During loading and simulation, SPICECAD keeps the names of all opened files in memory. So, if you want to make sure at a certain time that you freeze the status, you can use this function. 'create exportfile' will generate a tar command file which contains all the names of the files which SPICECAD has opened. This command file looks like this:
tar cf tb_nadctop.tar -I /tmp/tarfiles #gtar -c -T /tmp/tarfiles -f tb_nadctop.tar #gtar -cz -T /tmp/tarfiles -f tb_nadctop.tar.gz #gtar -cZ -T /tmp/tarfiles -f tb_nadctop.tar.ZThe file /tmp/tarfiles looks like this:
setup.spi /usr1/kimtr/cad2/help/userdef1.spi /usr1/kimtr/cad2/help/userdef2.spi /usr1/kimtr/cad2/help/hotkeys.spi tb_nadctop.scm nadctop.sym nadctop.scm nadccore.sym nadccore.scm atod_ext.sym atod_ext.scm stgn.oth stgl.oth stgn.sym stgn.scm inv.sym inv.scm nand2.sym nand2.scm biasfull.sym biasfull.scm cmfbf.sym cmfbf.scm /usr1/kimtr/libraries/texas/tlc251h.1_1.oth . . . padr2.scm padr1.sym padr1.scm padr3.sym padr3.scm tar.sh /usr1/kimtr/models/bsim3v3/n.m /usr1/kimtr/models/bsim3v3/p.m /usr1/kimtr/libraries/texas/tlc251h.1_1.m
This way, you can be sure that after executing generate tarfile, you can be sure that you can untar this frozen design and simulate it even after going onto an other host where model files might be missing: the tar file really contains everything you need to carry on working. Sending the tarfile to a third party is also a very convenient: you do not need to worry whether you have forgotten anything. If you really want to make sure that model files are included in the tar file, please netlist the design at least once.
If you even want to add results files (HSPICE *.tr0, *ac0 or SPICE3 rawspice.raw ), please read in these results files explicitly by using get tr results or one of the other 'get ... results' functions. In this case, the results file names will be added to the list of files which shall be tared.
generate tarfile initiates the process that all files are written into a tar file topcellname.tar.