Install DSim Desktop

DSim Desktop is a versatile Visual Studio Code (VSC) extension, offering unparalleled flexibility in HDL simulation, supporting both cloud-based and local (on-prem) workflows. This article describes how to install DSim Desktop on your local machine.

Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. DSim Desktop VSC Extension
3. DSim Simulator
4. Licensing

Prerequisites

• A Metrics DSim Cloud account

• A supported Windows or Linux operating system. macOS is not supported at this time.
• The installation requires approximately 300MB of disk space
• There must be a web browser installed and configured as system default (i.e. set to auto-launch)
• The user must have local administrator permissions, or specifically:
  • Root or sudo on Linux
  • Administrator on Windows
• An Internet connection is required
  • For networks behind a firewall, or for blocked port issues, refer to Debugging Network Issues During Installation
• For Windows only, the Latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable
  • If you have not done so, install the Latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Version.
• Visual Studio Code
  • If you have not done so, install Visual Studio Code (VSC).
  • If you are new to VSC, see Getting Started with VSC.

Installation

NOTE: The versions of the DSim Desktop VSC Extension and DSim Simulator available to you may not match the versions captured in the screenshots below.

DSim Desktop VSC Extension

1. From VSC, click Extensions and enter DSim Desktop in the search box.

2. Select the latest DSim Desktop extension and click Install.

3. Reload VSC as required.

4. Click Extensions. Under INSTALLED, find and hover over the DSim Desktop extension to confirm you have the correct version installed.

5. The DSim Desktop extension appears in the Activity Bar of the standard VSC User Interface.

DSim Simulator

You can have multiple versions of the Metrics DSim Simulator installed on your local machine, and you must have at least one version. Each version is a 60-70MB download and takes up approximately 200MB of hard disk space once installed. You can have only one active version of DSim at a time. You must be signed into DSim Cloud to download DSim.

1. Click the DSim Desktop extension in the Activity Bar, then the drop-down arrow beside DSim under LOCAL TOOL INSTALLATIONS.

All your installed versions of DSim will appear here. Upon initial installation of DSim Desktop, this list will be empty.

2. Click the + beside DSim to download a new version. Sign into DSim Desktop as required.

3. Select your operating system.

4. Select a version of DSim to download. The latest version will be suffixed with (Current).

5. A notification will pop up indicating the status of the download. Once finished, click Activate. If you miss this notification, you can activate as described in step 10.

6. Once a version of DSim has been successfully downloaded and activated, it will appear with a solid bullet point under LOCAL TOOL INSTALLATIONS.

7. Open the DSim Desktop shell by selecting it from the TERMINAL pane.

8. Enter dsim -version and confirm that it matches your activated version of DSim.

9. Repeat steps 2 to 8 for more versions of DSim if desired. All versions are installed to the following paths:

• Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\metrics-ca\dsim
• Linux: $HOME/metrics-ca/dsim

For Linux installations, we recommend you run the script check_dependencies.sh as described in DSim Operating Systems.

10. Anytime you want to activate a version of DSim, right-click it and select Activate Version. The currently active version has a solid bullet point while inactive versions have a hollow bullet point. You can remove a version by right-clicking it and selecting Delete Version. This uninstalls the version and deletes all of its files from your hard drive.

Licensing

Generated licenses are required for local on-prem DSim use. They are intended for individual use only.

On-prem licenses are not required to access Metrics DSim Cloud features, including running simulations in the cloud.

Get a license to start simulating locally.

The installation of DSim Desktop is now complete. Check out Tutorial: DSim Desktop to see how to use it to simulate your designs.