Gdstk (GDSII Tool Kit) is a C++ library for creation and manipulation of GDSII stream files. It is also available as a Python module meant to be a successor to Gdspy.
Key features for the creation of complex CAD layouts are included:
- Boolean operations on polygons (AND, OR, NOT, XOR) based on clipping algorithm
- Polygon offset (inward and outward rescaling of polygons)
- Efficient point-in-polygon solutions for large array sets
Typical applications of Gdstk are in the fields of electronic chip design, planar lightwave circuit design, and mechanical engineering.
The complete documentation is available here.
The source files can be found in the docs directory.
A static library can be installed with cmake (use -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=path
to control the installation path):
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --install target
The library depends only on LAPACK.
Windows users are suggested to install via conda using the available conda-forge recipe. The recipe works on MacOS and Linux as well.
The C++ library is meant to be used straight from source. The only requirement is that it must be linked against LAPACK. The included CMakeLists.txt file can be used as a guide.
Installation from source should follow the usual method:
python setup.py install
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The benchmarks directory contains a few tests to compare the performance gain of the Python interface versus Gdspy. They are only for reference; the real improvement is heavily dependent on the type of layout and features used. If maximal performance is important, the library should be used directly from C++, without the Python interface.
Timing results were obtained with Python 3.8 on an Intel Core i7-3820 with 8 cores and 64 GB of RAM. They represent the best average time to run each function out of 16 sets of 8 runs each.
Benchmark | Gdspy 1.6.1 | Gdstk 0.2.0 | Gain |
---|---|---|---|
10k_rectangles | 222 ms | 6.67 ms | 33.3 |
1k_circles | 572 ms | 363 ms | 1.57 |
boolean-offset | 419 μs | 60.7 μs | 6.91 |
bounding_box | 634 μs | 11.2 μs | 56.8 |
curves | 3.02 ms | 65.4 μs | 46.1 |
flatten | 1.01 ms | 12.6 μs | 79.8 |
flexpath | 5.59 ms | 25.2 μs | 222 |
flexpath-param | 7.34 ms | 1.45 ms | 5.08 |
fracture | 1.71 ms | 911 μs | 1.88 |
inside | 41.2 μs | 11.6 μs | 3.55 |
read_gds | 7.03 ms | 119 μs | 59 |
read_rawcells | 609 μs | 58.5 μs | 10.4 |
robustpath | 386 μs | 15.9 μs | 24.3 |
Memory usage per object for 100.000 objects using Python 3.8:
Object | Gdspy 1.6.1 | Gdstk 0.2.0 | Reduction |
---|---|---|---|
Rectangle | 594 B | 233 B | 61% |
Circle (r = 10) | 1.67 kB | 1.27 kB | 24% |
FlexPath segment | 1.42 kB | 441 B | 70% |
FlexPath arc | 2.23 kB | 1.49 kB | 33% |
RobustPath segment | 2.78 kB | 922 B | 68% |
RobustPath arc | 2.58 kB | 919 B | 65% |
Label | 398 B | 218 B | 45% |
Reference | 159 B | 180 B | -13% |
Reference (array) | 191 B | 182 B | 5% |
Cell | 435 B | 211 B | 52% |