Extraction System: Logging and Error Reporting

If, while running the grouping, extraction, or association operations, the operation cannot complete due to an error, or if an important error is identified such as problems in the technology file setup, a file browser window containing the extraction.errs file will appear. This file is created in the log files area, and will contain messages indicating serious or fatal errors encountered during processing. When such an error occurs, the file will be made visible automatically, so there is usually no reason to explicitly view this file in the absence of any error indication.

Note that lack of successful association is not considered an error. It is up to the user to make sure that the electrical and physical designs are consistent, and that terminals get placed correctly.

Logging of these operations can be enabled from the Logging Options panel from the Logging button in the Help Menu. The Grouping/Extraction/Association group in the lower half of the panel contains four check boxes: Group, Extract, Assoc, and Verbose. Checking any or all of the first three will enable logging of the checked operation, producing log files named group.log, extract.log, and associate.log in the log files area. If the Verbose box is checked, the files will contain additional information. These (and all) log files are accessible through the Log Files button in the Help Menu.

The log files may be helpful to the user or to Whiteley Research in resolving problems. The formats are not documented, but are intended to be reasonably suggestive if not self-explanatory to an advanced user.