Patent ID: 8595684

Claim:
A method of generating a circuit design, comprising: using a programmed processor, performing operations including: retrieving a set of design assistance rules from a database, each design assistance rule in the set including: a respective list of design objects to which the design assistance rule applies; a respective set of criteria to be satisfied by the circuit design for the design assistance rule to be applicable to the circuit design; a respective executable script configured to perform an automated configuration of the circuit design; and a respective set of configuration options for the automated configuration of the circuit design; in response to a change in the circuit design, for each design assistance rule in the set of design assistance rules, determining whether or not the respective set of criteria is satisfied by the circuit design; in response to determining that the criteria in the respective set are satisfied for one or more design assistance rules of the set of design assistance rules, outputting data indicating that the one or more design assistance rules are available; and in response to input that selects a design assistance rule of the one or more design assistance rules, executing the executable script corresponding to the selected design assistance rule.