and paste the nets you want to constrain into your own .rcf.

Important: Do NOT simply copy and paste the entire template file into your .rcf or the software may not be able to perform routing efficiently. Only copy the nets you want to constrain.

The .rcf has these components:

  • routeTraceFile <path>/<filename>.troutingtraces is the file that has the saved net traces you want to use.
    Note: Can only be used by Titanium and Topaz.
    Remember: For Trion, the routing trace file is passed using a command-line option: routing_constraint_file="{project}.route2"
  • restoreNetFromTraceFile <net> is the net you want to constrain
  • Lines beginning with # are comments
# The constrained router flow will use the following trace file to restore constrained nets
routeTraceFile  <path>/<project>/<filename>.troutingtraces

# Here is a list of available nets that can be restored from the trace file
# You can use (#) to comment any net that you would like to exclude
restoreNetFromTraceFile  rst_i
restoreNetFromTraceFile  net_1
restoreNetFromTraceFile  net_2
# restoreNetFromTraceFile  net_3    # this net is ignored