NetTrace: Geometry Net Tracer
The NetTrace library, QisMNtrc, is intended to provide support for tracing out connected nets based on the physical touching of conductors or intersection of conductors with vias on appropriate layers. It is supplied as a an extension library to Artwork's QisMLib library.
This is a library for OEMs - typically companies whose equipment will display a camera image overlaid with the CAD data. The QisMNtrc library enables a client application to select a point (or points) on a layer and determine all the electrically connected conductors through all layers.
There are optional functions to detect digital drivers, to detect potential open/short circuits and an option designed to use a list of "hotspots" and to then report all nets that pass through one or more hotspots.
Since GDSII/OASIS files can be quite large, NetTrace has a number of net extraction approaches that enable quick tracing -- fast enough to be the basis for real-time inspection tools.