ml2tikz

maskLayout to tikzpicture converter for Cadence Virtuoso

Description

Cadence SKILL function, which can be used to create a tikzpicture of a maskLayout. This is especially useful for theses, publications and presentations.

Installation

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")

Usage

Command Interpreter Window

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

make

You can parallelize the creation of the PDF with

make --jobs=<NUM OF PARALLEL RUNS>

GUI

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.

Parameters

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.

Environment Variables

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.tex

Examples

In the directory examples an example of an exported NAND2 logic gate is added.

Implementation Details

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.

Dependencies

Needed LaTeX usepackages:

Known Issues

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

License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

electronics-and-drives/ml2tikz