Processing a circuit design specified in a hardware description language (HDL) can include, for each of a plurality of nets of the circuit design, creating a trace memory structure, using a processor, during compilation of the HDL circuit design. Each trace memory structure can include trace properties indicating whether tracing is active for the net. A transaction function can be generated during compilation for each net. The transaction function can be configured to invoke tracing for each net during simulation of the circuit design according to an evaluation of the trace properties for the net.