This document summarizes enhancements and fixes to the ASM 3500 DXF to GDSII Bidirectional translation program. Please consult this page on a regular basis to determine what changes have been made to our programs.
Changed the default for 'max points' from 200 to 4096.
Changed the reporting of the value for 'gds qualify' in the log and the config file from 'ON' to 'STRICT'.
This is just a logging change and will not affect the generated output.
Resolved an issue within the "About" dialog that affected license reporting.
Log File Naming for DXF2GDS or GDS2DXF command-line enginesThe "-log" option explicitly names the log file.
If the "-log" option isn’t specified, the output file name is used with a ".log" extension.
If neither the "-log" option nor output file name is specified, the input file name is used with a ".log" extension.
Added a new option called "Enable Pop-ups" to the "File->Preferences" pulldown menu. This option enables or disables the progress dialog pop-up during translation (Only affects the Windows version).
GDS2DXF Engine (g2d64.exe)Changed the default behaviour of the engine to remain silent during execution; the progress dialog pop-up will not be displayed.
To enable the progress dialog use "--silent" on the commandline (Only affects the windows engine).
Disabled the TTF Font directories in the "Text Settings" dialog when TTF support is not enabled.
Updated the text for the "Explode Text to Paths" translation option to mention it now supports SHX and TTF.
Added license information about TTF support to the "About" dialog.
Fixed a bug where it was possible to toggle all translation modes to off in the "Text Settings" dialog.
Added a warning message to the "Text Settings" dialog when attempting to use a TTF font when TTF support is not enabled.
Added license information about TTF support to the "About" dialog.
The Linux GUI for DXF2GDS and GDS2DXF have been updated to match the font support available to the Windows product.
Added default saving of translation logs. Logs are overwritten for multiple translations of the same input. Option to save logs separately via "File -> Save Log As..." pulldown menu to prevent overwriting.
Fixed the "Help" button on the "Layers" dialog box.
Improved the presentation of fonts with a small height since adding TTF support in v7.01.
This new Linux version supports conversion of TTF (True Type Fonts) defined in the DXF file to GDSII polygon data. This version is only available in command line mode.
dxf2gds & gds2dxf Linux Updates
Font support now requires at least one path to a depository of supplied font files. Use the option "-fontdir" to set the path(s). You can pass multiple paths concatenated with system delimiters to "-fontdir". (ex. "/home/path1:/home/path2:/home/path3").
The environmental variable ACSLIB_TTF_FONTDIR, if present, will simulate declaring "-fontdir" on the command line. (*For Dxf2Gds* - If you want to output text objects instead of exploded text then unset ACSLIB_TTF_FONTDIR and do not use "-fontdir").
A working directory can be set with the "-workdir" option. If "-workdir" is not present then environmental variables will be checked: TMP, TMPDIR, TEMP, TEMPDIR. If no temporary directory can be found it will use the "Current Working Directory"..
The environmental variable ACSLIB_FONTIDR, if present, will simulate declaring "-workdir" on the command line.
Added a "fonts/" directory to the product. This directory holds commonly used TTF files for demonstration purposes and to provide some basic support.
There were some ambiguities regarding the type of output when the environment variable ACSLIB_TTF_FONTDIR was set but "-fontdir" was not set on the command line. To fix this problem, when ACSLIB_TTF_FONTDIR is set it will be like setting "-fontdir" on the command line.
(*For Dxf2Gds* - If you want to output text objects instead of exploded text then unset ACSLIB_TTF_FONTDIR and do not use "-fontdir".)
This version supports conversion of TTF (True Type Fonts) defined in the DXF file to GDSII polygon data.
dxf2gds & gds2dxf GUI Updates
Updated the "HELP" pulldown menu.
Updated the "HELP" button on the "Configurations" dialog.
Fixed a bug regarding selecting a config file. The "File Selection" dialog will no longer create a dialog pop-up when changing directories with a filename present in the text box.
Added a "View DXF" button to the main "Control Dialog".
Added the ability to select a "DXF Viewer" from the "File"->"Preferences"->"DXF Viewer Path".
Updated "Configuration" dialog:
Re-organized the options in both tabs to be more intuitive.
Added "Font Directory Fields" for both TTF and SHX font files.
Updated "Configuration" dialog:
Added "Explode Text" to the "Font Settings" tab.
"Explode Text" can be set to "ON" or "OFF".
The "Configuration" dialog will now warn you with a pop-up if you attempt to load a TTF file without a proper license.
Fixed a bug where the "Secondary Font Directory" was not being loaded correctly.
Added "-fontdir" command line option which can accept multiple paths concatenated with system delimiter - ';' or ':'.
For example: "/home/path1:/home/path2:/home/path3".
Updated acsbooldll and d2g modules to fix a bug in polygon validation module. In the last release, poorly constructed polygons are either dropped or flagged as an error. This release repairs those polygons and saves them in the GDSII file.
Updated 64 bit modules to VS2015.
Added Flexera Dongle support and removed Sentinel Key support.
Data type mapping defined in GDS.CFG is properly supported.
DXF view options removed from GUI (LINUX only, both directions) - xgdsvu was removed from the LINUX product image - this makes it consistent with Windows versions.
Font Support EnhancedSHX UNIFONT support was improved - the SHX font interpreter had an issue with pen states in conjunction with pops, pushes and shape calls. This was fixed.
Polygon Repair EnhancedTwisted polygon repair was enhanced/improved. This addressed an issue where a vertex that should have been retained was incorrectly removed.
Max Points Control in Linux GUIThe max points control in the xdxf2gds UI now allows up to 8191. Previously the maximum allowed value that could be entered was 4096.
The GDS viewer is now remembered in the LINUX UIs.
Under LINUX the user interfaces are launched from scripts. These were modified so that the default library path is remembered before launching any GDS viewer. Also, libXm and libXpm were added to package for local reference.
Added Circularize option in xgds2dxf GUI.
This version fixes a problem in dxf2gds when using a grid of 10,000 um for DXF and 1,000 um for GDS. This combination caused an overflow problem that resulted in erroneous reporting of bad figures.
This release fixes a client problem when running the software in floating mode.
The error message was FLEXlm Error (-1) - Cannot find license file.
In Floating mode we expected that the ARTWORK_LICENSE_FILE variable would point to a machine or a list of machines
and their respective port numbers. It did not expect that the variable would point to a disk file.
The current policy has been amended. In Floating mode, if the ARTWORK_LICENSE_FILE variable should point to a disk file,
the contents of the disk file should contain the line "USE_SERVER" if that file is to be used in the context of a floating licensing policy.
In the case of Node locked licensing, strings will need to appear in a disk file with name "flexlm.lic" that resides
in the same folder as the calling binary file (executable, shared object).
Ver 6.79 in DXF2GDS addresses an issue where when data that exceeded the vertex count for the MAX_POINTS keyword the roles of layer and datatype were reversed.
New gds2dxf Linux command line option -zeThe new gds2dxf -ze command line option will add header information to the DXF file which will force AutoCAD to open the file in Zoom Extents mode.
A SPLINE issue was fixed where the knot values were read in with insufficient precision. Knot values all became zero in the problematic DXF file. The knot values were treated as coordinate information by the reader when in fact they should have been read in at the maximum possible precision as they are used for parameterizing a contour. This issue has now been fixed. The package is now v6.78a. Two engines d2g.exe and d2g64.exe now have version v6.79.
SPLINE data from AutoCAD R12, R2004, R2010, R2013 and R2007 LITE now all behave properly for certain customer file. A problem was identified in the R2007 LITE output where linking appeared to be broken. This was the result of the first point in the R2007 LITE DXF SPLINE data being dropped. This issue has now been fixed.
SPLINE related keywords are preserved when running from the GUIs (Windows ONLY).
GDS2DXF intermittent crash was fixed - it was related to bad memory access for PATH data (problem in Windows ONLY).
The Windows version includes better support for splines.
When GDSII data is constructed from DXF SPLINE data the user is able to control smoothness via the SPLINE_RULE and SPLINE_TOL keywords in the config file (by default GDS.CFG). Where SPLINES describe idealized curves, the representation in GDSII is necessarily approximated by segmenting the idealized curve (as ARCs and CIRCLEs are).
For SPLINE_RULE equal to 0 or 1 (they are treated in the same manner) SPLINE_TOL has no meaning. The total number of approximating segments will be 9 times the number of knot values.
For SPLINE_RULE equal to 2 a second parameter, the value to SPLINE_TOL or ARCSAG (if SPLINE_TOL is zero or has not been specified) will be used to control smoothness. If both SPLINE_TOL and ARCSAG are not specified or are zero then the behavior reverts to that of SPLINE_RULE equal to 0, otherwise the smoothness of the contour between knot values will be on the order of the tolerance value, i.e. the length of each approximating segment will be close to the tolerance value. Because spline data represent nonlinear parametric curves not all approximating GDSII segment lengths will be the same length.
SPLINE_RULE equal to 3 is similar to SPLINE_RULE 2, however as the curve is generated it is attempted to conform to a rule analogous to how ARCs and CIRCLEs are segmented. Specifically the chord error between the idealized curve and the approximating segments will not exceed the value associated with SPLINE_TOL. If the value for SPLINE_TOL is greater than 3 times the value of ARCSAG or it is zero, then the tolerance will be set to 3 times the value of ARCSAG. If both the value of SPLINE_TOL is zero and the value of ARCSAG is zero then SPLINE_RULE equal to 0 is used.
Example GDS.CFG
ARCSAG 1 SPLINE_RULE rule_number: 0 - 3 SPLINE_TOL spline_tolerance (user units)
The Windows version includes now all the features added in 6.73 to the Linux version.
Circularize improvementsThe GDS2DXF has improved "circularization" over the previous version.
DUP File Error - Permission Problems
This version addresses permissions problem (DUP file error issue).
It does require the user to have have at least one of the following environment variables point to some writable folder:
"TMP", "TMPDIR", "TEMP", "TEMPDIR"
In the DXF -> GDS direction some progress reporting has been added when the qualification of non-robust POLYLINES with width are converted to OUTLINE data is expected to take a long time (i.e. high vertex count).
New InstallerWindows version makes use of our latest installer technology.
Data-type discrimination been implemented via the the config file. Use of the LAYER keyword is the same as before with the exception that the GDSII layer field now can hold either a GDSII LAYER number or a GDSII LAYER:DATATYPE pair. Example:
LAYER 0 0 FIRST 3:1 SECOND 3 5 THIRD 5 -8 OTHER 10:1 1
The precedence is such that LAYER:DATATYPE pairs will be mapped before LAYER entries that do not carry a DATATYPE component. DATATYPE is understood to also mean TEXTTYPE, NODETYPE, as well as BOXTYPE.
The third field in the config file has always been used to map DXF layer colors. Now a negative layer color can be used to designate an “invisible” DXF target layer.
After a complete round trip GDS2DXF2GDS all labels in GDS now have the same origin, height, and justification (all 9 combinations that are supported in GDS like “centerCenter”, “lowerLeft”, etc.)
This is now the default behavior.
The old behavior can be restored via the config file. A new keyword PRESERVE_JUST was added to control this behavior.
PRESERVE_JUST NO PRESERVE_JUST YES
In the examples above the first use of PRESERVE_JUST disables this new enhancement request while the second turns it on (as usual ON and OFF can be used for YES and NO). One exception to the new behavior is that when source data comes from DXF and the TEXT has been aligned or fitted, the local sense of PRESERVE_JUST is NO, i.e. TEXT can not be both fitted or aligned and expected to be in kind to GDS TEXT presentation.
User can define an invisible color for the specific DXF layers when converting from GDSII to DXF.
GDS2DXF adds $ACADVER == AC1009 to the header – to document the DXF version. User can also define other things in the header following the example below. This has been implemented and applies when the new config file keyword ADD_PREAMBLE is TRUE
ADD_PREAMBLE NO ADD_PREAMBLE YES PREAMBLE_INFO DXF generated by Artwork gds2dxf version 6.73a Input file: /abc/test.gds User: Anthony
Example DXF Output file.
999 DXF generated by Artwork gds2dxf version 6.73a 999 Input file: /abc/test.gds 999 User: Anthony 0 SECTION 2 HEADER 9 $ACADVER 1 AC1009 0 ENDSEC
This version of DXF2GDS no longer drops with no warning CIRCLE data that it thinks will cause an integer overflow when converting from DXF to GDSII.
Version 6.68a is the same release as v6.68 with the exception that xgds2dxf and gds2dxf carry version numbers 6.69 and a 14 June 2012 time stamp. The two of them now support PATH environment variable up to 10240 characters in length.
A 64 bit DXF2GDS engine (d2g64.exe) is introduced with this release. The 64 bit engine, supporting DLLs and key file(s) are copied into a sub folder named x64 during installation.
If DXF2GDS is launched from the shell, i.e. the 32 bit DXF2GDS GUI, the shell auto detects whether or not the current platform is 64 bit capable. If so it will use d2g64.exe in the x64 folder for translation. There is no control to defeat this auto detection. The 32 bit engine d2g.exe will only be used on a 32 bit version of MS Windows.
The 64 bit engine d2g64.exe is just as command line friendly as its 32 bit counter part. The usage is the same, except the full path to this binary should be supplied, normally
C:\Wcad\Asm3500\x64\d2g64.exe
This release introduces a new install that includes the installation of VC Redistributables.
Added an option in the dxf2gds direction to read the config file in Read only mode. User can save settings to a new name if needed.
In previous versions, when a user selected an Arc Resolution below 1 degree, the information was saved to the config file, but the GUI ignored it and reset
it to 9 degrees upon starting a new session of the translator. It did so on purpose to avoid creating very large GDSII files.
The DXF engine had a bug handling pline with width that goes back on itself.
The section dropped with no warnings.
The method for repairing of POLYLINEs that fold back on themselves has been improved.
No additional reporting to the log file has been added.
The DXF engine had a bug handling tapered plines. This has been fixed.
ASM3500 dropped an illegal polygon drawn as a bow tie. This has been fixed.
gds2dxf max layer color numbergds2dxf GUI didn't support layer color number greater than 15. This has been fixed.
Rotated extruded block translated incorrectlyASM3500 converted incorrectly a block which was extruded along the Z axis and rotated. This has been fixed.
Issue with small arcsThe issue was related to the presence of very short poly arcs. Problem reported by Dynatron and is now fixed.
This version is for all platforms and includes all the updates defined in 6.60.
GDSII cells may have the same name but different case. DXF doesn't support that and AutoCAD crashes with
duplicate block definition.
This issue has been fixed.
Control for the highest DXF indexed colors 7, 15, 255 (GDS2DXF).
GDS PATHTYPE 4GDS2DXF now supports GDS PATHTYPE 4 (variable square-ended extensions), i.e. PATHs with BGNEXTN and ENDEXTN.
Control for BLOCK name lengthGDS2DXF now has control on the maxmimum number of characters in the DXF block name. Some versions of AutoCAD only supports up to 32 characters while GDSII supports more.
The issue was related to the presence of very short arcs, which when converted to GERBER in CIRCULAR mode became 360 arcs (the starting and ending points collapsing to the same point). This problem wasnot a problem when not in CIRCULAR mode, so now every DXF ARC is first checked as if it were not in CIRCULAR mode. If the number of points to create the corresponding segmented ARC is less than 2, the ARC is discarded.
Improved linker as a result of Physware complaint that some very poorly constructed data (mulitple lines and arcs showing up at the same point) did not link the way they liked.
This version tighten up the angular tolerance from 0.001 radians to 0.0001 radians in evaluating polyline bulges. It is used to discriminate between nearly linear "polyarc" segments and "polyarc" segments with some measurable curvature.
This version fixes the problem reported by Bill Martin, which was the result of striping for butting output and a polygon vertex touched a striping boundary which subsequently was dropped. This has been fixed in the Deemb.Dll.
A 0 width closed pline which is touching and twisting on itself was created incorrectly, generating a folded polygon.
A new output option for the de-embedding was added. The new output option is in the configuration menu and the drop down option is: Using Datatype. This output option uses the GDSII datatype to inidicate a boundary's "position" in the polarity hierarchy. Any boundary with datatype 0 has no parents - datatype 1 has 1 parent, datatype 2 has two parents and so on.
This option can be invoked from the command line as -emblevel
Added for client Physware.
This version reports and if possible fixes "folded" polygons. If the
polygon can not be repaired it is placed on the "error layer" as before.
This version was tested against the latest bug reports from ARC T098, T103, T104,T105,T106,T107, and T109.
The DXF engine didn't report as an error a polygon that had a 0.01 micron segment folded on itself within a close pline. The problem was reported by Advance Reproduction and was fixed (T104).
Long cell names.The DXF in question crashed due to long cell names. The problem was reported by Advance Reproduction and was fixed (T103).
Mirrored array.The DXF in question had a problem with a mirrored array. The problem was reported by Advance Reproduction and was fixed (T106).
The DXF engine didn't report as an error a polygon that had a small first segment folded on itself within a close pline. The problem was reported by Advance Reproduction and was fixed
The DXF engine didn't report as an error a polygon that had a 0.01 micron segment folded on itself within a close pline. The problem was reported by Advance Reproduction and was fixed
The DXF engine didn't support ellipse entities in some cases. Problem reported by CTS Corp and was fixed.
Validation of 0 width closed plines.A re-entrant polygon (0 width closed pline) which was constructed incorrectly, didn't flag an error in the DXF2GDS conversion. Now it will report an error when the validation option is on.
Path to Outline.A path with width wasn't converted correctly to a closed outline. Problem reported by Advanced Reproduction and was fixed.
ASM3500 can now support USB keyes on Windows.
ASM3500 Supports Flex 11.3.All versions are FLEXLM v11.3 compliant.
ASM3500 Linux Supports Fedora.The LINUX version works on all the "usual platforms", including Fedora.
2GB file size support.DXF2GDS is now LARGEFILE compliant, i.e. DXF files greater than 2GB are supported.
Layer name with spaces supported.DXF2GDS now support layer names with spaces.
A problem was detected in De-embedding mode where the max vertex setting was ignore. Problem was fixed.
A problem was detected in the De-embedding module when a polygon had too many points in the "no-cutline" mode. Problem was fixed.
A problem was detected with plines that have a bulge of less than 0.00505 (arcs with large radius and minimum angle change). The "fix" involved relaxing the checking of very shallow POLYLINE arcs. Before POLYLINE arcs with bulge values of less than 0.00505 were converted to straight line segments. This value was changed to 0.00101.
A problem was detected when a block was inserted with scale that is close to an integer. For example, blocks that was inserted with scale 1.001 , got translated to GDSII with scale of 1.000
File name problemA problem was detected when the file name had "-k" in it. This has been fixed.
A problem was detected when translating a GDSII path that had duplicate vertices (i.e. two vertex points on the same coordinate) at a point in the path where it was changing direction. The resulting path outline was incorrect. The routine to find duplicate vertices has been updated to find and correct such a condition. [reported by Optimal Technologies]
Two fixes were made to the new feature added. One has to do with the output top cell name selected and one with files that have more than one main block.
Previous versions of GDS2DXF may create circle radius of 24.999 microns. This new version has new
parameter you can define in the config file:
SNAP_CIRCLE
0.01
GDS2DXF will snap the radius of the circle to the nearest 0.01 GDSII user unit.
Previous versions of ASM3500 didn't handle correctly certain conditions of mirrored arrays. This has been fixed.
This version fixes a problem in the DXF to GDSII direction. A pline arc with 360 degrees (looks like a circle) was not processed correctly. This is now fixed.
The Linux version comes with a GUI just like the Solaris and HPUX. Before, it was command line only.
Program crashed with signal 11 when opening the text menu in the Configuration. It has been fixed.
Updated all UNIX releases to the latest Windows release.
New Linux version is now available!
All 4 platforms now support Flexlm license manager.
The installation for 6.10 terminated unexpectedly if the user selected hardware key (Sentinel) Licensing. This has been fixed.
DXF2GDS
Text centered justified
Previous DXF to GDSII will convert centered justified text to lower left justified.
Per customer request, DXF to GDSII now preserves the Text justification.
Arc Sag
DXF to GDSII didn't fully support the Arc Sag value under some pline with arcs conditions.
DXF2GDS
New Polygon "Chopping" Function
DXF drawings with complex boundaries often exceed the GDSII
limit of 200 vertices per boundary/path. In the past, when this
limit was exceeded, DXF2GDS would convert it to an open path with 0 width,
and the user had to redraw the boundary in AutoCAD manually.
Version 6.04 can now handle such complex boundaries automatically. It breaks down these large complex boundaries into smaller ones that do not exceed the max vertex limit.
Polylines with Width
POLYLINE support is much more robust, and specifically addresses
a situation where a POLYLINE folds back on itself. This version
now supports closed POLYLINES with constant and changing width that would previously
have generated self-intersecting boundaries.
New Manual
New PDF manual is now available on the download page for both Windows and UNIX.
Application Note for MEMS/Optical Designs.
Describes CAD related problems and solutions when designing optical
components (or other complex curved designs), and converting to GDSII and MEBES.
You can access it at:
Design Rules for Optical Components
DXF2GDS
Text Stroke Weight
Older versions might ignore the specified text stroke weight. This has
been fixed.
Program Starts Up Hidden
Under Windows 2000, program would startup hidden behind other programs.
This has been fixed.
New HostInfo Node Locking
The method of getting the hostid from the PC has been improved to eliminate
cases where the machine had a network card but the hostid returned was null.
Demo Mode is Gone
If no valid license was obtained the old program
would go into demo mode. This was confusing customers who weren't sure why they
were running in demo mode. This mode has been deleted and only the license error
message will appear.
GDS2DXF
DXF Output Block Names
Added control to generate DXF output in AutoCAD 2000 format or not.
This will limit the length of the block names to 31 for non AutoCAD 2000
output, and 256 for AutoCAD 2000 output.
Structure Names Fixes
Maximum structure name length is raised from 34 to 256.
Parentheses and spaces are now allowed in the structure names.
Structure Information
Older versions might report incorrect structure boundary, path, text and
structure references information. This has been fixed.
Program Starts Up Hidden
Under Windows 2000, program would startup hidden behind other programs.
This has been fixed.
New HostInfo Node Locking
The method of getting the hostid from the PC has been improved to eliminate
cases where the machine had a network card but the hostid returned was null.
Demo Mode is Gone
If no valid license was obtained the old program
would go into demo mode. This was confusing customers who weren't sure why they
were running in demo mode. This mode has been deleted and only the license error
message will appear.
Extra Structures Translated
Older versions would translate unreferenced structure if the selected
structure for translation is not the top structure. This has been fixed.
SREF name is wrong
5.61 would generate an INSERT to a undefined BLOCK name. The name
would come from the associated property value (PROPVAL) rather than the
SREF SNAME. This has been fixed.
Maximum Number of Points per Polygon
Maximum number of points for polygon is 262144. User can configure
the "Max Points" setting so that polygons with over "Max Points" will be
chopped into multiple polygons each with a maximum of "Max Points" number
of points. The limit in gds2dxf direction is 65536.
Suppress Hatch/Dimension
It has been verified that control over hatch and dimension translation
is working.
DXF2GDS
Suppress Hatch and Dimension
Older versions had these 2 modes reversed, when checked, they were not
suppressed. These have been fixed.
DXF2GDS
Polylines to Polygons Problem
There was a problem with converting polylines to polygons on the TI files.
This has been fixed.
GDS2DXF
No changes except revision number to track dxf2gds.
GDS2DXF
Selecting Structure Bug Fix
5.50 introduced a bug when a different structure is selected Gds2dxf would
crash. This has been fixed.
DXF2GDS
Explode Text to Paths
Added explode text using DXF SHX font selection. This mode will translate
text to paths using the embedded shx font information in the DXF file.
Users can specify text stroke weight for the paths and the directory
to locate the shx files. Txt.shx must exist in the specified shx font
directory.
Log File Searching
Added keyword searching function for the log window.
Improved Demo Mode
Now has both gds and dxf files for demo use.
Before, only gds files were included.
Improved Gds2dxf Structure Dialog Box
This version of Gds2dxf has the new structure dialog box which provides
information about the various elements counts and dependence tree for
each structure. A report can also be generated.
BOTH DIRECTIONS
DXF Extract Module Added
The ability to extract DXF data is now included in the Motif
version. (Requested by Ansoft)
AIX Platform Support Added
The ability to extract DXF data is now available on the AIX
platform. (Requested by Ansoft)
DXF2GDS
Fixed Report Count of Total Number of Closed Polygons
Older versions did report the total number of polygons output correctly;
failing to count polygons generated from a polyline that included lines and arcs.
Fixed.
GDS2DXF
DXF2GDS
Scanning Error Fixed
Occasionally under NT 4.0 a "Scanning Error" message would
be generated immediately after the DXF file is selected and the program
would lock up. Fixed.
GDS2DXF
DXF2GDS
ACAD 14 Lt Plines
This version supports the AutoCAD 14 lightweight polyline
so it is no longer necessary to saveas R12 or R13. A very nice feature since the
lightweight polylines result in very small DXF files.
Long File Names
This version has support for long file names on Windows
95/NT. This includes all paths and filenames.
Help Page Link to WEB
This version can launch your default web browser and go to Asm3500 web page automatically. Available from the Help | Artwork Web Page. This is a 95/NT function only.
Bug Fix - Donut processing
Donuts were not correctly translated. Where the two polylines that form the "donut" meet, the meeting point was not square resulting in a small wedge shaped hole in the GDSII data. This
has been fixed so that the two polyline now meet perpendicularly.
Reported by James Peal of TI.
GDS2DXF
GDS2DXF
GDS2DXF
"undefined block ...".
The GDSII file under consideration was found to use structure names where part of one name was embedded in another, e.g. HB7312_A and TYP200_HB7312_A. GDS2DXF had difficulty resolving the difference between the desired top level structure. Problem is fixed in 5.38.
Reported by Travis Kerby; Bosch.
DXF2GDS
DXF2GDS
DXF Layer Name GDSII Layer poly 10 metal 12 layer1 13
GDS2DXF
My name is Joe Blow CR/LF Your name is John Smith CR/LF. or My name is Joe Blow CR Your name is John Smith CR or My name is Joe Blow LF Your name is John Smith LF
Network Licensing on WindowsNT
This version supports network licensing under WinNT using LicenseServ.
Maximum Number of Structures
Context Sensitive Help
This version has an updated help file with context sensitive help from the
various dialog boxes and pull down menu items.
Error message - "Error Occurred in Communicating with module g2d."
This message might pop up unexpectedly when starting a translation even when
things are actually ok. This has been fixed.
DXF2GDS
Preferences
The preference settings for the Control Dialog Box, Tool Bar and Status Bar controls
have been moved to File-Preferences pulldown menu. The View menu has been removed.
Link On/Off
The line/arc linking routine was always
set to on regardless of the user's setting
in the configuration file.This has been
fixed.
GDS2DXF
Viewing GDS File
A nasty interaction between GDS2DXF and GDSVU has been fixed. Viewing the
same GDSII file in GDSVU would cause GDS2DXF to erase the file (after
quitting GDSVU). The GDS2DXF program would then have to rescan the GDSII
file prior to translating it.
GDSVU and GDS2DXF now use 2 separate scan files so this is no longer a problem.
Invalid Block in the DXF Output
Translation Reports Wrong Text Files
After translation, text files were incorrectly reported as c:\users\textdirtxt.shx,
which should have been c:\users\textdir\txt.shx. This has been fixed.
Font Mapping to DXF Style/Font
GDSII font2 did not map to the specified DXF text
style/font. The program reported an error: "At least 1 text is not found. No text translated." even
when a correct DXF font was specified.
This bug has been fixed.
Sharing Violation in Win 3.1
Under Win 3.1, a "Sharing Violation" error message might appear even though the translation runs to completion. This was due to a bug in the translator
which has been fixed.
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