A logical cone is a window that displays only a portion of a netlist. You create this window in NetlistViewer and simply select the objects that you want to appear in this separate view. You can add individual instances, blocks, and ports to a logical cone. You can also remove objects from this cone.
Logical cones help you navigate and analyze a specific part of the design. A Logical Cone view is very similar to the NetlistViewer view. The main differences between the Logical Cone and NetlistViewer views are:
In a logical cone, you see only the pieces of the design that you want to focus on (for example, path analysis), whereas in NetlistViewer, you see the entire netlist.
In a logical cone, a net appears as a dashed line unless all instances that are connected to that net in the netlist are also present in the Logical Cone view. These nets are designated as partially connected, as opposed to fully connected nets.
In a logical cone, all objects of the netlist appear on a single sheet, with hierarchical boundaries still visible. This is a trade-off between the classical hierarchical view, where you must use Push and Pop commands to navigate in the netlist, and the flattened view, where hierarchy is simply ignored.
Logical cones support cross-probing. Therefore, you highlight and select objects the same way you do in the NetlistViewer.
All Logical Cone commands are available from the LogicalCone menu in MultiView Navigator, and most Logical Cone commands are also available from the right-click menu in both the NetlistViewer and Logical Cone windows.