• Make a new directory to use

  [maryh@node1 ~]$ mkdir project1
  [maryh@node1 ~]$ cd project1
  

• Copy the MOSIS files to this directory, making sure get .cdslib and .cdsenv. These files come from the IBM_PDK home, in /IBM_PDK/cmrf8sf/V1.6.0.3DM/cdslib51/examples

  [maryh@node1 ~/project1]$ cp -R /net/sw/mosis/IBM_PDK/cmrf8sf/V1.6.0.3DM/cdslib51/examples/* .
  [maryh@node1 ~/project1]$ cp -R /net/sw/mosis/IBM_PDK/cmrf8sf/V1.6.0.3DM/cdslib51/examples/.cds* .
  [maryh@node1 ~/project1]$ ll -a
  total 48
  drwxr-xr-x   2 maryh edg  4096 Aug  4  2009 .
  drwxr-xr-x  88 maryh edg  8192 Aug  4 14:55 ..
  -r--r--r--   1 maryh edg  1007 Aug  4  2009 .cdsenv
  -r--r--r--   1 maryh edg 17441 Aug  4  2009 .cdsinit
  -r--r--r--   1 maryh edg   419 Aug  4  2009 cds.lib
  -r--r--r-x   1 maryh edg   419 Aug  4  2009 cds.lib.bck
  [maryh@node1 ~/project1]$ chmod 644 .cds*
  [maryh@node1 ~/project1]$ chmod 644 *
  [maryh@node1 ~/project1]$ ll -a
  total 48
  drwxr-xr-x   2 maryh edg  4096 Aug  4  2009 .
  drwxr-xr-x  88 maryh edg  8192 Aug  4 14:55 ..
  -rw-r--r--   1 maryh edg  1007 Aug  4  2009 .cdsenv
  -rw-r--r--   1 maryh edg 17441 Aug  4  2009 .cdsinit
  -rw-r--r--   1 maryh edg   419 Aug  4  2009 cds.lib
  -rw-r--r--   1 maryh edg   419 Aug  4  2009 cds.lib.bck
  

  Our setup has all these files as read-only so no one accidentally overwrites them. This requires running the chmod 644 command to allow the owner to write to these files.

  Note that the .cds* files can also be located in the user's home directory. However, those in the project directory take presidence over ones in the home directory.

• Start icfb. Note that if everything is working properly, you will have an IBM_PDK menu choice.
  If the menu isn't present, scroll back through the log to find out what went wrong. Even if the menu does appear, still check the log for other errors. The log is your friend.
• Next step is to merge the display file. In the CIW (which is the window that opens after starting icfb), choose Tools -> Display Resource Manager
  
• In the next window, choose Merge
  
• Read the info message that pops up which explains what's happening here.
• In the window that appears, select all the drf files, starting with cmrf8sf. And name the destination DRF, display.drf and hit ok. Then close the Display Resources Tool Box window.
  
• In the CIW window, choose Tools -> Library Manager
  
• Make yourself a new library to use for your design.File -> New -> Library
  
• Give it a name
  
• Choose Attach to an existing techfile
  
• Choose the cmrf8sf library to attach
  
• Make a new cell view with File -> New -> Cell View
  
• Give the cell a name
  
• Start drawing the schematic!
• When quitting, this error might appear. Just save the file as display.drf again.
  

Here is the end of our .cdsinit file. I edited this and saved it in the examples directory so everyone would get the changes. I don't remember exactly how it looked before I edited it, so here's the bit that's important.

ibmPdkPath="/net/sw/mosis/IBM_PDK/"

  cond(
      ( index(getVersion() "5.1")  loadContext(strcat( ibmPdkPath "cmrf8sf/V1.6.0.3DM/cdslib51/Skill/ibmPdkProc
s510.cxt"))
                                      hiRegTimer("ibmPdkInit()" 1))
      ( t warn("ibmPdkProcs file not loaded. \n"))
  );cond



load(strcat( ibmPdkPath "cmrf8sf/V1.6.0.3DM/cdslib51/Skill/ibmPdkBindkeys.il"))

;; Calibre setup

;; Load Calibre Skill Interface if environment var is set
mgc_home=getShellEnvVar("MGC_HOME")

if( mgc_home!=nil && isDir(mgc_home) && isReadable(mgc_home) then
    ; Load calibre.skl for Cadence versions 4.4 and greater
    load(strcat(mgc_home "/shared/pkgs/icv/tools/queryskl/calibre.skl"))
else
    ; MGC_HOME is not set
    printf("Calibre Skill Interface not loaded.\n")
)
;; End of Calibre Skill Interface

AMSPath="/nfs/net/sw/mosis/IBM_PDK/"

  cond(
      ( rexMatchp("4.4.5" getVersion())      warn( "4.4.5 not supported") )
      ( rexMatchp("4.4.6" getVersion())      warn( "4.4.6 is not supported") )
      ( rexMatchp(" 5[.]0" getVersion())     loadContext(strcat( AMSPath "cmrf8sf/V1.4.0.12DM/cdslib/Skill/proc
AMS500.cxt"))
                                             hiRegTimer("trInsertMenu()" 1))
      ( rexMatchp(" 5[.]1" getVersion())     loadContext(strcat( AMSPath "cmrf8sf/V1.4.0.12DM/cdslib/Skill/proc
AMS510.cxt"))
                                             hiRegTimer("trInsertMenu()" 1))
  )

AMSutils()

;;Uncomment the following lines to override AMS utils DIVA switch settings
;;ams->DIVAdrcSwitches = "GridCheck"
;;ams->DIVAextSwitches = "resimulate_extracted"

;;load(strcat( AMSPath "cmrf8sf/V1.4.0.12DM/cdslib/Skill/bindkeyAMS.il"))
load(strcat( AMSPath "cmrf8sf/V1.4.0.12DM/cdslib/Skill/bindkeyCDS.il"))

;; Integrate Calibre menu
load( strcat( getShellEnvVar("CALIBRE_HOME") "/shared/pkgs/icv/tools/queryskl/calibre.skl" ))

We were using the V1.4.0.12DM file mostly and the one sort of big problem was in using bindkeyAMS.il vs. bindkeyCDS.il. The problem was that with the AMS bindkey file, users could select something, but they could not unselect it. It was weird. This strange problem went away after we started using the CDS bindkey file.

The other thing to note is that if you want to use Calibre (later to run DRC), you need to either set MGC_HOME or CALIBRE_HOME. Since our Calibre was not located in our Mentor Graphics tree, we set CALIBRE_HOME. And I edited the .cdsinit file so that it looked for CALIBRE_HOME instead of MGC_HOME.