Startup Auto Configuration

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Overview

When SIMetrix is started for the first time, it automatically sets up its configuration to default values. Details of this process are provided in the following sections. There are a number of settings that can be made to control this process and these are also explained.

What is Set Up

During this phase, the following is set up:

  1. Installs system supplied symbol libraries
  2. Installs system supplied model libraries
  3. Migrates configuration from earlier installed versions if available
  4. Associates file extensions with the operating system.
  5. Sets up default window positions according to the system screen resolution (only if preference settings are not migrated in 3.)
  6. Define default values for various fonts (only if preference settings are not migrated in 3.)

Auto Configuration Options

Configuration settings are stored in a file called base.sxprj. See Configuration Settings for details of where this file is located. Auto configuration writes values to this file but will also read values from this file to decide how it will proceed. In the usual sequence of events for installing and setting up SIMetrix, this file will not actually exist when auto configuration occurs. In this case auto configuration uses default values for the settings it tries to read.

However, if you are a system administrator may wish to customise the way SIMetrix is configured when started by each user. In this case you may manually create a base.sxprj file or alternatively a common skeleton that SIMetrix will use to create this file. Your base.sxprj file can, if desired, be completely populated with all required settings and configured to disable auto configuration altogether. Alternatively, you can inhibit some of the auto configuration operations while allowing others to proceed normally.

There are five settings that control auto configuration. These must be placed in the [Options] section of the base.sxprj file. The settings are shown in the following table:

Option Name Possible Values (Default in bold) Description
RebuildConfig true, false Auto configuration proceeds if this is set to true. Auto configuration automatically sets this to false on completion
BuildPreferenceSettings askmigrate, true, false Build user preference settings

askmigrate: ask the user whether he wants to migrate settings from an earlier version if available

true: Build default values

false: do nothing
BuildAssociations ask, true, false Build file associations (Windows only)

ask: ask the user if he wants file association to be performed

true: file associations performed unconditionally

false: file associations not performed
BuildModelLibs ifempty, merge, no Install system model libraries

ifempty: install libraries if there are no libraries currently installed

merge: merge system libraries with currently installed libraries

no: do not install system libraries
BuildSymbolLibs ifempty, merge, no Install system symbol libraries

ifempty: install libraries if there are no libraries currently installed

merge: merge system libraries with currently installed libraries

no: do not install system libraries
The settings in the above table should be placed in the file in [Options] section in the form:
[Options]
name = value

For example:

[Options]
BuildSymbolLibs=merge

Skeleton Configuration File

The skeleton configuration file, if it exists, will be copied to base.sxprj if base.sxprj does not exist.

The skeleton configuration file must be called skeleton.sxprj and be located in the same directory as the executable file SIMetrix.exe (windows).

Installation - Customising

It isn't possible to customise the Windows install program. However, the SIMetrix installer doesn't do much more than simply uncompress files to the chosen location. It is therefore possible for you to create your own SIMetrix install process using a fresh install tree as a source image. You can then add your own files to this including the skeleton.sxprj file described above.