When two wires are assigned the same net name, an “invisible” net section is connected between them. Electrically, this is the same as connecting the two segments via a drawn wire. This is called virtual wiring and can be used to reduce the visual complexity of designs.

The following procedures will virtually connect the two wires shown in the example below:

Virtual Wiring Using On-page Connectors

Complete the following steps to make a virtual connection between wires by manually adding on-page connectors:

  1. Select Place»Connectors»On-page connector and click to place the connector in the desired location (Input1 in this example).

    The On-page Connector dialog box displays.

  2. Enter a name for the connector, for example, Connector1 in the Connector name field.
  3. Click OK to close the dialog box.

    The connector displays as shown in the example below:

    Notice that the net name is unchanged (Input1).

      In the example above, Input1 and Input2 are the Preferred net names (user-assigned via the Net Properties dialog box). If the net name on the wire is auto-named, it changes to match the on-page connector.

  4. Select Place»Connectors»On-page connector and click to place the connector on the other net (Input2 in this example).

    The On-page Connector dialog box displays.

  5. Select the connector that you just placed from the Available connectors list (Connector1 in this example).

      This list will also contain the names of any other global or on-page connectors that are in the current design.

  6. Click OK to close the dialog box.

    The Resolve Net Name Conflict dialog box appears, advising that you are merging nets with different names.

  7. Select the desired net name for both from the Select name drop-down list (Input1 in this example).

      This dialog box also appears if you connect two nets together.

      This dialog box does not appear if the nets are auto-named.

  8. Click OK to close the dialog box.

    Both wires now have the same net and on-page connector names, as shown in the example below.

      Net properties will be assigned based on the net you select when resolving net name conflicts.

      You can also copy an existing on-page connector and use Edit»Paste special»Paste without renaming on-page connectors to duplicate an on-page connector.

      You can also virtually connect an on-page connector to any global connector in the design. If you do this, the on-page connector's symbol changes to .

      On-page connectors and nets are numbered independently. For example, an on-page connector named 1 will not virtually connect to a net with Preferred net name of 1. The on-page connector doesn't ask to make a virtual connection to net 1 because the on-page connectors are not nets by themselves. The name of the on-page connector is used to make a virtual connection to other on-page and global connectors.

Virtual Wiring Using a Previously Used Net Name

Complete the following steps to make a virtual connection by assigning an already-used net name to a wire:

  1. Double-click on the wire that you want to rename (for example, Input2).

    The Net Properties dialog box displays.

  2. Select the Net name tab.
  3. Enter the name of the net that you want to virtually connect this wire to in the Preferred net name field (in this example, Input1) and click OK.

    The Resolve Duplicate Net Name dialog box displays.

  4. Select Connect the two nets using on-page connectors and click OK.

    Both wires now have the same net and on-page connector names, as shown in the example below. The connectors were placed automatically.