QCKVU / MBSVU Revision History

This page documents the revisions made to the QCKVU & MBSVU programs. Please consult it to determine if you are running the current versions and to see what fixes/enhancements have been made to the programs.

QCKVU v2.85     (08/16/2019)

This version has added protection against reading next segment data in the same record.
This version fixes a resize issue - Process pending events caused infinite loop of Resize event.

QCKVU v2.84     (04/25/2018)

This version fixes an issue when loading multiple MEBES files. Input file name must not have ":" character.

QCKVU v2.83     (03/23/2018)

This version fixes an issue loading large Type 4 Mebes pattern files. Previously, the MEBES reader did not recognize that the values in the table of segment offsets were truncated when the MEBES file exceeded 128 MB. Now the correct segments are calculated/found by making use of the truncated values and by finding the actual associated segment start in the MEBES pattern file.

This version includes the latest GDSPLOT package 5.44.

This version includes various 32 and 64 bit libraries in the distribution and has been successfully tested on the following platforms (LINUX version and kernel):

RHEL 5.2 2.6.18-92.el5
RHEL 6.6 2.6.32-504
RHEL 6.8 2.6.32-642
CentOS 5.11 2.6.18-407
CentOS 6.9 2.6.32-696
CentOS 7.3 3.10.0-514
Ubuntu LTS 17.10 4.13.0-21 4.13.0-37
Ubuntu LTS 16.04 4.13.0-36 4.13.0-37
Ubuntu LTS 14.04 4.04.3-31

This products release requires a x86_64 compute platform. However, there are 32 bit modules in the product and as such a 32 bit subsystem is required.

This release is the first LINUX product release where the installer (INSTALL/COMINSTALL) has been enhanced to detect whether or not a 32 bit subsystem is present.
The installer depends on the presence of a 32 bit subsystem and will advise the user of this problem and will gracefully abort the installation.

QCKVU v2.81     (07/19/2011)

Previous versions would report the measured distance off by 1 if the distance is negative and the GDSII file has a grid of 1.0. This has been fixed.

Previous versions would draw incorrect data with running lines when zooming in tight to non manhattan data with large extents. This has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.80     (01/24/2011)

If the number of rows or column in a ROW command is one and the distance between rows or columns is specified and non zero, extents of the CHIP would include the distance and thus an extra reverse tone would be drawn.
This behavior has been changed to ignore non zero distance if the number of rows and columns is zero.

QCKVU v2.79     (08/19/2010)

Added new command line options to define the pattern file, map file, background color, and layer side bar display.

[hagai@asmsc37 qckvu]$ ./bin/qckvu -h

Qckvu v2.79 (Aug 18, 2010) (64 Bit)
Copyright © 2000-2010 Artwork Conversion Software, Inc.
(831)426-6163  info@artwork.com  www.artwork.com

usage is:

qckvu [gdsfile] [options]

  gdsfile             GDSII stream file to view.
  -struct:sname       sname is the name of the structure to view.
  -map:mapfile        mapfile is the layer settings map file.
                      default is gdsplot.map in start up directory.
  -pat:patfile        patfile is the layer fill patterns file.
                      default is colfill.pat in the installation directory.
  -script:scriptfile  Qckvu runs this scriptfile at start up.
  -bg:color           color is white or black.
  -layersb:format     layer side bar format - 0 numbers,1 names,2 numbers names,3 names numbers.
  -net                turn on Info Net Mode and View Net if file is a net file.
  -port portnumber    port number is the port for IPC communication with Calibre-RVE.
  -ip ipadd           IP adress to start IPC communication with Calibre-RVE.

QCKVU v2.77     (02/9/2010)

Mebes Viewer dropped data unless the view was zoomed in real tight. Data from a jobdeck did not appear at all. This bug has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.76     (10/9/2009)

Mebes SLICE codes 77, 88 and 99 are now supported.

Added a new mode to draw both the Mebes details and the stripes outline.

libXm.so, libXmu.so, libXp.so or libstdc++.so error.

For Linux, this version has Motif embedded into the Qckvu executable, so Qckvu now runs even if Motif isn't installed in the system.
A C++ runtime library is also included in the install/bin directory. If the user doesn't want to install C++, he can setup a script to use the included libstdc++.so.x.y.z instead.

QCKVU v2.74     (11/28/2007)

Selecting the "File | Select MEBES Files..." menu item launches a dialog box which allows for adding sets of MEBES/Job Deck files from different directories.

QCKVU v2.73     (04/27/2007)

While reading the center to center distance between rows and columns in a ROW command in a job file, the distance was rounded to an integer. The distance in the file is 493.5, and it was interpreted as 493. That caused the offset in the display. The issue was fixed.

QCKVU v2.72     (04/01/2006)

For the Windows version of Qckvu, 2 functions are added to copy the current view to the clipboard for easy copy and paste the picture to other programs. Go to View/Copy View Screen or Copy View Window to copy the whole view or grab a window of the current view to copy.

The on/off states of the layers are remembered in the specified .map file. When opening a file, these remembered layer on/off states can be used so layers in the file will default to be on or off, as remembered.
By default, layers are default to be always on. To use the remembered on/off states instead, go to Preferences/Preferences and select Remember On/Off. After this setting is set, all subsequent file open will use the remembered on/off states.
The .map file being used is controlled in the Layer dialog box. To use a different .map file, simply click Load Map or Save As in the Layer dialog box.
To use a different default .map file, go to Preferences/Preferences and select gdsplot.map or Specify Map File.
In addition, a command line option "-map:c:\tmp\my map.map" can be used to start Qckvu with a specific .map file.

Added Page Up/Down, Home, End Buttons to the Layer dialog box for easier layer access.

This version ships with 200+ more fill patterns (Thanks for Gayle from Atmel).

Specify a script file on the command line and Qckvu will startup and
execute the script.  A sample script to open a GDSII file and set the
viewing structure and the layers:


boc 1
open_gdsii
"c:\tmp\demo1.gds"
eoc 1


boc 2
open_structure
"TQE"
eoc 2


boc 3
set_layers_on
2,3
eoc 3


boc 4
redraw
eoc 4

To start Qckvu with "Info Net Mode" and "View Net" turned on if the GDSII file to be opened is a net file.

Set_Layers_On and Set_Layers_Off script mode commands might not work. This has been fixed. The 2 commands can control GDSII layers or MEBES levels only when either GDSII or MEBES is opened, not both.

Specify the GDSII structure to view when Qckvu starts up opening the first file. Default is to view the deepest top structure.

Specify the map file to use instead of the remembered map file settings set in the Preference dialog.

QCKVU v2.70     (09/27/2005)

This version of Qckvu is available for SUSE 32 and 64 bit Linux.
This SUSE release is shipped with FLEXlm v9 artwork daemon (32 bit) which works with FLEXlm v10 on SUSE.

A new function to find GDSII text insertions and MEBES titles is added. Go to Info/Find Text and enter the text string to find, it will find the first text in the current drawing view. Clicking Find Next will find the next text.
Text can be found even if Text Mode is turned off.
Use the Match Case and Match Whole Text to control case insensitive search and partial text search.

Easily Turn Off Display Filter, Structure Display Filter and Outline Filter.
Added a button to the tool bar to turn off all 3 display filter, structure display filter and outline filter. Users can use this to easily toggle between drawing all the details and drawing with filtering.
This setting is not remembered between Qckvu runs. Qckvu always starts up using the last remembered display filter, structure display filter and outline filter settings.

Added control to set the structure display filter on the tool bar. Users can now see the structure display filter easily without popping up the View Settings dialog.

Added control to put a marker at the zoom location when zooming using the Zoom To XY Coord dialog box. If it is turned on, a marker is shown on the lower left coordinate of the zoom window or the center of the zoom window depending on the setting. The marker stays at that location for the whole Qckvu run. It can be removed by clicking the Remove Marker button on the dialog.

In the Structure Parents dialog box, the list of parent names can be saved to a text file. The file name and directory is remembered.

The logging information text in the bottom text area can be saved to a text file. Go to the menu File/Save Log File. The file name and directory is remembered.

For GDSII files, previous versions would draw the fill patterns for all layers first and then the outlines for all layers. This has been changed to drawing both the fill patterns and outlines for each layer within a structure before moving on to the next layer.
The result could be a 2X speed up for drawing in fill mode. This also cause a different drawing behavior that the outlines could now be covered by the fill patterns of other layers.

The file name and directory of the GIF file is remembered for each save and between Qckvu runs.

The directory of the export file name is remembered.

The GDSII extract file name is remembered between Qckvu runs.

When drawing a large array, it might take a long time to stop it. This behavior started with Qckvu v2.40. It has now been fixed.

When a GDY file is opened, GDSII extraction is not allowed. A message box would pop up.

Older versions would not show all the structure names in the structure dialog box if there are many structures in the GDSII file. This has been changed to show all structure names while allowing users to stop showing all names if there are too many names to list.
When opening the structure dialog for the first time after opening a GDSII file, the progress of the number of structure names listed is shown thus allowing users to see how many names has been added and how many are to be processed.
A Stop button has been added to the structure dialog box. It can be used to stop showing all structure names when popping up the dialog for the first time after opening a GDSII file. It can also be used to stop showing child names when expanding a structure name to show its children.
After clicking Stop, if not all the names are shown, a warning dialog would pop up. e.g. Only 20000 of 90000 child structures are listed.

When info-ing text, the text string itself is now reported in the log window. e.g. For a text insertion PAD
Text Font 0 (1.5,2.5) Structure:TOP Layer:0 Texttype:0 Scale:25 Rotation:0 No Reflection Hor. Just:0 Vert. Just:0 Text:PAD

QCKVU v2.61     (1/20/2005)

New measure mode, 'snap to 45 degrees' is introduced in this version. In this mode, user can measure any two points which are orthogonally or 45 degrees diagonally displaced from each other.

In previous versions, user might need to select "Open File As Magic" before opening a GDSII file with array structure references. Otherwise, array structure references might not be drawn correctly. This "Magic" control is obsoleted and all array structure references are drawn correctly automatically.

In previous versions, the extents box of array structure references might be calculated incorrectly. This would cause these problems:
1. The bounding boxes are drawn incorrectly when array mode is set to 0.
2. The structure display filtered bounding boxes are drawn incorrectly when an array structure reference is filtered out.
3. When zooming in to an area inside an array structure reference, nothing is drawn.
This has been fixed.

This version supports duplicate chip names in the MEBES job deck data. We did not support duplicate chip names in the same job deck and it's behaviour was undefined in the earlier versions.

Layer description was not saved properly, when multiple MEBES job deck files were selected in previous versions. This bug has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.60 Windows     (10/27/2004)

A new function that works with GDSII extraction has been added. This is a boolean operation that clips the extracted data to the window boundary. This new clipping function is not a part of the standard Qckvu release. If licensed, an option under Tools will be active which allows the user to control whether the extraction should be clipped or not. If not licensed, the option will be visible but grayed out.

Version 2.60 includes two new interfaces to the MicroMetric mask inspection machine: an offline interface that produces a file and a real-time interface that uses windows messaging. Unless this feature is licensed, it is not visible to regular Qckvu users. This is of no interest to regular Qckvu users.

A new New Help | License Information menu to show hostid or license server has been added to indicate if a license is activated. If a license is not activated, the error message is shown. At start up time, license errors for add on features are not popped up in a message box.

GDSII allows a user customizable path end cap extension. Previous versions of Qckvu did not support this. Qckvu now displays such paths correctly but because it compensates for them on-the-fly it will still report them as type 0 (i.e. flush ends)

When extracting a GDSII file, previous versions of Qckvu did not match the input file's grid/resolution unless the grid was 10 to the power K (i.e. 10, 100, 1000, 10,000) Therfore a grid of 0.25 um or 0.125 um would be messed up. This has been fixed.

Previous versions of Qckvu were unable to properly report the units of stream files that were in nanometers. This has been fixed.

Information on the GDSII user unit and database unit have been added to the report dialog.

QCKVU v2.541 Linux     (08/19/2004)

This version of Qckvu includes the latest gscan that was tested successfully on all of our Linux platforms (7.2, 9.0, Enterprise 3.0, and E3 AMD 64), whereas the current one only works for Linux 7.2.

QCKVU v2.54     (06/11/2004)

New binaries for Optron 64 bit are now available. No file size limit and much better speed compare to Solaris and HPUX 64 bit.

Customers wanted us to develop a GDSII encryption program which will corrupt a GDSII file (therefore, make it un-usable for manufacturing), yet be able to view them with Qckvu. This feature is now available, and customers interested in this new encryption program should contact us for more details.

QCKVU v2.53     (02/13/2004)

MEBES detailed/Non-detailed viewing supported. In non-detailed View transformation order for GDS/MEBES data has been changed. Translation(movex,movey) is performed before transformation (mirror,rotate,scale). Auto center button has been added as part of translation, which provides with the MoveX and MoveY parameters to center the GDS/MEBES data at 0,0.

MEBES detailed/Non-detailed viewing supported. In non-detailed In the previous version, if the cell name passed to Qckvu by Calibre-RVE does not match one of the structures of the GDS file opened then it use to ignore the error data sent by RVE. However, for this scenario, in the current version, Qckvu draws the errors sent by RVE as part of current viewing structure. User should see a warning in the status bar.
e.g.
RVE cell name TOP123 does not exist in the GDS structure list. Select the mapping GDS structure to view, if necessary.
where, TOP123 is the cell name specified by Calibre-RVE.

Older versions would use the extents of the text strings (width and height) for calculating the structure extents, this has been changed. Only the text insertion points are used to calculate the structure extents, in addition to the extents of boundaries, paths, structure references and array structure references.

When querying a pattern in an array of patterns, older versions would report the insertion point of the array. This version reports the center point of the one pattern being queried.

In the older versions, when viewing at a zoom out level, disregarding the display filter, some areas might be shown as empty areas even though data are present. This has been improved to show data without drawing all the details at the same drawing speed.

QCKVU v2.52     (1/8/2004)

MEBES detailed/Non-detailed viewing supported. In non-detailed viewing mode, only pattern segment and stripe boxes are drawn. No detailed pattern geometries are drawn in non-detailed mode. User can switch to detailed mode( by using toggle button "Show/ Hide MEBES Details" ) to see the actual pattern geometries. By default, whenever you launch Qckvu, MEBES non-detailed viewing mode is set. (Key 'd' Or 'D' can also be used as a keyboard mnemonic for toggling between these two modes. Before, we use to use this key as a short cut for measure tool)

We have a quick scan mode, which gets some information per pattern in job decks and/or mulitple patterns. We don't spend time in reading the entire file during scan. We removed the loading phase for MEBES data.

On non-windows platforms, view transformation never worked when single MEBES pattern file was loaded in previous versions.This has been fixed in this version.

When "PATH" environment variable was bigger than 256 characters then Qckvu use to crash at start on Linux, in previous versions. This has been fixed in this version.

QCKVU v2.51     (12/8/2003)

MEBES array data fast zoom implemented in v2.50 introduced a bug; data drop when we zoom in at the lower right pattern of an array intersection. This has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.50     (11/28/2003)

This version could uses up to 75% less memory comparing to previous versions. e.g. Memory usage of 1GB could be reduced to 250MB. This would be true is the GDSII file has polygons with more than 4 vertices and are manhattan data.
Memory saving might also result in less swapping and thus would speed up the overall performance drastically depending on the system's RAM size.

Added support for Reverse Tone data in MEBES for UNIX platforms. This feature was supported on Windows.

This version has faster zooming speed when zooming into MEBES array data crossing multiple instances of an array.

This version draws an outline for each of the instances of all MEBES array data for all viewing modes.

Older versions would draw the fill patterns upside down while they look correct in the layer dialog box. This has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.40     (10/18/2003)

Added a structure display filter. All structure references smaller than the specified structure display filter size in pixels are drawn with an extent box. The details will be shown as you zoom in when the size of the reference becomes bigger than the filter size. Default is 20. To show all the details at all zoom level, set it to 0. The display filter for all data takes precedence over this structure display filter. So structure references smaller than the all data display filter are not drawn.

Older versions would order text data first even if their layer is larger than the other data. This has been fixed.

The loading time has speed up when sort data by layer is turned on especially under Solaris.

This version reports the CPU time used for scanning and loading in addition to the elapsed time. It is available for the UNIX and Linux version, not Windows.

Older UNIX/Linux versions would not move data by the specified Y value, it used the X value for Y movement. This has been fixed.

When using RVE, older versions would zoom out when panning. This has been fixed.

Older versions would not zoom to the right location if the GDSII data is transformed. This has been fixed.

In a jobdeck file, if there are spaces before any command identifier, the command was ignored which resulted in dropped data or no data. In this version, the spaces are ignored.

Older Linux versions running on RH Linux 9 might crash with a "DFTxt font warning". This has been fixed.

Linux version is still a 7.2 compile. To run on Linux 9, $LM_LICENSE_FILE and $DISPLAY have to be specified using IP address. We believe we'll have to make 2 different compiles for Linux 7 and 9 in future release.

QCKVU v2.30     (09/16/2003)

This version has speed up for files with lots of structures and/or structure references, especially when many of the structure names are similar.
For a file with 1 million structures, the scanning plus loading time could be down to 3 minutes from 12 hours!

If the GDSII file has more than 5000 structures, older versions would ask if you want to show the child structure list. This has been suppressed and the program would automatically show as much as possible in a reasonable amount of time (10-60 seconds). A warning message would pop up if not all the structures are listed in the dialog. This also applies when expanding a structure tree in the dialog. A structure name can still be entered as the View Structure to the dialog even if it is not listed in the dialog. This only affects the listing of the structure name in the dialog, the data is not dropped from drawing or any other functionalities.

In the structure dialog, when there are too many structures, some might not be listed. To get a complete list of structure names or a complete tree hierarchy for a specified structure name, use the Export function to output it to a text file.
3 kinds of output are added, output a list of top and child structure names, output the immediate children of a specified structure as entered in the View Structure edit box, or the full tree hierarchy all the way deep of the specified structure.

The FlexLM daemon, artwork, is included in the tools/flexlm directory for the UNIX/Linux versions.

QCKVU v2.20     (08/7/2003)

Qckvu-Calibre-RVE Support
Qckvu users can now view the DRC errors in Qckvu generated by the DRC check using calibre-RVE as a interface tool.

How to make it work?
---------------------
a) In Qckvu, go to the menu option, Tools->Calibre-RVE->Settings.
   It will pop up a dialog box named 'Calibre RVE Settings',
   where in, path to the calibre RVE can be set. 
b) You can click on 'Run Calibre' in the dialog 'Calibre RVE
   Settings' OR on the menu option Tools->Calibre-RVE->Run
   to run Calibre-RVE. If the path in the settings dialog points to
   the correct calibre executable it will launch calibre RVE.
c) By default, calibre RVE should automatically communicate with Qckvu
   , and you should be able to view error checking without setting any 
   Inter process communication(IPC) settings.


Other important notes
---------------------
   User can run qckvu from the command line. Usage is:
 
   qckvu [gdsfile] [options]
 
     gdsfile             GDSII stream file to view.
     -map:mapfile        mapfile is the layer settings map file.
                         default is gdsplot.map in start up directory.
     -port portnumber    port number is the port for IPC communication with Calibre-RVE.
     -ip   ipadd         IP adress to start IPC communication with Calibre-RVE.

Calibre-RVE Settings dialog in Qckvu
--------------------------------------
   1) You can select the socket number in the range of 1025-65535.
   2) You can either select 'localhost' or the machines host name(eg: nunki) as
      Host Name option. 'localhost' will use the loopback address,127.0.0.1
      , whereas hostname will use the actual machine's IP Address.( eg. 222.443.2.1).
   3) You can start and stop the server. You wont be needed to do it
      explicitly,if you plan to launch calibre RVE from Qckvu. Ofcourse, 
      if Calibre RVE is running on another machine and they have access to some 
      common file system then you will be needed to start server on your own.
      Qckvu reads the error data file which is generated by Calibre RVE to show
      the error data. So Calibre RVE and Qckvu must have some common area
      from where the temporary file is accessible to both of them. The temporary
      file, which is used in the communication can be set in Calibre-RVE as explained
      later.

Calibre-RVE usage
-------------------        
   1) Calibre RVE will ask for the .db file, which is generated from
      the DRC check program.
   2) Once .db file is loaded, user can just double click on each
      error or right click the error and highlight to view. 
   3) In the menu option, Setup->options user can select the way
      user wish to see the error data in the layout viewer(Qckvu).
      User can either pan, zoom or keep the same zoom settings in the
      layout viewer, every time he clicks on the error.
   4) Also, there is a option 'Clear existing highlights before showing new 
      highlights'. If this is set, then everytime user clicks on the error, all
      the previously clicked errors will be deleted from the viewer and only
      the errors in the current click will be shown. 

QCKVU v2.16     (05/7/2003)

MEBES/GDSII UPDATES

Multiple MEBES jobdeck and multiple MEBES patterns support
User can select multiple job decks and multiple patterns in a directory to view at a time. File selection dialog box does not allow user to select job decks from different directories. We will certainly allow to select from different directories in later versions. Thanks to skyworks for getting us started with the multiple MEBES job decks support.

Layer Titles in layer side bar and layer dialog(MEBES)
Added a option in layer dialog('Titles'), by which user can choose to view the titles in layer side bar. We show both MTITLE's (layer titles) and DTITLES(device title),if present. We had request for the same from Sony, Skyworks and National semiconductors.

View Transformation For each selected file(GDS/MEBES)
Customer can transform each selected file independent of any of the other selected files. This is file basis (GDS /MEBES). We dont allow independent transformation on chip (MEBES), structure(GDS) or layer/level basis.

Flexlm Licensing
When the maximum allowed licences are checked out, Qckvu will provide information on who(user names) and where(host names) are the licences checked out, to the new user who tries to run qckvu.

QCKVU v2.12     (04/7/2003)

MEBES/GDSII UPDATES

MEBES Job Deck Reverse Tone
This version supports MEBES job deck reverse tone. Data in a MEBES pattern file in a level can be specified as reverse tone which will scratch a hole within the extents of that MEBES pattern in that level. Reverse data can be queryed and the outline of each of the reversed polygon will be highlighted and reported.

Fill Patterns Dialog
Older versions might not bring the dialog to the front when clicking on the fill pattern buttons in the layer dialog. This has been fixed. Windows only.

QCKVU v2.11     (02/20/2003)

MEBES/GDSII UPDATES

Scanning Improvement
This version has a more memory efficient scanning algorithm. Depending on the GDSII file, the scanning can use 20 times less memory.

MEBES Dropping Data
Older versions might not draw all data if the MEBES pattern files' header has incorrect indexing information. This has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.10     (02/12/2003)

MEBES UPDATES

64 bit version with no file size limit
This new release includes the standard 32 bit version as well as a new 64 bit version which was tested with files over 10GB in size.

Scanning and Loading
Mebes pattern/job deck loading has been seperated into scanning and loading seperate phases instead of just scanning phase as in v2.0. This helps us to use the available system memory efficiently.

Overall Memory Requirement
Previous version will crash when the required memory is more than the available memory. In v2.10 it uses the available memory and it is shared by each of the patterns in a fair way. We have successfully loaded and viewed a sample jobdeck in 10Gigabytes of available memory, which actually needed 17Gigabytes of memory. We expect no crash if some descent system memory is available on the end user machine.

Data Drawn In Wrong Size
Older versions might draw some data too big or too small within a chip. This happens when the chip is defined with parameter 'A' in the job deck (on all levels) and the address size(grid) is not specified. It would incorrectly use the grid in the pattern file instead of the level grid or jobdeck grid (from SCALE command). This has been fixed.
Bug reported by Potentia.

GDSII UPDATES

64 bit version with no file size limit
This new release includes the standard 32 bit version as well as a new 64 bit version which was tested with files over 10GB in size.

GDSII Scanning Improvement
This version has a more memory efficient scanning algorithm. Depending on the GDSII file, the scanning can use 20 times less memory. This should address most of the customer reports that Qckvu does not have enough memory to load the GDSII file, even using just the 32 bit version.

UNIX Version Crashes
Older versions might crash during scanning or loading when clicking in the main text area. This has been fixed.

GDSII Extract
Older versions might generate invalid GDSII format output. This has been fixed.

QCKVU v2.00     (12/04/2002)

MEBES UPDATES

Support MEBES Files and MEBES Job Deck Files
This version supports MEBES pattern files and MEBES job deck files. A MEBES license is required to activate the MEBES viewing functionality. MEBES data can be viewed together with the GDSII data, overlaying both data together. Multiple MEBES files can be viewed at the same time. Viewing of MEBES job deck chips and MEBES levels can be controlled.

MEBES Job Deck Chips Viewing Modes
Added the chip dialog to control the viewing of chips when a MEBES job deck is loaded. Chips can be viewed as a rectangular outline, a solid filled rectangle or with full details. When a job deck is selected, the user is prompted to select what modes each of the chips of to be viewed.

MEBES ROWS Arrays
Job deck ROWS commands (arrays) can be viewed in outline mode, outer rows and columns or full details. Use the array mode controls to toggle these settings.

MEBES Substrate
The substrate SLICE is drawn in 2 pixels thick line. Clicking on it under info mode would report the SLICE code.

MEBES Titles
All titles options are supported except character rotation and font type. The font used for MEBES titles is the specified SHX font for font 0. The font height is always 1512um as specified in the MEBES spec.

MEBES Levels
Complete controls over GDSII layers and MEBES levels. Select color, fill patterns separately for GDSII and MEBES. Settings are saved in the specified map file where there is a section for GDSII and another section for MEBES.

MEBES Info
MEBES data can be queryed which includes substrate SLICE, chip extents boxes, ROWS arrays extents boxes, TITLES and all MEBES polygons.

MEBES Files/Job Deck File Errors/Warnings
If the MEBES pattern files and/or the job deck file has errors or warnings, a dialog would popup after opening the MEBES files listing all the errors/warnings for each of the job deck and pattern files.

MEBES Files And Job Deck Extensions
MEBES file extensions can be controlled and remembered via the Preferences dialog.

Job Deck MEBES Files Search Directories
The MEBES files specified in a job deck file are first searched in the job deck file directory. If they don't exist in the job deck file directory, they are then searched in the specified list of directories in order. The directories can be specified in the Preference dialog. e.g. c:\temp;d:\cadfiles;d:\qckvu\workingdir

MEBES Report
Added MEBES report to show memory usage for loading the MEBES files.

GDSII UPDATES

Extract GDSII Exploded Data
Added function to extract paths, boundaries and texts to a GDSII output. The data extracted are flattened with no structure hierarchy in the output file. Any data that intersects with the windowed area will be extracted. For text, the extent box is used for intersection test; for path, the center line (without width) is used for intersection test. To stop and cancel an extraction, you can right click or hit escape even if the cursor is an hour glass.

Locate Structure Name in the Lists in Structure Dialog
Users can type in a structure name in the View Structure text box in the structure dialog. As the name is typed, if it is a structure name that exists in the GDSII file, it will be highlighted (selected) in either the top structure list or the child structure list depending on whether the structure name is a top or child structure. It will scroll to that item if it is not visible in the lists. The extents, data info are shown automatically as the name is typed. If the name is not a structure name, all data are cleared and no structure is selected in the 2 lists. The child structure list will be scrolled to that section starting with the typed name. e.g. Typing in "AB" will scroll the child list to names starting with AB. Use this feature to search for a structure in the lists if there are many names in the lists which makes it hard to scroll.

Structure Parents
In the structure dialog, added a feature to show a list of parent structures which reference the current selected structure as shown in the View Structure edit box. If the structure has parents, the Parents button will be enabled. Clicking it will pop up another dialog which lists all the parents. Clicking on each of the parents is like clicking on a structure in the main structure dialog - it will show the info of the structure and draw that structure if the Apply On Select is turned on.

Find Structure References
Added find feature to highlight references for a given structure in the current view. Access this dialog through the Info/Find Structure References. Specify the structure to find, click Find Next will highlight the first found reference, click again will find the next reference. User can also click Tab on the keyboard to go to the next reference, make sure the focus is on the main Qckvu window, not the dialog, when using the Tab button.

Structure Outline and Labels
Added controls to draw an outline extent box for structures and draw a label text of the structure names at the structure insertion point or in the center of the structure extents. The height of the label text can be specified in pixels. Default is center at 9 pixels. Outline and labels can be turned off, turned to just draw at the deepest level of the specified nesting level (default), draw on all levels, or draw on users selected levels. Access these controls through Settings/ Structure References.

Info Highlight Object Visibility
When querying objects, the highlighted object is sometimes hard to see if it is small. New to this version is that the highlighted object will flash between highlight and unhighlight. Also, the vertex cross is now shown thicker, in 3 pixels, instead of 1 pixel. The bounding box of structure and text references is now also drawn in 3 pixels, instead of 1 pixel in older versions.

GDSII File Warnings
Older versions might crash if the selected GDSII file is not a perfectly legal format. This has been fixed, and errors/warnings are added to inform users about any illegal data in the GDSII file after scanning.

These warnings would be listed after scanning:
1. Incomplete data at file position 123456, file might be truncated.
2. Missing end of library.
3. Missing end of structure for structure 'ABC'.
4. Illegal structure definition at file positions:
5. Illegal end of structure at file positions:
6. Illegal data at file positions:
7. Multiply-defined structures

This warning would be listed after loading:
1. Undefined structures
Refer to online help for detail explanations.

Plotting Only For GDSII File
Added messages to let users know the plotting feature only supports GDSII, not MEBES.

Cannot Select Top Structures/Info Highlight The Whole Structure
Older versions would treat all GDSII files with 1 level deep hierarchy as Netex files and thus the top structures are greyed out by default. This has been changed to not default to Netex mode so users can select the top structures.

For Netex users, the Info Net Mode in the Info menu and the View Net in the structure dialog has to be turned on manually.

Path With Width Drawn As Zero Width Line
Older versions might draw paths with width as zero width when the path is scaled up thru structure scale or view transformation. This has been fixed.

GDSII Grid
Older versions would misinterprete a grid of say 0.025 to have only 2 decimal points precision, so all info reported like xy coords and measured distance do not have the right precision. This has been fixed to have 3 decimal points precision for 0.025, and 4 precision for 0.0025, etc.

Structure Reference Markers
Older versions would not draw the reference marker if the marker is outside of the structure reference extents and the extents is not within the viewing area but the marker is. This has been fixed.

OTHER UPDATES

Support FLEXlm Network Licensing
This version supports licensing using FLEXlm license server version 8.1+.

Transform View
Added dialog controls to mirror/rotate/scale/translate the current viewing data. GDSII and MEBES data have separate transformation controls.

Invalid Home View
The home view is saved so users and go back to home view quickly without a full redraw. However, certain changes in various settings would cause the remembered home view to not fully represent the actual data desired. Following are the conditions which are now changed to redraw the home view fully with the new settings. So, users would not be able to go back to home view quickly but the redraw would truely represent the changed settings:

1. After changing the view transformation, it will redraw the data in the current zoom window coordinates. Hitting home will redraw the data with the new transformed home view extents.

2. If both GDSII and MEBES are opened, closing either one would do a redraw in the current zoom window coords. Then hitting home would do a redraw in the new home extents of the remaining opened file(s).

For the following settings changes, the home view would not be updated until users do a redraw. This is to allow users to go back to home view quickly.

1. Layers on/off and color/fill changes.
2. Chip viewing modes changes.
3. Various view settings changes like fill/outline, text on/off, array mode, markers on/off, etc.

UNIX/Linux Layer Side Bar Width
Added control to adjust the width of the layer side bar for the UNIX/ Linux versions so the layer names/numbers are not clipped off at the end. This width is remembered for the next program run. With this control added, the layer toolbar on/off control in the Preferences menu is removed.
Windows versions have always had this control.

Info Structure/Chip/Array Outline Box
With this version, users can info the 4 corners of the extents outline boxes. It used to snap to the insertion point no matter what corners are clicked.

GDSII and MEBES Unit and Precision
If the unit of the GDSII and MEBES data are different, the unit of the currently opened file is shown. The coordinates of the data is not converted to the current unit, they are used as is from the file. The number of decimal points precision is always the finer of the GDSII and MEBES data. The internal grid in GDSII and MEBES are used for each of the respective data set.

Marker Shape
Added control to show markers in an "X" or diamond shape. Go to the Preferences dialog box. Default is diamond.

Scale Indicator
Added control to draw a scale indicator in one of the 4 corners of the drawing window. The indicator shows the distance in user units of around 100 screen pixels of the current zooming level. It changes automatically as the zoom level changes. Default is off.

Measurement Precision
Previous versions might report 0.0 distance as 0.000000000001. This has been fixed.

Scale and Angle Precision
Previous versions would report scale and angle with 1 decimal point precision even though the original full precision value is used for calculation. This has been changed to also report the full precision value for scale and angle.

Layer Dialog Layer Description Text Clipped Off (UNIX/Linux)
If the system font size is bigger, previous versions might have the description text clipped off. This has been fixed.

Save View As (UNIX/Linux)
When the system's backing store is disabled, the picture saved might not be correct if the viewing area is covered by other windows. This has been fixed.

Picture Not Refreshed (Linux)
After a redraw, if Qckvu is covered by other windows and is brought to the front, the picture might not be refreshed automatically, the previously covered areas might be black. This has been fixed.

Default Display Filter
Default value is 0 for Qckvu with MEBES license and 20 for Qckvu with GDSII license only. Once it is set by the users, the settings will be remembered for the next program run.

Measure From Any Point To Any Point
The measurement might be snapped to grid points even when "any point" mode is set. This has been fixed.

View Area Dialog
When only MEBES files are opened, using the View Area dialog might not work or crash. This has been fixed to ignore the structure if no GDSII file is opened.

4 to 6 times faster loading and scanning

This release provides dramatically improved performance. Scan and load times are 4-6x shorter than in the v1.90 release, and drawing times are faster as well.

Support for large files over 2GB
qckvu Linux v1.91 takes advantage of the Large File Support extension available on Linux 2.4 (Red Hat 7 or better), allowing qckvu to open, display, and plot files larger than 2GB (subject to the amount of memory available). Red Hat 7 or better is required for Large File support.

All GDSII applications in the Red Hat 7.2 package provide Large File support, allowing users who license the plotting option to plot files larger than 2GB as well.

Static link for QCKVU
All applications are statically linked. This will avoid the problems users encountered with shared libraries with the qckvu Linux v1.90 release, such as Motif or C++ runtime libraries not being present on their systems.

However, this requires us to provide two separate release packages for qckvu Linux v1.91: one for Red Hat 6.2, and one for Red Hat 7.2. Statically linked Red Hat 7.2 executables will not run properly on Red Hat 6.2. (Specifically, they will hang when exiting the application.)

Statically linked Red Hat 6.2 executables *will* run on Red Hat 7.2, but will not provide Large File support on either Red Hat 6.2 or 7.2.

Saves in Gif format
Added feature to save the view on the screen in GIF format.

Netscape color problem
Netscape grabs many of the colors when it is open. As a result, QCKVU would report warnings and in some cases would not be able to start up - this has been fixed now.

Cross Hair for picking a point
Added a small cross hair in the cursors to help clicking on the right spot. It was suggested by Lyndon Lym from Artisan.

Scripting support
This version uses the new keywords for script mode. The keywords are documented in the UNIX help file.

Query Highlight Color
Older versions might show the highlight color in white instead of grey and the highlight cross missing if other color intensive programs are running and used up the system colors. This has been fixed.

Qckvu Crashes on Layers
Older versions might crash when clicking on the layers button or turning on/off layers in the layers side bar if there are other applications running that use up lots of resources of the system (e.g. Netscape with resource intensive web sites). This has been fixed to not crash Qckvu. Qckvu might not show all fill patterns correct, in which case, use the fill pattern numbers for control.

Qckvu Script Mode for DRC
Added feature to run a script to automatically view different areas or different files using various settings.  After a text file based script is set up, use Qckvu to load and run the script. Access this feature through the Run Script menu, select the text script file and click on Run to run the script.  Users can pause or stop the script any time.  All other Qckvu functions work normally in script mode and non script mode. Note: this is a major enhancement designed as a first step to make Qckvu interface with ASCII files generated by DRC programs such as Calibre, Assura and Hercules.

Box Data
Older versions would not draw box data.  This version supports box data and treats box type as datatype.

Qckvu Seems To Hang On GDSII File With Lots Of Text
When drawing GDSII file with lots of text and text is turned on, the program feels like it is hanging and very unresponsive.  This has been fixed.

Structure Names with Spaces
Structure names with spaces cannot be selected for viewing.  Instead of clicking on the structure name in the list, type in the names with spaces in the View Structure text box, this will allow users to view structures with names that have spaces. note: there should never be a space in a structure name. That said, unfortunately we are running across enough GDSII files with space in the structure names that we now must support this.

Non-Orthogonal Data
Non-orthogonal data might not show correctly when zooming in very tight. The data might be shown in a different position. This has been fixed.

Long and Thin Data
Version 1.73 required the color and fill to be different for thin data to show up nicely. This version, a "Outline Filter" control is added to not filter out the outline and better show thin data even if the color and fill are the same. Turn on this control only if needed. For most chip designs, this control does no help and might slow down the drawing, so, keep the setting at default (on).

Highlighted Object
When removing the highlight on an object, the outline is still highlighted. This has been fixed.

Change View Settings Need Redraw
If the view is home view, changing the view settings thru the view settings dialog box does not cause the picture to change. A manual redraw is needed. This has been fixed

Highlight Net
Added function to info/highlight a net if the GDSII file is an Artwork Netex (Net Extractor) output.

1. Info Net Mode
In the Info menu, turn on Info Net Mode. Then use Info Vertex and Info Window as usual to info an object, it will then highlight the net which the info object is touching. Walk Around Object still function on the info object (not the info net). Next Nearest Object will search the next nearest object in the next nearest net. Turn off Info Net Mode anytime to switch back to normal info object mode without highlighting the net of the object.

2. Info Net By Net Name
The Structure/Net dialog box can be used to highlight a net by the name of the net. Each net is represented as a structure, so the structure name is the net name. In the Structure/Net dialog box, turn on View Net then select 1 of the net in the Child Structures/Nets list, the net will be highlighted. If the Zoom To Net control is turned on, it will zoom to the area of the net in the current viewing structure. Turn off View Net to select a structure to view.

Qckvu auto detects whether the GDSII file is a Netex GDSII file or not. If it is, it automatically enters Info Net Mode; if it is not, the net controls are greyed out. Refer to online help for more information.

Coupling/Neighboring Nets
When a net is highlighted, it's neighboring nets can also be highlighted using this feature. This feature works in conjunction with a coupling file (GDSII file name.cpl) in the current/working directory or in the GDSII file directory. Refer to online help for more information.

Maximum Number Of Structures
Limit has been raised from 65536 to 2G maximum number of structures.

Structure Dialog
When loading this dialog with lots of structures, older versions would hang for a while and seem like it is not doing anything. An hour glass has been added to let users know it is loading in all the structures. The structures are only loaded the first time this dialog is opened, subsequence usage of the dialog box does not require a reload of all the structures so it will pop up instantaneously.

Note: Windows version might be very slow to load the structure dialog box if there are more than 5000 structures.

Stop Searching and Clear Highlighted Object
Stopping a search might not stop the search, instead, it would clear the last highlighted object. Users needed to click again to stop the search. This has been fixed to this behavior - an object is highlighted, start a search, click to stop will stop search first, click again to clear the highlighted object (FILO - first in last out behavior).

Pan View Using Arrow Keys
The arrow keys pan the view by 80% of the current screen viewing area, it used to pan by 1 screen.
The Ctrl+Arrow keys pan by half a screen.

Program Hangs or Crashes Right After Selecting A File
Older versions would crash or hang if the selected file is not a GDSII file. This version checks and tells users if the file is not a GDSII file.

After Resize Home View
After resizing the Qckvu window, drawing the home view might not draw the home view fit to the new size of the window, an additional redraw command was needed. This has been fixed.

Self Intersecting Polygons
Older versions show the intersect area as a hole. This has changed to show the intersect area using the specified fill pattern just like other parts of the polygon.

Long and Thin Data Missing
Older versions would not draw long and thin data without zooming in. This has been fixed provided the data layer is specified with a color different than the fill pattern's color if it's a colid fill pattern. In addition, thin data would not be highlighted under info mode, this has been fixed.

Scaled Data
Older versions might not show data as scaled even if the data are scaled in the GDSII file. This would happen if the structure or text is referenced with a scale and with rotation. This has been fixed.

Close Dialog Not Redraw
After hitting OK/Save/Apply from any dialog box, the data is not redrawn correctly with the changes. Some data might even be highlighted incorrectly. This has been fixed.

Scanning Progress
Scanning progress percentage goes up progressively without a long halt if the file has lots of structure references.

Resizing the Select GDSII File Dialog
In older versions the width of the dialog box made it difficult to see the entire filename and path. This has been fixed to show the directories and files without the full path.  Resizing the dialog also resizes the width of the directory and file fields to show the names.  The width of the dialog box is "remembered" during the session.

No Files Displayed in the Select GDSII File Dialog Previous versions of Qckvu would not display any GDSII files in the dialog box if the directory was read-only. This has been fixed.

New Mouse Controls for Zoom In, Zoom Out and Pan
In response to user's requests we have made zoom in, zoom out and pan much easier to do.

Zoom Out - Press the left mouse button and drag it to the left; release at any point on the left does a zoom out centered on the first click coordinate

Zoom In - Press the left mouse button and drag it to the right; release at any point on the right does a zoom in around the box you have defined.

Pan - The middle button can now be used to pan the view.  Press the middle button and drag to pan the view.  If the middle button is clicked on the same point without dragging, it still functions as a redraw.

Zoom Extents - Double clicking anywhere in the viewing area zooms immediately to the home view.

With these new mouse controls, users do not need to go up to the toolbar to change zooming modes.




Toggle from Fill Mode to Outline Mode
When toggling to outline mode during drawing, previous versions did not draw data in outline mode;it required a toggle back to fill then to outline to correctly display.  This has been fixed.

Fixed an Incorrect Home View
If the Home View button is clicked while the display was drawing, the home view might not be shown correctly.  It needed an additional redraw to show the home view correctly.  This has been fixed.

Magic Mode Switch
The magic mode switch has been moved from the File pulldown into the File Open dialog box.  This switch is used to display GDSII files generated by the Magic program and derivatives of Magic. The switch is needed because Magic does not seem to adhere to the GDSII spec for AREF's.This setting is now "remembered" between Qckvu sessions.

Sort Data By Layer Switch This switch has been moved from the File pulldown to the File Open dialog box. Use this option if you want the data in the GDSII file to be sorted in layer/datatype order; it may greatly slow down the loading time.  This setting is "remembered" between Qckvu sessions.

Font Files Missing
Previous versions would display an error message saying certain font files do no exist if the font file info stored in the registry could not be found. This version will fall back and use gdsfont.shx in the installation directory if the "stored" font files cannot be opened.

Sort Data By Layer/Datatype
Added control to sort data by layer/datatype on a per structure basis. The data are then drawn according to the layer/datatype order. e.g. Drawing order:

        Structure "RING"
        Layer 1 Datatype 1
        Layer 1 Datatype 5
        Layer 2 Datatype 1
        Structure "METAL"
        Layer 1 Datatype 1
        Layer 1 Datatype 10
        Layer 3 Datatype 2

Check this option in the File menu before opening a file. This option is not recommended for larger files (>30MB). The loading time could be significantly longer. A warning message pops up when sorting is turned on and users select a file larger than 30MB.

Info Show Layer Name
When querying data info, it shows the layer information (name/layer/datatype) according to the setting of the layer side bar. i.e. If the layer side bar is set to show layer name only, then the query will show the layer name only.

Plotting Support Over 2GB GDSII File
This version comes with the lastest Xgdsplot modules which supports plotting file over 2GB. Together with the other fixes for plotting larger file, Qckvu could be used to plot an over 2GB file without using the batch mode, do it all within Qckvu.

Info Query
Info reported for all data now includes the structure the data resides in.

New Installation
This version comes in a new installation where all the program files reside in the bin directory.

Missing/Duplicate Map File Entries
When datatype is turned off, saving the map file would cause multiple or missing entries for a layer or layer/datatype. This has been fixed.

Plot Configuration Dialog
Older versions have this dialog in a light blue color. This has been fixed to use CDE system color. The -bg command line option can still be used to control the color of the dialog.

Path End Type
This version shows paths in their specified path end type - flush, round or half extended. Query also reports the path end type.

Measure, Snap and rotation Precision
Older versions might report measured distance with a 1/1000th precision difference (e.g. report 0.01001 instead of 0.01). This has been fixed. Mouse snapping might not snap to the grid point shown on screen, this has also been fixed.
When zomming in very tight, older versions might not rotate structure references precisely. The difference might be 0.0002 um. This has been fixed.

Resize Window
Older version would redraw the data to fit the new Window size. In this new version, the data are preserved in the same zoom level while the Window is resized.

Query Highlight Color
Older versions might show the highlight color in a very dark shade of grey which made it hard to see when black background color is used. The highlight color is changed to a lighter grey.

Program Hangs When Grid Is Turned On
When grid points are turned on, older versions might take a very long time (1 minute) to draw the grid points depending on the zooming area. This has been fixed. Reported by Karl Wimmer of Motorola.

Plot Settings
This version ships with an example of plot.cfg in the installation directory. Plot.cfg is the file where various plot settings are saved and used for plotting. Qckvu uses plot.cfg in the startup directory. If plot.cfg does not exist, it will make a copy using the one in the installation directory to the startup directory. So users can setup a golden plot.cfg in the installation directory and running Qckvu from anywhere inherits the settings in the golden plot.cfg in the installation directory.

Potentially, once the golden copy is set up correctly, users just need to click plot to do a plot without the need to go into the Plot Options and Plotter/Page Setup dialog boxes. Any plot settings changes made within Qckvu are saved to the local plot.cfg in the startup directory. Reported by Hagai's Xgdsplot customer(s).

Measuring Distance
The measure tool can be controlled to measure distance between any points, grid points or object vertex points. (Any Points, Snap To Grid Points, Snap To Object Vertex).

Control this by going to the Info menu, Measure Mode. Note that the first point for measure can be in 1 mode while the second point for measure can be in a different mode. Achieve this by selecting 1 mode, then click on the first point to measure, then change to another mode, then click on the second point for measure.

Hot keys - F6,F7,F8 respectively.

Draw Grid Points
New feature to draw grid points on the drawing. The spacing between grid points is specifyable through the View Settings dialog box. Hot key - '.'

Black Background Color
Added preference to specify the background of the viewing area as black. Access this through the Preferences dialog box. Default is white.

Measure Ruler Left Behind
When query info right after a distance is measured, the measure ruler is not cleared. This has been fixed. When the measure ruler crossed an highlighted object, unhighlighting the object would left some junk in the measure ruler overlapped area. This has been fixed.

New Preferences in the Preferences dialog box

1. User specifyable GDSII file extensions.

2. User specifyable default map file to use. Qckvu first look for the map file specified in the command line, then look for the user specified map file thru this preference control, then it uses gdsplot.map in the start up directory.

3. Layer side bar can be configured to show the layer/datatype numbers, the layer/datatype names, numbers and then names or names and then numbers.

These preferences are remembered in $HOME/.artwork/qckvu.Xdefaults.

Turning Toolbars On/Off
Added controls to turn on/off the 2 toolbars as well as the layer side bar. Also offering all tool bar buttons in 1 row instead of 2. This setting is remembered in $HOME/.artwork/qckvu.Xdefaults.

Program States Remembered
In addition to the above user preferences, various program states are remembered in $HOME/.artwork/qckvu.Xdefaults:

1. Windows size and position.

2. The last 5 selected GDSII files. These are added to the end of the pull down File menu.

3. All view settings:
a. Display filter.
b. Nesting level.
c. Text on/off.
d. Markers on/off.
e. Geometry markers on/off.
f. Array reference mode.
g. Fill/Outline.
h. Text fonts and scales.

4. Structure dialog box preferences - Auto apply and Show All Child.

New Pull Down Menus and View Settings dialog
Pull down menus are added with the same functionalities as the tool bars. The "Settings" menu has controls over various drawing states. The "View" menu controls the viewing mode. The "Info" menu controls the info querying mode. Text fonts, display filter and nesting level are controllable in the "View Settings" dialog box.

Next View
Added function to go forward to the next view which works in conjunction with the previous view function.
Hot Key - n.

Qckvu Hangs On Empty GDS File
If the GDS file provided thru the command line exists but is empty, Qckvu would report "Scanning 100%" and then hang. This version checks for invalid empty GDS file and inform users. It does not open and scan such file.

Qckvu Hangs After Scanning
If the GDS file is not empty, Qckvu might still hang after the scanning 100% if the grid in the GDS file is not 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, etc. (i.e. 0.25). This has been fixed.

HPUX Version Maximum Memory
This HPUX version is capable of using a maximum memory of 1.9GB, a standard limit set for 32-bit programs running on HPUX operating system.

Zoom In Data Missing
If the file has X mirrored data, older versions might not draw some data when zooming in. This has been fixed.

Wrong Array References Position
Older versions might not place array references correctly. It might need the magic mode to be turned on to correctly view a non magic file. This has been fixed.

Plot Feature
This version features plotting from Qckvu. It uses our own Xgdsplot technology to do plotting. Plotting can be activated with just a Xgdsplot license. Refer to the Plot topics in Qckvu online help.

Right now there is a 2GB file size limit for the plotting feature (no limit for viewing).

Fill Patterns Index Number
The fill pattern index numbers are shown together with the fill patterns in the Fill Patterns dialog box.
Older versions show the last couple of rows of fill patterns with 7 patterns per row. This is now fixed to 8 patterns per row.

Default GDS Files Extensions
Added *.gds2 to the default GDS file extensions in the "Select GDS file" dialog.

Qckvu Hangs On Empty GDS File
If the selected GDS file is empty, Qckvu would report "Scanning 100%" and then hang. This version checks for invalid empty GDS file and inform users. It does not open and scan such file.

Layer/Datatype Support
This version comes with a feature for users to separate data with different datatypes in addition to different layers. Color and fill patterns can be specified for data with different layers and also different datatype. The settings are also compatible with Xgdsplot. Turn the "Datatype" toggle on/off in the Layer column in the Layer dialog box.

Limits:
Texttype is treated as datatype for text.
A maximum of 65535 layer+datatype combinations.
A maximum of 255 datatypes per layer.
A maximum 1024 layers.

Specify Map File
Added command line option -map:MapFile to tell Qckvu which map file to use at startup. This saves users the trouble to go into the layer dialog box and do a "Load Map File".

Error in Saving Layer Settings to Map File

1. Map file in a network drive directory When loading another map file from a network drive directory, older versions of Qckvu would remove the map file and the layer settings would not be saved. This has been fixed.

2. Using map file which is write protected Older versions would force to overwrite the write-protected map file. This version will not overwrite the write protected map file, it informs users that the map file is write protected and new layer settings are not saved. Users can continue to use the write protected map file. Qckvu allows users to use "Save As" to save the settings to a different map file.

Program Crash When Closing the Quick Layer Panel
Previous versions might crash when closing the quick layer panel on the right side. This has been fixed.

HP PA-RISC 1.1
Older versions generated an "Executable incompatible with hardware" error when running Qckvu on HP older machines (PA-RISC 1.1 or older machines). This version runs on both HP PA-RISC 1.1 and 2.0 hardware architecture.

Backing Store
No message is generated for backing store state. On/Off both have their advantage. When backing store is on, a draw with lots of details (display filter 0) might be slower. In general, backing store on causes Xserver to run slower.
When backing store is off, there might be a 1 second delay after every draw depending on the Xserver (e.g. HP-UX Xserver).

Windows Xserver
Displaying Qckvu on Windows using Windows Xserver has a drawing speed penalty of around 30% to 60% (e.g. 4-5 mins vs 3 mins) only when display filter is set to a very low value (0-2). Normal zooming and panning has the same performance as displaying locally. This also depends on the network speed, connection and traffic. Scanning and loading time are exactly the same as displaying locally.

Drawing Stop and Hang, and Nothing Drawn
When running under Exceed Xserver for Window, Qckvu might stops drawing and hangs under fill mode. This has been fixed.
When running under Exceed Xserver for Window, nothing is drawn at start up until the window is resized. This has been fixed.

Window Larger Than Screen
When running under Exceed Xserver for Window, the Qckvu main window starts up larger than the screen. This has been fixed.

Minimize/Restore Redraw
When running under Exceed Xserver for Window, the first restore after a minimize caused a redraw. This has been fixed.

Support Non-Accelerated Graphics/Non-OpenGL System
Support Non-Accelerated Graphics/Non-OpenGL System This version of Qckvu does not depend on an accelerated graphics card and the existence of the OpenGL library.

The performance of Qckvu is very similar even when the displaying server is a different machine from the running client. The displaying server can even be a Windows machine running a X server program.

The OpenGL version is now called qckvugl.

The drawing speed of QckvuGL might be faster than Qckvu when:
1. QckvuGL is run locally on the local display.
2. The system has SUN Creator3D/HP fxe or above accelerated graphics.
3. Display filter in QckvuGL is set to a low value (0/1) and viewing all details in the home view is necessary.
4. Data in the GDS file does not have lots of vertices (thousands).
5. When the system is running low in memory, QckvuGL is faster than Qckvu.


Potentially QckvuGL is 20% - 200% faster than Qckvu depending on data. Most of the time, Qckvu and QckvuGL performs similarly.

Drawing Speed Up
This version has achieved a drawing speed up of 2 to 10 times comparing to previous versions, especially when display filter is set to a lower value (0-2). With this algorithm, display filter 1 or 2 might possibly be slower than display filter 0, depending on the data design.

GDS Files With Boundaries With Thousands Of Vertices
Older versions view boundaries with lots of vertices very slowly. This version has drastic speed up when viewing boundaries with thousands of vertices. (e.g. 1 second vs 1 minute).

Display Filter Controls
Display filter up/down controls are changed to a +2/-2 increment/decrement.

Redrawing After Qckvu Window is Restored or Uncovered
Under HP-UX, older versions would redraw the picture after Qckvu is minimized and restored or any Qckvu area is covered/uncovered by other windows/dialogs. This has been changed to put back an instant picture without the need to redraw.

Faster Redraw When Turning Layers Off
Older versions tried to draw the outlines for data in fill mode even if the layer is turned off. This has been changed to minimize drawing outline data in fill mode when the layer is turned off.

Empty Structures
Speed up on viewing GDS files with lots of empty structures.

Benchmark

                   Ultra 10 333MHz 256M
Qckvu Version      1.01    1.10
                   OpenGL  X 
437M
Scan               1:15    1:15
Load               0:52    0:55
Draw
Display Filter 0   2:46    1:11  * 2.34 times speed up *
Display Filter 20  0:15    0:16
Memory             137M    122M

520M
Scan               2:30    2:17
Load               1:26    1:17
Draw
Display Filter 0   8:18    3:08  * 2.65 times speed up *
Display Filter 20  0:26    0:27
Memory             206M    195M

727M
Scan               2:00    2:02
Load               1:35    1:32
Draw
Display Filter 0   7:40    2:59  * 2.56 times speed up *
Display Filter 20  0:25    0:27
Memory             233M    224M

26M (Extensive Aref)
Display Filter 0   4:00    0:18  * 13.33 times speed up *

New Feature - Entity Marker
Added feature to draw markers around all paths and boundaries.  The marker for each geometry is drawn on the first vertex of the geometry. This feature is designed to enable a designer to find very small items easily - generally the result of having running a DRC that reports "slivers". The Hot key to toggle the entity markers on and off is "g".

Requested by: Alexis Marquot of Motorola, France.

Improved Toolbar Button Color Scheme
All buttons now use the system preset windows background color instead of always gray.

Tooltips - Fixed Text vs. Background Color
Depending on the system color settings, previous versions of Qckvu might display the tooltips using white text on a yellow background which makes the text unreadable.  This has been fixed to use black text on yellow.

Structure Dialog Resizes
The structure dialog might resize itself each time a structure is selected.  This has been fixed to maintain the current size without resizing unless the uer forces a resize.

Helpful Error Message: GLX Extension Missing
In addition to checking whether OpenGL is installed, the "syschk" utility now checks whether the OpenGL GLX server is running. After installing OpenGL, the GLX server does not run until the desktop session is exited, logged out and logged back in.

Bug Fix - Zoom after Structure Info ID
If you attempted to zoom the display immediately after identifying a structure from the Info command, the zoom was disabled. You had to do a redraw first. This has been fixed.

Fixed an Install Problem:Keycodes Fail/No License Available
Older installation might not detect an available license even when the keycodes were correctly present.  This might happen if the current directory is not in $PATH.  This has been fixed.

Reported by: John Greene of Cadence.

HP-UX Support
Qckvu BETA versions for HP-UX only worked on HP-UX 11.0. Qckvu 1.00 for HP-UX now works on HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00.

Halt After Home View Finished
Under HP-UX, there might be 2 seconds halt after finish drawing the home view depending on the graphics card. This has been optimized even if the graphics card does not support DMA (direct memory access, e.g. fxe). Programmer Notes: The home view is saved using X graphics functions instead of OpenGL function which is slow with fxe or other graphics card.

Crashing When Info Object
Under HP-UX, Qckvu might crash during info object. This has been fixed.

Nothing Is Drawn Until "Finished Drawing"
Under HP-UX, when viewing very large files (> 200MB), zooming in very tight does not draw anything until the whole file database is parsed and the "Finished Drawing" message is shown. This has been fixed to show the object as soon as it is read from the file database. So, users can zoom to the objects they want, and once they see it, they can stop the drawing without the need to wait til the end of the file database to see the objects.

Extensive Online Help
This version includes fully descriptive online help on all functions and controls in Qckvu. Access this through the pull down Help/Help and each of the help buttons in the various dialog boxes. All help information are in the readable text file, qckvu.hlp, in the Qckvu installation directory.

Network Licensing
This version supports network licensing.

Quick Layer On/Off Access
Added layer on/off controls on the main screen so users do not need to popup the layer dialog box for quickly turning layers on/off. These quick layer controls can be hided by the little button on the far right of the toolbar to maximize the viewing area. The current layer control in the Layer dialog box is taken out.

Text Support
This version supports text and the default behavior is to draw text. Access text fonts control via File/Preferences. Users can select different SHX files and scale for the GDS font 0-3. Default is to use stroke font SHX file gdsfont.shx in the installation directory. To get text info, enter info mode and click on the text reference marker.

Gdsplot.map - color map file
Added gdsplot.map to this release. If a gdsplot.map file is found in the startup directory, it's setting will be used. Otherwise, default layer settings are solid color fill and same color outline. Users can make a copy of the gdsplot.map in the installation directory to their choice of working directory and start Qckvu from the working directory. The gdsplot.map will then be used. Or, users can use the layer dialog box to create a map file with custom settings.

Extensive Structure Control Dialog Box

1. Current viewing structure is shown on the "View Structure" text area.
   Users can type in the structure they want to view and click apply.
2. Top/Child Structures
   Top structures and child structures are shown in 2 separate list with
   the total count shown.
   The 2 lists can be resized by the resize control in between the 2 lists.
   Structures with child is marked with a '+' sign.
   Structures with no child has no marker.
3. Single Click:
   a. Shows the structure info.
   b. When the "Apply when single click" check box is checked, the
      selected structure is drawn automatically (without the need to click
      apply).
4. Double Click:
   a. Shows the structures referenced by it.
   b. If the "Show All Dependency" toggle is checked, double click will
      show all dependency structures to be shown instead of just it's
      child.
   The marker changed from '+' to '-' once the child of a structure is
   shown.
5. Apply
   Clicking apply draws the structure as specified in the "View Structure"
   text area.  If the structure does not exist, users will be informed.

Dialog Box Covered Area
Older versions might leave an incorrect area in the drawing area behind a dialog box after a dialog box is popped up. This has been fixed.

Benchmark

Home and zoom views are using display filter 20, aref 0 and outline mode.
First zoom time is to zoom in to an area about half inch by half inch on
the screen.  Second zoom time is to zoom in to a pad or path end.

     Sun Ultra10         Sun Ultra10           HP B2000
     440MHz 512M Elite3D 333MHz 256M Creator3D 400MHz 512M fxe

     Scan Load Home Zoom Scan Load Home Zoom   Scan Load Home Zoom Memory/Total
437M 0:52 0:33 0:12 0:03 1:15 0:52 0:15 0:05                       108.5/137
520M 1:42 1:00 0:19 0:13 2:30 1:26 0:26 0:17                       181.7/206
727M 1:31 1:08 0:18 0:08 2:00 1:35 0:25 0:11                       185.4/233
26M                      0:04 0:03 3:48 0:01                       13.1/37
(Display filter 0, full array mode, fill mode.)

Over 2GB GDS Files This version supports GDS files over 4GB. However, maximum memory usage supported is 4GB. So, depending on the data in the GDS file, maximum GDS file size supported is around 6GB to 16GB (assuming a loading memory usage of 25% to 60% of the GDS file).

Array Structure Reference
Array control has 3 buttons, 1 for draw array as outline, 1 for outer rows and columns, 1 for full array mode. The pushed down button represents the current mode.

Zoom to XY Coordinates
Added function for user to specify the xy coordinates of a windowed area for zooming. Users can specify the lower left and upper right coord. or the center and the width and height. Users can select the structure which the zoom coordinates are for. Clicking on the Select button brings up the Structure Selection dialog box for structure selection. The structure name can also be typed in the dialog box. Click on the zoom button with the "12" numbers on it to access this feature. Hot key - x.

Nesting Level Control
Added up and down arrows to change nesting level with instant automatic redraw.

Display Filter Control
Added up and down arrows to change display filter pixel size with instant automatic redraw.

Highlight Info Object
The info object should be highlighted until it is cleared by an escape. Older versions would not rehighlight path with widths after a redraw. This has been fixed.

Measure Distance
Older versions might report measuring points mistakeningly if a measure click does not find a vertex. This has been fixed. Also, the measured distance remained in the text area even if a different file has been selected. This has been fixed.

Dialog Box Covered Area
Older versions might leave an incorrect area in the drawing area behind a dialog box after selecting a structure from the structure dialog box. This has been fixed.

First HPUX Release
This is the first release of Qckvu for HP workstations built under HP-UX 11.00. It may run under 10.20 but we have not yet obtained the OpenGL libraries for 10.2.

Minimum requirements for HP workstations to run Qckvu:

1. HP-UX 10.20.
2. HP Visualize-FX graphics card. (FXe, FX2, FX4, FX6, FX5, FX10, FX ?? pro)
3. OpenGL 1.1 (HP latest OpenGL release is 1.1 Revision 1.18)

Highlighting of Selected Objects Fixed
The info object should be highlighted until it is cleared by an escape. Older versions would not re-highlight apath with width after a redraw. This has been fixed.

Measure Mode Calculation Fixed
Older versions might incorrectly report measuring points if a measure click does not find a vertex.  This has been fixed.

Show/Hide Text
Text on/off control can be accessed by clicking the 'T' button in the tool bar. Since Beta 8 does not display text this function is for the next release.

Distance Measurement Added
In measure mode, click on any location and the program will find the nearest object vertex.  Tab will find the next nearest entity; Space Bar walks through the object's vertices. If the first point is accepted, click on a second point. This behaves the same way. Progmam readouts DX, DY and distance.

To make precise measurements across long distances the user can pan, zoom in and zoom out between selected points.

Escape to stop measuring and/or clear the measured ruler.

Short Cut Keys
We have added support for keyboard shortcuts to make maneuvering through the display easier. These are similar to the ones for GDSVU.

Zoom Home              - [Home] or 'h'
Zoom Window            - 'w' or 'z'
Zoom In                - '+'
Zoom Out               - '-'
Zoom Pan               - 'p' or 'b'
Zoom Prev.             - [Backspace] or [End]
Structure dialog box   - 's'
Layer dialog box   - 'l'
Info (Vertex Click)    - 'v' or '?'
Info (Window Area)     - 'q'
Info Measure           - 'm' or 'd'
Info Next Nearest      - [Tab]
Info Walk Vertices     - [Space]
Array Reference        - 'a'
Text Show/Hide         - 't'
Markers                - 'k'
Fill/Outline           - 'f'
Redraw                 - 'r' or 'l'  or Middle Mouse Click
Stop Drawing           - [Esc] or Right Mouse Click

Up/Down/Left/Right Arrows and Page Up/Page Down
                     - Pan the viewing window by 1 screen

Control-Up/Down/Left/Right Arrows
                     - Pan the viewing window by 1/2 screen

Escape               - Stop drawing
                       Stop searching when info query is processing
                       Stop measuring
                       Clear measured ruler
                       Clear highlighted info object

Undefined Structure Notification
When a GDSII file is opened and a structure reference is encountered and no such structure is defined, a list of such missing structure definitions is provided and the user can choose to continue viewing. Requested by Motorola and by Philips

Hierarchy Draw Level Control
Added a control to draw structure references up to the specified nesting level. 0 nesting level draws the entire hierarchy.

Structure Reference Markers
Added control to draw a diamond at the insertion point for each structure references.  Click on the diamond button on the toolbar.

Array Reference Control
This control is changed to a toggle button.  The picture on the button shows the current mode.

Fill/Outline Mode
The picture on the button shows the current draw mode in fill or outline.

Info Window and Next Nearest Object
Added a info window mode which users can grab a window area to find object info.  Click on the next nearest button will jump to the next object. Escape to clear the highlighted info object.

Object Info
Added functions for users to click on an object and the object will be highlighted. Continue clicking near the same point will highlight the next nearest object around the click. Clicking on the next vertex button will walk around the object's vertices. Object's information are reported in the text area.

Stop Button
Added a stop button on the tool bar to stop drawing/info searching.

Layers On/Off
Older versions would not remember which layers are on/off. This has been fixed.

Syschk Root Access
This version of syschk allows user to select whether they want to log in as root or just continue as normal user. Under normal user, the graphics card testing results might not be correct.

Speed Up
For files with paths, this version has a speed up of 2 times or more when zooming into details. Showing details in 10 seconds instead of 20+ seconds makes a big difference.

Home View Crash
Older versions would crash if the home view button is clicked when no file is opened. This has been fixed.

Qckvu Benchmarks for 400 and 700 MB GDSII Stream files

Settings: Full Extents View, display filter=20, AREF=0, Outline Mode.

                Ultra10                  Ultra10
                440MHz  512M             333MHz 256M

                Scan Load Home Zoom      Scan  Load  Home Zoom      Memory/Total
chip.gds (437)  0:49 0:33 0:12 0:04/0:03 1:12  0:51  0:15 0:05/0:04 107.8/131
cb.gds   (520)  1:38 0:57 0:18 0:13/0:12 2:06  1:17  0:24 0:18/0:16 181.6/205
700mb.gds (727) 1:26 1:03 0:19 0:09/0:08 1:54  1:33  0:27 0:11/0:10 182.8/229
raom.gds (26)                            0:06  0:03  3:34 0:01/0:00 13.1/35

Reduced Memory Usage
Further reduce memory usage. This translates to a faster viewing time by eliminating swapping for files which could not be loaded fully into physical memory.

Faster Loading Time
Loading time for files with relatively lots of texts is speed up by 3-4 times.

Qckvu Benchmarks for 400 and 700 MB GDSII Stream files

Settings: Full Extents View, display filter=20, AREF=0, Outline Mode.

                Ultra10                  Ultra10
                440MHz  512M             333MHz 256M

                Scan Load Home Zoom      Scan  Load  Home Zoom      Memory/Total
chip.gds (437)  0:49 0:33 0:12 0:04/0:03 1:14  0:50  0:15 0:05/0:04 107.8/131
cb.gds   (520)  1:32 0:47 0:25 0:13/0:23 2:05  1:17  0:58 0:18/0:31 181.6/205
700mb.gds (727) 1:26 1:03 0:22 0:09/0:08 1:54  1:30  0:56 0:11/0:10 182.8/229

File Loading Time Greatly Improved
Loading time is greatly improved for large GDS files; especially those with thousands of text entities. For example, one of our test files (725 MB) required 60 minutes to load in version Beta3; Beta4 loads it in 4 minutes. A 430MB GDSII test file loaded in 30 minutes in Beta3 and now loads in 1 min using Beta4.

Zoom Window and Pan
In previous versions, users would not be able to zoom window and pan after Qckvu is minimized and restored by a double click on the icon. This has been fixed.

Memory Report
Memory report is now accessible after scanning. In addition to the number of text entities, the total number of characters for all text entities are reported. The scan and load time are reported.

Qckvu Benchmarks for 400 and 700 MB GDSII Stream files

Settings: Full Extents View, display filter=20, AREF=0, Outline Mode.

                    Ultra10               Ultra10
                ----------------     -----------------
                450MHz  512M RAM     333MHz 256M RAM

                 Scan  Load  Home     Scan  Load  Home     Memory/Total MB

chip.gds(437M)   0:34  0:40  0:25     1:08  1:12  3:15       282/310

700mb.gds(727M)  1:22  3:27  2:42     1:48  4:39  7:06       457/500

Reduce Memory Usage
Major changes to the internal database design to reduce memory usage. Memory needed to load a GDS file is around 45%-60% of the GDS file, reduced from 75%-98% in BETA2.

Viewing Structure Selection Dialog
Users can select viewing structure from the list by single clicking on the structure. Click OK to close the dialog.

Display Filtering
This version has more precise display filtering pixel size calculation. Still, the display filter pixel size is better used as a relative setting to filter more or less objects to draw on screen, instead of using it as an exact pixel size filter control. Default is 20.

Magic File
This version supports magic file. Go to File/Preference and turn on Magic File. Open the GDS file and the file will be viewed as magic format. Default is off.

Faster Drawing Control
For viewing with extensive usage of different fill patterns, users can turn on a faster drawing mode via File/Preferences. This mode will arrange the data for faster drawing. More memory is required at load time. This will not take into effect until the GDS file is reopened. Default is off.

Report
Go to Info/Report and this will report the data in the GDS file and the memory used to load the file.

Default Outline Mode
This version defaults to draw in outline mode.

Home and Draw Views
This version saves the home and draw views using dynamic memory depending on the screen resolution/Qckvu window size. Potentially, this saves 0-24M of memory over older versions depending on the Qckvu window size.

Display Speed Up
The display filter now acts on data internal to structure references and array references.  It results in dramatic speed ups of 10-20 for very hierarchical files.

Display Filter Range Increased
Display filter setting can be any number.  Meaningful range would be 0 to screen resolution (e.g. 1600). Previously this was limited to max of 25 pixels.

Install Changes
a. Warning message "No EDID data available in this monitor" is suppressed in the syschk output.

Initial Release for Solaris.