how to clear Cadence Virtuoso ADE-XL 'simulator did not produce psf file' on Spectre run

By Sai Kiran Pandrala · Last verified: 2026-06-01 · Source: in-controller diagnostic help, controls-community forums (r/PLC, r/Robotics, r/CNC, r/Fanuc, r/KUKA, r/Cognex, r/labview), OEM service bulletins and changelogs, OEM service manuals

When how to clear Cadence Virtuoso ADE-XL 'simulator did not produce psf file' on Spectre run hits you on Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 mid-shift, the first instinct is to cycle power on the controller or hit the master reset. Most of the time you do not have to. The steps below are what a maintenance engineer would do at the cell panel before escalating to the OEM hotline - I keep a fault-history notebook per machine so the working state and parameter set are always reproducible.

What how to clear cadence virtuoso ade-xl 'simulator did not produce psf file' on spectre run actually involves on Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026

On Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 the first three tools that earn their keep are Cadence Tempus tempus.log and report_timing -path full_clock_expanded, Synopsys Verdi for VCS waveform/error trace, Synopsys PrimeTime pt_shell with -multi_scenario report. Each of these surfaces a different layer of the fault - keep at least the first one in your fault-history notebook so the next time this happens you do not start cold.

For verification on Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026, the methods that survive contact with a real second-shift production workload are validate Questa testbench with 'vsim -voptargs=+acc' and confirm no UVM_FATAL and open innovus.log and grep for 'Error' / 'Warn' tags before re-running flow. Anything less than that and you are shipping on vibes.

Authoritative sources for Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 that I cross-reference before committing to a fix: sw.siemens.com, synopsys.com/support, community.cadence.com. OEM marketing brochures and trade-press writeups are signal, not ground truth.

The rest of this page is the structured fix path. Start with diagnose, then remediation, then the automation options so you do not have to do this by hand the next time it surfaces. Verify and safety sections at the end are the discipline that keeps the fix from regressing the next time you open the cabinet.

Diagnose first, fix second

Second pass: open the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 controller diagnostic panel and read the alarm history or fault stack for the failing window. Most modern industrial controllers surface a fault trail (the controller alarm history, the OEM diagnostic interface, the fab MES event log, the cell controller PLC fault table). The alarm history tells you whether the fault was a real condition, a teammate changing a parameter or DI mapping in the same minute, or an OEM-side firmware quirk. Many SRVO or AXIS faults trace to a parameter-level change pushed in the same engineering session in the previous hour - the fault trail makes that obvious without guesswork.

Fourth: open the OEM service bulletin index for Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 and the upstream OEM hotline release notes for the failing window. The smoking guns are an open service bulletin touching the exact alarm class you are seeing, a recent retrofit kit covering the same symptom, or an OEM safety advisory on a partial firmware regression. Cross-reference the timestamp of your first faulted run against the bulletin issue date - if they match within the firmware revision window, stop debugging the cell and subscribe to the bulletin updates. Many OEMs lag the public bulletin index behind the actual field issue by weeks; if the OEM forum and the controls-community subreddits are both lit up but no bulletin is posted yet, trust the crowd and treat it as OEM-side until proven otherwise.

Sixth: pin down the timing and reliability envelope on the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 cell under real working conditions. Run a long-duration sanity test by executing the failing program 10 times over 15 minutes, logging the timestamp and the result (cycle complete / alarm code / which axis or station faulted) per attempt to a notes file. Watch for the breakpoint where the cycle success rate dips below 80 percent - that is your real signal that something is wrong, not the one-off alarm that prompted the callout. If you are on a marginal supply (low ambient temp, brownout, dirty 3-phase, contaminated coolant), run the same test on a known-good supply or a sister cell before assuming the controller is the problem. Capture the breakpoint in your personal notes next to the firmware version, the parameter set, and the controller serial number - the next time this happens to a teammate, the notes are gold.

Field notes from real Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 callouts

Vendor portals like synopsys.com/support are a starting point for Semiconductors questions, never the final word. The integrator forums are where the ugly edge cases actually get diagnosed. Before I sign the work order on a Semiconductors job I run `run 'check_design -all' in Design Compiler before compile_ultra` and tape a printout of the result into the panel, auditors love it and night-shift loves it more.

I trust `open innovus.log and grep for 'Error' / 'Warn' tags before re-running flow` more than any green light on a Semiconductors faceplate; the underlying telemetry never sugar-coats what the actuator really did. When a Semiconductors fault code lights up on the panel, the first thing I reach for is Mentor Calibre Interactive (CalibreDRV) with results viewer, it tells me whether the signal is real or a sensor pretending to be sick.

Tools I actually reach for

For most Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 faults I start with Cadence Spectre psf/srf waveform viewer (ViVA), fall back to Cadence Innovus innovus.log and innovus.cmd review, Synopsys PrimeTime pt_shell with -multi_scenario report, FlexNet lmstat / lmutil license diagnostic when Cadence Spectre psf/srf waveform viewer (ViVA) cannot surface the answer, and keep Synopsys Formality fm_shell verify_diagnose_failing_point handy for the cases where neither answers. That ordering is not academic - it matches the layers of the fault as they tend to surface, so the cheapest signal lands first and the heavier tooling only comes out when the simpler answer does not hold up. My muscle-memory shortcut for this is to run the first tool while the alarm screen is still open, not after I have already cycled controller power.

Verification I run before I call it fixed

Before I mark a Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 fault resolved, the verification loop below is what I actually run. Each step proves a different layer is green, and the order matters - the cheaper checks gate the more expensive ones.

run 'check_design -all' in Design Compiler before compile_ultra

If that one comes back clean, move to the next check. If it does not, stop and dig in there before layering more verification on top of a red signal.

validate MMMC view file syntax with 'read_mmmc -verify' before invoking init_design

If that one comes back clean, move to the next check. If it does not, stop and dig in there before layering more verification on top of a red signal.

use Formality 'verify -inline' to isolate first failing compare point

If that one comes back clean, move to the next check. If it does not, stop and dig in there before layering more verification on top of a red signal.

open innovus.log and grep for 'Error' / 'Warn' tags before re-running flow

Only when every line above runs clean do I close the loop and update my fault-history notebook with the timestamps.

Where I check first when the docs disagree

When two sources contradict each other on a Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 detail, the disambiguation order I lean on is stable. I usually check solvnetplus.synopsys.com for the ground-truth view on this part of Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026. I usually check community.cadence.com for the ground-truth view on this part of Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026. I usually check synopsys.com/support for the ground-truth view on this part of Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026. I usually check cadence.com/support for the ground-truth view on this part of Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026. OEM marketing brochures and trade-press writeups are signal, not ground truth, and I treat them as such until the references above either confirm or contradict the claim.

Solution-focused remediation path

Start by sorting the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 fault into one of three buckets, because roughly 80% of cases fall here. Bucket one is electrical / drive: instantaneous overcurrent, sustained overload, drive overheat, bus undervoltage, or a phase-loss event. Bucket two is mechanical / motion: encoder battery low, absolute position lost, over-travel, hardstop hit, or a vibrated-loose cable. Bucket three is recipe / parameter / I/O: the program calls a tool that is not loaded, the work offset is wrong, a DI is mapped to a disconnected sensor, or a vision job version has drifted. Pick the bucket first, then act. Before you act, capture a baseline photo of the alarm screen plus the controller hour-meter so you can prove whether the fix actually moved the needle. Decision point: if the alarm is intermittent and the cell is under an OEM service contract, open the OEM hotline first - OEM phone support beats hours of speculative debugging on cost and on liability if the alarm recurs and trips a safety-related shutdown.

Before any destructive step on a Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 cell, slow down and stage rollback. Snapshot the current firmware revision, the current parameter set (PARAM PUNCH OUT, KUKA archive, Cognex job export), the current ladder and HMI screens, the current I/O mapping, and the current member-roster of teach pendants registered to the cell to a notes entry first. Capture the failing photo, the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 alarm history dump, and the timestamp window. Photograph the cell from two angles: the controller HMI showing the alarm, and the cabinet showing the drive status LEDs. Then do the destructive step (clear a parameter, swap a drive, remove a teach pendant, restore a backup) inside a maintenance mode or a sister cell first, never the production cell directly. Capture the firmware revision, the safety-PLC permissions, the connected-pendant list, the cell operator roster, and the relevant fieldbus log snapshot to your notes before the destructive step. Decision point: if the cell is under an OEM service contract, the cheapest correct path is almost always to open the OEM hotline in parallel with the rollback - the OEM service engineer can confirm whether an OEM-side firmware push is responsible while you are still staging the change, which avoids a needless parameter edit if the fix is in the next firmware revision.

For Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 cells where duty-cycle limits or thermal envelopes are suspect, read the in-controller hints honestly. "Servo overcurrent" usually means you hit the peak current envelope of the drive during accel. "Motor overload" is the sustained-thermal signal on the motor winding. "Drive overheat" is the heatsink thermistor signal. Each is telling you the exact same thing in a Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026-specific dialect. Apply duty-cycle dwell for repeated-cycle programs (insert a 500ms dwell between high-load moves), reduce the rapid feedrate, and chunk a long cycle into smaller passes. Decision point: if you are hitting the thermal limit sustained rather than in bursts, the cell is undersized for the workpiece - upgrade the drive amperage rating or request a thermal margin review from the OEM with a written duty-cycle analysis; without it, dial back the throughput at the cell. Replay the failing program against a fresh test workpiece at half the feedrate to confirm the new safe envelope before pushing to the production cell.

Automate this fix so you do not do it twice

Scrape Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 controller alarm history + fieldbus log via scheduled job

For the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026, cell faults usually surface as drive alarms, fieldbus dropouts, or vision-trigger misses before a full line stoppage. A weekly scheduled job that exports the last 7 days of these events to CSV gives you a paper trail to correlate with firmware updates, parameter edits, and OEM bulletins without staring at the HMI live. Register the task via cron on a plant-floor logger PC (Linux IPC), Windows Task Scheduler (schtasks /create /XML) on an engineering workstation, or a GitHub Actions schedule against a cell-controller API, then write the CSV to a plant file share or the fab MES for retention. Subscribe a simple dashboard (Grafana with a CSV source, Ignition with a tag history, the fab MES OEE report) to the same bucket so alarm events from every Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 controller converge on a single view without per-cell HMI clicking.

# Export the controller alarm history via the OEM API (if supported)
curl -X POST https://controller.plant.local/api/v1/alarm_history \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONTROLLER_TOKEN" \ -H "Accept: application/json" \ -d '{"start_date":"2026-05-25","end_date":"2026-06-01"}' \ -o semiconductors-alarm-history.json
# Export the cycle history for the last 7 days
curl -G https://controller.plant.local/api/v1/cycles \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONTROLLER_TOKEN" \ --data-urlencode "oldest=$(date -d '7 days ago' +%s)" \ -o semiconductors-cycles.json

Codify the firmware revision pin and rollback as a single notes entry

Once a stable firmware revision is identified for the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026, write the revision string, the build hash, and the parameter set state to a fault-history notebook entry with the date in the title. Reproducible rollback is then a single OEM utility load plus a parameter restore. Pin the parameter set state explicitly so an OEM-side default change does not silently shift behavior under you. Stage the notebook entry next to a checklist that lists the failing photo, the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 alarm history dump (if any), and the OEM case number; the second time the cell faults at 9 a.m. you do not want to be rediscovering which firmware revision was actually green.

# Fault-history notebook template (semiconductors)
Date: 2026-06-01
Controller: semiconductors
Working firmware: 30iB-Plus 02.20 (Build hash: a1b2c3d)
Cell: Line 4 Cell B
Machine serial: SN-semiconductors-12345
Failing photo: ~/notes/semiconductors-2026-06-01.jpg
OEM case: OEM-semiconductors-12345
Rollback path: load previous firmware from OEM utility, master OFF, restore parameter archive, power up

Automate Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 parameter + I/O mapping snapshots via OEM utility or API

On the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026, regular parameter and I/O snapshots catch silent parameter drift, recipe edits, and stale safety-PLC permissions well before the cell starts faulting in prod. Pair OEM health checks (the OEM diagnostic SDK, the controller users API, the fieldbus device listing) with a license-validity check so both OEM-side and cell-side issues land in one folder. Run the scheduled task on a control-plane logger PC (a hardened IPC at the cell, a GitHub Actions runner against the cell-controller VPN, a small Linux box at the line) under a tightly scoped service account that mirrors the maintenance role.

# List cell operator roster + safety-PLC roles
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONTROLLER_TOKEN" \ https://controller.plant.local/api/v1/operators \ > semiconductors-operators.json
# List active fieldbus drops + their last-link-up timestamp
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONTROLLER_TOKEN" \ https://controller.plant.local/api/v1/fieldbus_drops \ > semiconductors-fieldbus.json
# Validate the maintenance license token itself
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONTROLLER_TOKEN" \ https://controller.plant.local/api/v1/me \ > semiconductors-me.json

Common pitfalls and what to watch for

Read-only validation before any write is the single step most Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 fixes skip, and it is the step that lets you roll back when a fix backfires. Photograph every existing parameter page (the axis parameters, the spindle parameters, the safety parameters, the I/O mapping, the recipe library), capture the failing photo in a notes entry, export the relevant log to CSV if the controller supports it (the OEM diagnostic tool fault-history export, the PMC log download), and photograph the HMI alarm history showing the failing window before any change. On Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 cells with multiple operating modes (manual jog, MDI, auto) record the firmware revision, the parameter state, and the I/O mapping in each before toggling anything, because a "fix" pushed only to manual mode is a known regression vector when auto mode has a different interlock set.

The mirror-image mistake is confusing a cell-level symptom with an OEM fault on Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026. A persistent SRVO-023 is often a workpiece-level change pushed by the production team rather than a Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 bug. A "program not loading" can be a renamed program rather than a deleted one. A "trigger not firing" is frequently a vibrated-loose sensor cable or a contaminated lens rather than an OEM-side regression.

Verify the fix worked

• Reproduce the original faulting cycle against Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 on the same cell AND a sister cell with the same recipe. If the alarm or fault code still surfaces on any cell, you have not fixed it.
• Watch for 24 to 48 hours via the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 controller alarm history + the fieldbus log + your fault-history notebook. Cached fault states and stale fieldbus link state mask slow-burn drift and intermittent fieldbus issues.
• Smoke-test under realistic load: replay the cycle against a test workpiece for at least 30 minutes at your normal production feedrate, log success / alarm and the timestamp per attempt to a notes file.
• Capture the new state in a fault-history notebook entry so the next time this happens you do not rediscover it. Note firmware revision + parameter set + I/O mapping + failing photo + verbatim alarm string + fix applied. Push to a plant-wide maintenance wiki if your plant uses one.
• If the fix involved a maintenance-token rotation or a parameter set change, commit the new token to your password manager and photograph the parameter dump for archival.

Safety, rollback, blast radius

• Test in a Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 maintenance mode or on a sister cell first before any change that touches the production cell. Snapshot the firmware revision, the parameter set, the I/O mapping, and the safety-PLC permissions before changing anything.
• Apply the principle of least surprise when granting teach-pendant access or safety-PLC permissions. Review the operator roster against the people who actually need access - extra teach pendants are extra blast radius.
• Use idempotent cycles where the Semiconductors, EDA Tool Error Codes (Cadence Virtuoso/Innovus/Genus, Synopsys DC/PrimeTime/Fusion, Mentor Calibre/Questa), 2026 controller supports it (the OEM cycle-id de-dupe, external id keys on MES records) so a re-run cycle does not double-count parts or duplicate scrap records.
• Know your rollback path. Firmware rollback is a one-line OEM utility load; a maintenance-token rotation is reversible if you kept the old token in the password manager during cutover; a parameter set change is reversible only if you saved the previous archive.
• For cell-wide or plant-wide changes, line up a maintenance window with production scheduling before pushing through the OEM utility.

FAQ

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