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Contribution: postscript output for LayoutEditor

by anonymous - 22 May 2009, 16:35 CEST

I was very unsatisfied by the postscript and pdf output produced by LayoutEditor. Currently, this function converts the design into png (with an unknown and uncontrolled resolution if printed into file: the "Print/Properties/Advanced" tab is empty) and then it converts it into postscript. As a result, the processing takes a lot of time, memory, and the output file is very large and not at all vectorial as one would expect.

However, LayoutEditor can export the drawing into SVG. Therefore I have written a script (written in awk) which converts this SVG file into (E)PS:

http://www.sci.muni.cz/~mikulik/comp/LESVG2ps.awk

It can output the drawing in its colours, in black on white or in white on black.

The conversion works very well if all objects can be closed and filled. Limitations of the postscript output are given by limitations of the LayoutEditor SVG output (see the header of this cript):
- Polygons: it is not written whether they are line bordered or filled. This script thus fills all of them.
- Text: scaling is fixed because LayoutEditor doesn't write it to SVG file.
- LayoutEditor does not write what's the bounding box of the whole drawing. Neither this script does this calculation.

Bugs found in LayoutEditor's SVG output:
- It outputs CRLF instead of LF on Linux.

I hope:
1. The above limitations can be fixed,
2. IMHO this awk code can be easily ported into C++ source code of LayoutEditor to produce the same output as this script. I've seen that the printing code of LayoutEditor is well structured so that the porting will be easy for its author.

Can we look forward to this new export?

Notes:
- Export to pdf can be done easily by ps2pdf.
- Export to pdf can be done easily also from within LayoutEditor using a code similar to the above postscript or svg by means of a free PDF C/C++ library, such as libharu, cairo (pdf or png output) or panda.

Greetings,
Petr Mikulik


*** Dr. Petr Mikulik, mikulik@physics.muni.cz
*** Department of Condensed Matter Physics
*** Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
*** http://www.sci.muni.cz/~mikulik/

by Juergen Thies - 22 May 2009, 22:38 CEST

Thanks for your contribution. Polygon/box fill, text size and bounding box will be available with the next release.

A CRLF for a end of line is conform to the SVG specification. (http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/types.html) However i will make it configurable with the next release.

PS: I will review the eps script within the next days.

by Juergen Thies - 24 May 2009, 11:48 CEST

A postscript and eps export as a vector graphic will be available with the next release. There will be a additional export filter in the 'save as' dialog to access this few feature. The 'printing' function will continue to generate a rastered postscript file.

Both postscript option may have advantages: The vector postscript is smaller for small design and can be scaled. The raster postscript has always the same size independent of the size of the design. So it should be preferred for huge designs.

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The LayoutEditor™ is a program to design and edit layouts for MEMS/IC fabrication and CMOS IC design .Designing these layouts require a high precision. In IC design a sufficient resolution and a possibility of a high scaling is required. The resolution of the LayoutEditor can be set in a wide range and is normally set to 1 nano meter. A higher resolution makes no sense due to atomar structures. With this resolution the LayoutEditor can draw elements up to 4 meters. In many IC design houses this is enough for IC/MEMS which extend usually less than 0.1 meters. The productions of MEMS/IC is done in many layers. For each of these physical CAD layers a belonging layer had to exist in the drawing. Additional logical layers are required for describing/naming purpose. So a lot of layers are needed. By default the LayoutEditor is limited to 128 layers. But it can easily be adjusted, if more layers are required. IC Designs often contain a plenty of repeating structures. Essential for micro fabrication of these designs is therefor a hierarchical design. This means, that the complete repeating structure only exists once in a single cell. These cell is then referred multiple times in the main drawing.
Beside the above mems packaging mentioned IC design fundaments it is important to have sophisticated functions to handle all drawing elements. The layout handler has all required functions: all basic design functions, all angle elements, boolean operations, macros, fontgenerator, design rule checker, mems tools, supported format: GDSII, DXF, OASIS, CIF. If you still missing a function, you are free to write a feature request

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