Fixing Bad or Zero Width Paths

There are two kinds of PATH problems that GDSFILT can "fix."

Zero Width Path - some CAD systems apparently will not import a GDSII file if any of the paths in the file have a width of zero. GDSFILT can be directed to find such paths and replace the width with a user specified value.

Self Intersecting Paths - some CAD systems will "crash" when importing a GDSII file that contains a path that intersects itself.

Examples of self intersecting paths.

From the User Interface

Click on the unfold paths check box to insure that GDSFILT checks each path and unfolds it if needed.

To remove zero width paths (or very narrow ones) set the minimum value in the field called:

Drop Path/Text With Width Less Than.

From the Command Line

c:\wcad\gdsfilt\gdsfilte.exe    gdsfilt executable engine
   demo5.gds                    input GDSII file
     demo5_clean_paths.gds      output GDSII file
        =                       find and use input file's top structure
         -unixcmdline           needed for Windows (legacy)
           -unfold              test and unfold any self-intersecting paths
             -min:0.000         drop any path with width equal to or less than 0.000