Ray,
I'm not the best person to talk further on this topic, so I'll direct you to:
and read Steve Lass' article, specifically thru page 8.
For those who don't want to download the whole issue of Xcell:
and not have to deal with pdf, either.
You will miss the lovely artwork, but the content is the same.
He details the new Xplorer tool which (I think) finds the optimal we used to find, and then creates the proper constraints and command file so that subsequent compiles do not have to start from scratch.
for the details, courtesy of Hitesh Patel.
He also mentions PlanAhead, as well.
Thanks to Steve & Hitesh for the timely appearance of this!
And thanks to you Ray for the opportunity to post these useful links ...
Austin