In this section, we will learn how to Encrypting Designs using RFIP Encoder in ADS . In ADS, learning how to use archive is very important. It is an important step to protect and share design data, which can ensure the integrity of data and facilitate backup, recovery and transmission.

First, we create three folders locally , namely “Cell_Archive”, “View_Archive” and “Workspace_Archive”.

The Cell_Archive folder is used to store archived data of a single cell, the View_Archive folder is used to store archived data of a view, and the Workspace_Archive folder is used to store archived data of the entire workspace. The inclusion relationship is Workspace>Cell> View. Each level of the design can be archived separately, and a specific zip file can be created.

On the main page of ADS, we select “File – Archive Workspace”:

In this window, we can see all the contents contained in the Workspace, and we can select the contents that need to be archived. In the “Select Referenced Items” section, we can choose to add referenced libraries and files. If the design references other libraries and files, you can select “Referenced libraries and files” to ensure that the archived files are complete; if the design references specific cells, substrates and other files, you can select “Referenced cells, substrates and files”.

Click “Next”.

Then select the path we created (Workspace_Archive). If we performed an EM simulation, we need to check “Include EM data files for visualization”. Checking this option can include electromagnetic (EM) data files for visualization. These data files may be very large. It is recommended to archive these files only when needed. S-parameter data files are not affected by whether electromagnetic data files are selected, which means that whether we choose to include EM data files or not, S-parameter data files will be archived normally. If we want to speed up the archiving process, we can check “Less compression “, which will make the archiving process faster, but the archived file will be larger.

Click “Finish” to execute the archive operation. We can find the stored files locally.

But sometimes, we don’t need to archive the entire workspace, we only need to archive a specific Cell. For example, if we want to archive Design1, we right-click on the Cell and select “Archive Cell”:

In this window, we can see an interface similar to that when archiving the workspace. Similarly, we should also archive lib files, etc. to avoid errors when the recipient opens the file.

Click “Next”, then select the storage path (Cell_Archive), and since we are not performing EM simulation, we uncheck “Include EM data files for visualization”. Click “Finish”.

We can see our archived files in the local directory:

Similarly, if we want to save a single view, such as schematic or symbol, we can right-click on the corresponding view and select “Archive View”.

We can see that the generated archive names are all the same, so we need to put them in different folders to prevent overwriting between files.

When we receive an archive file from someone else, we can choose “File – Unarchive”:

Since the operation methods of archive files are the same, we take View archive files as an example.

Selecting “Copy items from the archive file libraries into currently opened libraries” will copy the library entries in the archive file into the currently opened library. If there are already libraries with the same name in the current workspace, this option will retain the existing libraries and merge the contents of the archive file into these libraries. Selecting “Continue with a normal unarchive” will perform a normal unarchive operation, which may overwrite libraries with the same name in the current workspace. This operation will extract the libraries in the archive file and use them as new libraries or replace existing libraries with the same name. Here we choose the latter.

At this point, when we select the “Destination path” as the directory of the current workspace by default, we will see a warning message in the next step:

This means that there will be competition due to the same name, so we need to change the “Destination path” to “View_Archive”.

Then continue to unzip.

We can see the schematic view we unzipped in the new workspace.

Original Post