Hi All, I am new user to the Sky130 open-source and I am trying to get my CAD tool environment setup correctly. I set up my first simulations following some of the tutorials. The problem I have is with the simulation control window Font Size. The Fonts are too small to read. What configuration file do I need to edit in order to increase the size of the Fonts in the "simulation control" window. The attached file is a screen snap shot of my xschem window, the simulation control window, and the waveform viewer window. The simulation control window is the top left window on the screen snap shot image

Hi Larry, the directory you launched xschem from should have a file named xschemrc in it. In there, the terminal should be defined, and you can modify the font and colour scheme etc

I can't seem to find the file. I typed in the command whereis xschemrc and the only thing echo'd back to my terminal is xschemrc

It is recommended that you have an xschemrc file in your workarea to override the default one in the tools install directory. You should copy one in there. A good example can be found at https://github.com/yrrapt/analogue_design_example/blob/main/xschemrc but you’ll have to modify the paths to your own locations

@Larry Harris did you install open_pdks? you should copy the xschemrc file into a directory where you will start xschem:

cp ...share//pdk/sky130A/libs.tech/xschem/xschemrc .

Then you can set the

terminal

variable to use a bigger font. For example:

set terminal {xterm -fn 12x24}

or

set terminal {gnome-terminal}

HI Stefan and Anthony, Thanks for the helpful responses. Yes, I installed the open_pdks and everything appears to be working, except that the "pop-up" command window for the xschem simulation results analysis and plotting has a text font size of about 2 which is too small for me to read. Please excuse my ignorance of Linux, but where in the command set terminal {xterm -fn 12x24} do I specify the font size. My operating system is Ubuntu 20.04

You need to open with an editor the

xschemrc

file, find the word 'terminal' (so you add the line in the right place to find) and add the following line:

set terminal {gnome-terminal}

I assume you are using gnome, otherwise put in another editor that is installed on the system.

Hi Stefan and Anthony, The window that I am having problems with is the ngspice pop-up window when I hit the "simulate" button on the xschem window. Is there a ngspicerc file that I need to edit?

@Larry Harris this works, however the better option is to do the change in the xschemrc file. If you want to use xschem with sky130 you MUST have a

xschemrc

file copied into a directory where you start xschem If you don't know where you installed open_pdks you can try to find the

schemrc

file:

find / -name xschemrc

(this command may take a long time to complete). The one you found in a previous post is not the right one, it is for a windows installation. you must locate a

pdk/

directory and under this directory find the

xschemrc

file:

.../share/pdk/sky130A/libs.tech/xschem/xschemrc

then you create an empty directory and copy the xschemrc into it:

mkdir test_sky130

cd test_sky130

cp .../share/pdk/sky130A/libs.tech/xschem/xschemrc .

then you edit the

xschemrc

file, search for the word '`terminal`' and in this position add either:

set terminal {xterm -fn 12x24}

or

set terminal {gnome-terminal}

Thanks Stefan, I am starting to see the usefulness of the xschemrc file.