maskLayout to tikzpicture converter for Cadence Virtuoso
Cadence SKILL function, which can be used to create a tikzpicture of a maskLayout. This is especially useful for theses, publications and presentations.
The function can be used by loading the SKILL file EDml2TikZ.il in Cadence Virtuoso:
(load "EDml2TikZ.il")A more convenient way might be to add this load command in the .cdsinit.
You can create an additional menu-bar item in the Layout Editor by loading the
file
(load "EDml2TikZUserPostInstallTrigger.il")The function EDml2TikZ must be invoked in the Command Interpreter Window (CIW).
(EDml2TikZ ?sOutDir "~/myExports" ?sLayersLatexFile "~/myLayerDefinition.tex")The above shown example function call creates a tikzpicture of the maskLayout
which is shown in the foreground in a layout editor.
The result will be written to the directory "~/myExports", which must be
read- and writable.
There, all files will be created.
The path to this directory will be returned by the function.
The function must be provided with a .tex file
("~/myLayerDefinition.tex" in the example above) where all layer purpose
pairs (LPPs) to be considered in the tikzpicture must be defined.
Only LPPs, separated with the vertical bar |, in a \tikzstyle command, are
considered for export, e.g.
\tikzstyle{Metal1|drawing}=[draw=blue,fill=blue, fill opacity=0.5]TikZ offers several possibilities to define different styles, e.g. outline, filling, opacity, patterns et cetera. If you are not familiar with TiKZ, take a look at the manual.
The order of \tikzstyle commands in the Layers Latex file is identical
with the order how the layers are drawn within the tikzpicture, so make sure
that the order is meaningful ,e.g. define Poly before Metal 1 et cetera.
In this .tex file additional definitions e.g. other usepackages must be defined as well.
In the result directory a Makefile is created, which contains the compilation commands needed for compiling the pdf. This Makefile can be executed using
makeYou can parallelize the creation of the PDF with
make --jobs=<NUM OF PARALLEL RUNS>You can open the GUI of this tool with
(EDml2TikZ ?bGraphicalMode t)This tool is added to the Layout Editor under Export in the menu bar, if
you loaded the file EDml2TikZUserPostInstallTrigger.il previously.
A figure of the GUI is shown below.
There, some parameters can be specified. By pressing OK or Apply the tikzpicture is created.
The field Open With can be used to specify the tool which will be used to open the resulting directory (e.g. thunar , nautilus , xterm, etc.). If this value is not specified, the resulting directory is shown in a dialog box.
The function EDml2TikZ has several keyword parameters:
oCellView
Cellview to be be exported.
If this parameter is not provided, the current cellview in the
foreground (geGetWindowCellView) is used.
sOutDir
The output directory, where the tikzpicture will be created. It must be read- and writable. If this parameter is not provided the current directory (.) will be used.
sLayersLatexFile
A path to a LaTeX file, where all Layer Purpose Pairs (LPPs) considered for export must be defined.
sLatexCompiler
The LaTeX compiler, which should be used. If this parameter is not provided pdflatex will be used.
bBox
Bounding Box, which is used for export.
nGridSize
The grid side of the tikzpicture in centimeters. If this value is not provided, 1cm is used as a default value.
nMargin
The margin of the tikzpicture. If this value is not provided, no margin is drawn.
bAbe
If this parameter is true, the Advanced Boolean Engine (ABE) is used. This decreases execution time drastically, with the disadvantage that only octalinear shapes (90 and 45 degree angles) are considered. When this feature is disabled, there must be the possibility to create (temporary) views in the same cell.
bDebug
If this parameter is true, the intermediate cellviews are not deleted at the end.
xShapesPerFile
Due to limited memory, a tikzpicture can contain only a limited number of shapes. This parameter can be used to control the maximum number of shapes that are within one tikzpicture. If the maskLayout to be exported contains more shapes that specified by this parameter, the maskLayout will be splitted automatically in several TeX files, s.t. the maximum number of shapes per single file is not exceeded. The compilation results of the individual TeX files will be merged in a final tikzpicture.
xShapesPerFile
Number of levels that are considered for export. This must be an
integer between 0 and 32.
bSplitLayers
If this parameter is true, additional tikzpicture will be created, which contain only single layers.
bMake
If this parameter is set true, make is executed automatically.
You can preset the field Layers Latex File in the GUI with
the environment variable ED_ML2TIKZ_LAYERS, e.g.,
export ED_ML2TIKZ_LAYERS=~/myLayerDefinition.texIn the directory examples an example of an exported NAND2 logic gate is added.
When ABE is deactivated, the function will first create a copy of the maskLayout. Then this copy will be flattened. Another new empty layout is created. In this new layout all shapes of interest are copied and merged.
Needed LaTeX usepackages:
- Multiple threads for ABE cannot be activated, because Virtuoso will crash. This is why the field # Parallel ABE runs is grayed out.
- Labels are not exported
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