What are regular nets and special nets, and how can I swap their net types ?

How To...
What are regular nets and special nets? How can I swap their net types?

Answer
Special nets are mostly POWER and GROUND nets or any custom routed nets (like analog signals) that are not following
any Non-Default Rules (NDR). Regular signal nets follow the default width or use NDR for auto-routing. Regular and Special
nets are stored differently into the DEF file, as mentioned below:

1. Regular nets are stored with their centerline representing only the path, and the width is assumed to be the default.
This is the optimal way of representing a net and helps in compressing the data, as in most cases, wires are of the
defined size, which can either be the default or with NDR.

2. In the case of a net where you are drawing with an arbitrary width without following any NDR, you need to use a special
net. Here, the net is represented by BBOX, so that it can be of any size. This is usually required for nets like PG, analog,
or special-purpose signals.

To mark the nets as 'special' prior to routing, use the setNet command to intimate the NanoRouter attempting to route
these nets. This command is useful when the nets need to be routed by hand or with any other specialized routers. You need
to use the same command to set back the net from special to regular. This command will not have any effect if the net is
already routed.

If you have routed any nets by hand with the net type 'special' or plan to use the router to route these nets with NDR, and so
on, then use the prepareForEcoRoute command to convert it into a regular net.

Legacy UI:

prepareForEcoRoute -nets <net_name>

Common UI:

convert_special_routes_for_eco -nets <net_name>

If the STATUS attribute of the special net is FIXED, the prepareForEcoRoute command will not convert such nets to
regular nets. So, change the STATUS attribute to ROUTED before conversion. The following screenshots show the net
conversion after using the prepareForEcoRoute command:
 Note: The convertSNetToNet and convertNetToSNet commands are obsoleted from 16.x versions. It is not
recommended to use them in higher versions.

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