The Qckvu Image Server is designed to read GDSII or OASIS file and to serve up to another application either image or vector data based on that file. It is designed to handle very large files. The connection between QIS and another application is via TCP/IP.

Opening a GDSII File

Structure and Hierarchy

Basic Database Info

Layers, Colors and Patterns

Display Controls

Moving Around the Display

Getting an Image

Getting Vectors

Qckvu can return either a bitmap (image) or a stream of vectors representing all of the geometries that would be visible on the screen. The vector option is useful if the client wishes to do its own rendering (for example, overlaying the CAD data over scanned or simulated OPC data ...); the vectors are also useful if the client wishes to manipulate the boundary/path data or even convert the data into another format.

One item to remember is that when requesting vectors, you will only get vectors that would be visible on the screen. Hence it is important to make sure that the various settings for hierarchy display, layer display and filtering are properly set to insure that you get everything you want.

TCP/IP & Handshaking

Off Line Preprocessing of GDSII Files

GDSII Extraction

QIS can be used to extract a GDSII file from the file being viewed. The user specifies the desired window and layers (by turning them on/off.). All data enclosed or crossing the window is extracted. Any data crossing the window is clipped and healed at the edge of the window. The extracted file is flat. The extracted file can be returned via the TCP/IP socket or can be written to disk.

Hi Resolution Monochrome Bitmap

QIS's internal rasterizer is designed for bitmaps the approximate size of a screen -- up to about 2000 x 1000 pixels. Some imaging and inspection machines need much larger bitmaps -- up to 10K x 10K pixels. To achieve this QIS uses an external high speed monochrome rasterizer.

Editing Functions

Artwork has added editing to QIS starting with version 2.01. Editing requires that the GDSII file be completely loaded into RAM so this may limit the maximum size of a file that can be edited compared to the largest file that can be viewed.

In order to address problem GDSII and OASIS files, we have built in some debugging tools into QIS. Because of the proprietary nature and size of GDSII/OASIS files, it is not often possible to provide Artwork with the "problem" file. However by the use of environment variables or command line flags, it is possible to generate some file reports that can be sent to the developers to help determine the problem at hand.

set this environment variable to a file name. Collects information about the distribution of data (boundaries, paths,texts) and cell references in the quad tree database built during the loading of a GDSII/OASIS file.

set this environment variable to a file name. Collects information about scan memory usage and modal variables memory usage when opening an OASIS file. (GDSII files don't use modal variables ...)

This QIS command line argument collects information about the number of cells, layers, cell references, array cell references, boundaries, boxes, paths, vertices, texts in the GDSII or OASIS file. It also records the wall clock time spent to scan and load the file. The file is a text file in csv format which can be opened in Excel.

Use this socket command after the GDSII file has been opened to get back information about the number of cells, layers, cell references, array cell references, boundaries, boxes, paths, vertices, texts in the GDSII or OASIS file. It also records the wall clock time spent to scan and load the file.

when specified, this command line option generates the file "qis.log_0" in the QIS working directory. This logs all socket communications to and from QIS. This can be helpful in debugging problems between client and server.

Set this environment variable to a integer > 0. It sets the number of data to be added to a quad tree node or leaf. A larger number will result in faster quad tree building and a more compact quad tree; but with slower area zooming and processing after the file is opened. Default = 32.

Set this environment variable to a integer > 0 and < 100. This controls how deep the quad tree is to be built. A deeper tree will result in a faster area zoom but it will use more memory and take longer to build. Default is 10.

Set this environment variable to an integer > 0. Use this to adjust the rule to determine whether a cell reference is smaller than the structure display filter. The extents of a cell reference is used for filtering, if the width is smaller but the height is larger, the reference is still considered as filtered out if the height is less than Filter Factor times width. Default =4.

set this environment variable to On or Off. If on, a rectangle will be drawn for each quad tree node or leaf while drawing up to the display filter size. Default is Off; this is used primarily to visualize the quad tree.

Set this environment variable to On or Off. Default = Off. If On, the entire GDSII database is loaded into memory; which is a requirement if the file is to be "edited." This setting can be overriden by the socket command Set_Load_Memory.

Set this environment variable to On or Off. Default = Off. If On, QIS will load references to empty cells; if Off, references to empty cells are ignored. This setting can be overriden by the socket command Set_Load_Empty_Ref.