A Batch File for Plotting Stream Files to TIFF (II)

by Steve DiBartolomeo and Hagai Pettel
December 23, 2003

Plotting Layer by Layer to TIFF

The next step is to write a script that plots each layer to its own TIFF output using GDSPLOT. This is quite a bit more complicated since GSDPLOT uses several resouce files that must be created correctly prior to calling the program.

Here are the resource files we need to create/modify

1. GDSPLOT Config File - this contains the list of layers to plot, scale factor, plot window and text plotting controls. One can define multiple plots within this config file.
   
   
2. MAP File - this contains a list of layers and the desired fill pattern and layout outline.
   
   
3. Plotter Configuration File - this contains the type of output, resolution, page size and other plotter related parameters.

The GDSPLOT Configuration File

You can assign this file any name you like (in our tutorial we call it demo5.cfg), but the convention is to use the input GDSII file name, followed by .cfg. Here is a sample config file. The text in italics is not part of the file.

#Font Map Begin                      beginning of font section
"C:\WCAD\Gdsplot\GDSVU.FNT" 1        font file and relative size (for font0)
"C:\WCAD\Gdsplot\GDSVU.FNT" 1        font file and relative size (for font1)
"C:\WCAD\Gdsplot\GDSVU.FNT" 1        font file and relative size (for font2)
"C:\WCAD\Gdsplot\GDSVU.FNT" 1        font file and relative size (for font3)
#font map end                        end of font section
#
#Plot/Layer Begin Setup              beginning of the plot/layer setup section 
100 0 0 w0,0  2941,2626 i1 x %1.tif   1st plot
100 0 0 w0,0  2941,2626 i2 x %2.tif   2nd plot
100 0 0 w0,0  2941,2626 i3 x %3.tif   3rd plot
100 0 0 w0,0  2941,2626 i4 x %4.tif   4th plot
100 0 0 w0,0  2941,2626 i5 x %5.tif   5th plot
#plot/layer end setup
#

Details

The Font Map section has two items per line. The first item is the path and name of the font file to use for rendering text. The font file GDSVU.FNT is provided as part of the GDSPLOT release and this should point to where GDSVU.FNT is located.

The Plot/Layer Section is more important and is organized as follows:

column 1    - plot scale factor. In the above example it is 100. Scale of 0 means Fit to Page.
columns 2,3 - plot offset but it is obsolete and should always be 0 0
column 3    - lower left plot window. In this example the plot window starts at w0,0
column 4    - this is the upper right of the plot window. In this case it is 2941,2626
column 5    - list of layers to include (plot). i1 indicates plot layer 1. i1,2,3 - plot layers 1,2,3.
column 5    - x  this is a placeholder
column 6    - %1.tif the variable representing the output file name

In the above example 5 plots are specified. Each has a scale factor of 100 and a plot window of 0,0 to 2941,2626. Each plot is for a single layer (1,2,3,4,5) and the output file name corresponds to the layer number.

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