3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the template instance generation code is provided by a user of the design automation tool.
1. A method of automating the application of constraints to one or more design objects in a circuit design created using an electronic design automation tool, wherein the one or more design objects represent physical circuit objects in a circuit being designed using the electronic design automation tool, comprising: providing a template type in a computer system; wherein the template type includes a selectable template type identifier in produced in a computer user interface display of the computer system to identify the template type, wherein template type includes template instance generation code stored in a computer readable storage device of the computer system to run a template instance generation process, wherein template type further includes template instance validation code stored in the computer readable storage to run a template instance validation process; receiving by the computer system, a user selection of the template type identifier; in response to the received user selection of the template type identifier, invoking the template instance generation code to run the template instance generation process on the computer system, to produce a template instance, wherein the produced template instance identifies a constraint set that includes multiple constraints and that identifies associations between the multiple constraints in the constraint set and the one or more design objects to store the produced template instance in the memory device, and to create an association in the memory device between the produced template instance and the template type.