Digital Design Studio 2.0.2: Agent, project sharing and weekly Cloud usage
Work across RTL, ISA and ALcad in one app, get help from Agent and share Cloud projects. Version 2.0.2 also brings weekly Cloud allowances, tidier settings and more ways to explore your designs.
Digital Design Studio 2.0.2 brings more of a design project into the same workspace. Move between RTL, ISA workflows in Flow Navigator and ALcad, ask Agent for help with an idea, and invite another person to work on a Cloud project with you. The update connects the everyday actions around a design: reading the source, discussing a change, editing a circuit and checking the result.
There is more room for the way you work, too. A weekly Cloud allowance and the Usage view help you plan your next session, while reorganized settings, adjustable AI chat text and 14 interface languages make the workspace easier to settle into. Alongside these changes, circuit comparisons, PCB tools and the QEDA report view give you more ways to look at the design you are building.
One app, from RTL to ALcad
Start with the project you are already working on and move to the view that answers your next question. Use the editor for RTL, open ISA work from Flow Navigator, or switch to ALcad for circuit and board work. These are parts of Digital Design Studio, so the route through the application follows the project rather than a collection of separate product launches.
That makes it easier to keep an investigation connected. You might read a module, examine an ISA idea and then look at a circuit without losing track of the project each belongs to. The shared workspace also brings familiar navigation and settings to those views. Pick the tool for the next step, then return to your source or report when you need to compare what you found.
Work through an idea with Agent
Agent helps with the questions that arise during design: what a piece of RTL does, how to approach an edit, what a testbench should exercise, or where to start looking in a project. Describe the outcome you want and use the conversation to narrow the task. An explanation can become a proposed change, and the next question can focus on the part of the result that still needs investigation.
Choose an effort level for the task and keep the conversation beside your work as you read the answer. When public information is useful, web search gives the conversation another source to consult. BYOK remains available for your own AI connection. You can review the suggested code in the editor and run the relevant checks as part of the design flow, keeping the answer and the evidence for your decision close together.
A design flow with Agent
Use the conversation to move from a question to a change you can inspect.
Describe the task
Begin with a specific goal, such as understanding a state transition or improving a module's testbench. Point out the part of the project you want to discuss and say what a useful answer would help you decide. A focused question gives the next steps a clear purpose.
Explore an approach
Ask Agent to explain the code, compare possible edits or outline the cases a test should cover. Read the reasoning alongside the file and follow up on assumptions that matter to your design. You can refine the request before turning an idea into an edit.
Review the change
Compare the suggestion with the source and the intended behavior. Check names, interfaces and the scope of the edit in the project itself. The conversation stays useful as a place to discuss a smaller revision or ask why a particular change was proposed.
Check the result
Use the project's available diagnostics, simulation or analysis tools for the next check. Bring the result back into the discussion when it reveals another question. This makes explanation, editing and checking parts of an iterative workflow you can follow.
Share a Cloud project
Invite someone into a Cloud project when you want to develop an idea together. The project sharing controls give you a place to create an invitation and choose the access you want to grant. After the other person signs in and accepts, you can discuss the same project instead of exchanging detached copies of a file and trying to reconcile which one contains the latest change.
Participants with edit access can change project files. Real-time co-editing, where changes arrive in the editor as you work, is not open yet and will be announced when it opens. The owner can return to the sharing controls to manage participants. Start with a clear task and an agreed file so that the shared editing session has a useful focus.
Share and edit together
A short route from opening a project to working on a shared file.
Open the Cloud project
Choose the project you want to work on and open its sharing controls. Decide which file or design question you want to discuss first. Keeping the first session focused makes it easier for both people to see how their changes fit into the project.
Create the invitation
Select the access for the invitation and pass the link to the person you want to collaborate with. Choose editing access when the session involves changes to the source. The invitation is the entry point to that project, so send it directly to the intended collaborator.
Join the same file
The invited person signs in, accepts the invitation and opens the project. With editing access, the invited person can open the agreed file and make changes. Use the session to work through a concrete change while keeping the surrounding source in view.
Continue the work
Review the resulting file and run the checks relevant to the change. The owner can manage the participants from the same sharing controls when the team changes. The project remains the shared place for the next editing session and the next design question.
Plan the week in Usage
Free, Plus and Pro now receive a Cloud allowance each week for eligible compute and Agent work. This gives recurring work a weekly rhythm: open a project, see what is available and decide which investigation to tackle next. Usage brings the remaining allowance and recorded use into view, so planning the session starts from what the workspace shows.
You can look at Usage before a round of simulations or an Agent task and return after the work to understand the activity. It is also a useful point of reference when alternating between reading code, editing and running checks. The view keeps the Cloud side of that workflow visible without requiring you to leave the application to piece together what you have used.
Three moments to check Usage
Keep the weekly allowance visible as you plan and review your work.
Before you begin
Open Usage and check the current weekly period and remaining Cloud allowance. Use that view to choose the work you want to do in the next session, whether that is a focused Agent conversation or a set of supported compute tasks for a design.
During an investigation
Return to the view as the project develops and compare the usage shown with the work you have been doing. It gives the session a practical reference point when deciding whether to explore another candidate now or organize the next step for later.
When planning the next session
Review the week's recorded activity and the remaining allowance together. You can use the same view at the start of the next session, keeping the plan connected to the current period and making a recurring design exercise easier to organize.
Settings that are easier to settle into
Settings groups related controls more closely and removes repeated routes through the same choices. Buttons stand out more clearly from the surrounding surfaces, so the actions in a page are easier to pick out while scanning it. When you return to tune a workspace preference, there is less movement between small sections to find the control you need.
AI chat also has its own text-size choices. Adjust the body text and headings for comfortable reading, then keep the conversation open next to the editor. This is useful when moving between a long explanation and the code it describes, or when presenting a design on a different display. The workspace can fit the reading task as well as the design task.
Compare circuit behavior in ALcad
ALcad gives circuit work more ways to explore variation. Corner comparisons let you examine results across the conditions represented in your setup, and tolerance controls make component variation part of the investigation. Instead of stopping at a single result, you can use these views to ask which parts of the circuit deserve a closer look and which changes you want to try next.
Pin editing brings another practical part of circuit preparation into the workspace. Work on the pin layout of a subcircuit as you arrange the design, then return to the schematic and the results to see how the pieces fit together. Circuit preparation and comparison become neighboring steps, helping you move from the drawn design to a more deliberate review of its behavior.
Look at a board in PCB and 3D
PCB work gains richer editing and export tools, including work with zone arcs and manufacturer-related export information. These additions help when preparing a board for review and checking the details that will travel with an exported result. Stay with the board's own geometry and settings as you make the next edit, then inspect the result before moving on.
The PCB and 3D views offer complementary ways to examine the design. A planar view helps you read the layout, while 3D helps you look at its form and placement from another angle. Move between them as part of the review, using each view for the question it answers best. The board remains part of the same ALcad workflow you use for circuit work.
More ways to investigate a design
QEDA (Linux desktop only) adds layout and report views for supported superconducting circuit work. Explore a transmon design within the supported PEC/CPW model and bring the layout together with the report when examining its result. A report gives the discussion a concrete reference: you can connect a question about the design to the values and views produced for that run.
Built-in HLS provides a route from the supported C subset to RTL on a supported native host, while Evolve (Linux desktop only) lets you compare virtual FPGA candidates. These tools address different stages of exploration: trying a representation, examining generated RTL or comparing candidates before selecting the next direction. Open the appropriate tool from the project workflow and use its actual result as the basis for the next check.
Other changes
Fourteen interface languages. Choose the language you want to use for the application and return to familiar project views. The language selector is part of the workspace settings, so a team can discuss the same design while each person reads the interface in their preferred language.
Cloud job details. The cancellation-impact and finalization-detail views add context around the end of a job. They help you read what a stop or completion means for the work shown, and provide another place to look when reviewing how a run finished before starting the next task.
Circuit and project inputs. The released tools include routes for ngspice imports and project process files. These sit alongside the circuit views so that preparing the input and examining the result can remain connected to the project you are investigating.
ISA exploration. RISC-V import and PCCX reference views extend the work available through Flow Navigator. They give you more starting points when examining an ISA idea and relating it to the rest of the project's design work, within Digital Design Studio.
Version 2.0.2 brings these improvements together around the design session: choose a view, ask a focused question, work with someone else and inspect the result. Open a project you want to revisit and try the next step in the same workspace.