Release Notes

• Navigator now allows to drag a zoom box in the usual way.
• Paths with odd width (in database units) are shown correctly.
• Some bugfixes (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.20) concerning the net tracer and the Gerber import feature.
• Support for Ruby 1.9 (experimental).
• Support for 64 bit Windows (experimental).

• Import option for Gerber PCB data ("File/Import" menu entry). Details about this function can be found in the Importing Gerber PCB files section in the advanced features manual.
• A function to import another stream file into the current file. This avoids having to use copy & paste and provides a couple of nice options. Details about this function can be found in the Importing other layout files section in the advanced features manual.
• A simple XOR tool providing a flat XOR between two layouts. A tolerance can be set to suppress small deviations. A tiling option is provided to reduce memory requirements for large layouts. The flat approach probably limits the application to "almost flat", small to medium sized layouts. Details about this function can be found in the The XOR tool section in the advanced features manual.
• A net tracing tool to trace single nets of conductive layers connected through via shapes. The function is intended for extracting single small nets and it's not performance optimized for the case of huge power nets. Details about this function can be found in the The net tracing feature section in the advanced features manual.
• A navigator window that shows current view's rectangle and allows to control the rectangle by dragging or resizing it.
• Multi threading support for drawing increases the drawing performance on multi-core CPU's by rendering different layers on different CPU's. The number of threads to use can be set in the setup dialog in the "Display" group under "Optimizations". By default, a single thread is used.
• "Make array" method ("Edit/Selection" menu) to multiply the selection into an array arrangement.
• A function to add a layout already loaded to a view ("File/Pull In Other Layout").
• A function to scan a layer's geometry and create a marker database from that. The menu function is found in the "Tools/Verification" menu. It will scan all selected layers either flat or hierarchical and create a marker database containing the shapes as markers.
• Layer mapping on input: the reader options now allow to specify a mapping together with a layer specification. In addition to specifying the layers to read, a target can be given which specifies which layer the shapes will be stored under (See "Reader Options" dialog found in the "File" menu).
• A couple of new display options:
  • Abstract mode (shows only the outer interfacing shapes of child cells.
  • Child hierarchy level layout can be configured to be shown in different brightness, hollow fill or static neutral color to differentiate top level from bottom level layout.
  • Enhancements for the hierarchy level specifications in the layer source notation.
• A log viewer is provided to catch warning messages. The menu entry to open the log viewer is found in the "File" menu.
• The setup dialog has been reorganized to make room for more property pages.
• Instances now show the cell's content when being moved instead just a rectangle. This feature can be disabled.
• Various usability enhancements (i.e. mouse cursor now shows activity, status bar shows short shape statistics etc.).
• An option to not write empty cells.
• Support for missing cells in the input layout: those cells get marked and are not produced in the output unless they have received content. That allows to load and save layouts with missing cells without producing empty cells for those missing cells.
• Some new functions in the layer list context menu ("Show All", "Hide All", "Show Only Selected").
• Various bug fixes (i.e. for clip function).
• A couple of new RBA methods.

• Some bugfixes (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.19.2).
• To specify the installation path (where the ".rbm" files are looked up), a new environment variable "KLAYOUT_PATH" is provided. This variable currently supports a single entry only. In that sense it's not a "path" right now.

• Some bugfixes (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.19.1).

• Some bugfixes (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.19).

• Images: it is possible now to load image files (JPG, GIF, TIFF etc.) and display them below the drawn layout. The display of the images can be adjusted in many ways, i.e. placement, scaling, rotation, mirroring, color/contrast/brightness adjustments and false color mapping for gray level images. Images are fully supported by RBA.
  The feature is described in detail in Adding images.
• Marker browser: the marker browser is based on the report database (RDB). This is a new concept that has been introduced as a container for report items, in particular marker objects but also for a number of additional annotations including screenshots for documentation. An import of Calibre DRC databases is provided. The RDB is fully supported by RBA.
  The feature is described in detail in The marker browser.
• Some enhancements for the layer views: invisible layers are now shown differently in a "collapsed" way. Thus, the layer's colors and styles are still recognizable. The new features are described in detail in Telling used from unused layers.
• In the layer list, unused layers can now be hidden and layers without shapes in view can be marked unused or hidden. The normal mode of marking layers unused when the cell does not contain any shapes at all is still available. Both modes are available as checkable items in the layer list's context menu.
• A "View" menu has been added with fast access to certain display options, i.e. turn grid on an off. A number of default grids can be defined for quick selection in the "View" menu. On request, the tool bar can now be hidden as well as the layer and hierarchy lists.
• A key binding editor is provided. This way, all menu functions can be assigned arbitrary key shortcuts in a more comfortable ways.
• The mid mouse button can be used to pan (drag) the view window now.
• Various RBA enhancements, i.e. a method to compute the intersection point between edges.

• Some bugfixes (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.18) in particular for MacOS users.

• Some bugfixes (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.17.2).
• Added support for the GDS2 text format. This is a contribution by Romain Gauci from Oscillated Recall Technology (http://www.or-tech.co.jp).
• Session persistence: sessions (files, layers, bookmarks, setup) can be saved and restored. Details for this feature can be found here.
• Reader options can be specified in a dialog now (File menu). Some GDS2 specific reader options are available: allow multi XY, allow big records and several box record handling modes. Details for this feature can be found here.
• GDS2 specific writer options (max vertex option, multi XY record option, max cell name length).
• The stipple palette now is editable. A corresponding page has been added in the setup dialog.
• Flatten cell function. A cell can be flattened which will remove the cell and all the subcells unless not specified otherwise. This function can be found in the cell's context menu. Details for this feature can be found here.
• The 'Make Cell' operation provides a nice origin now. Before, the origin of the new cell was far off sometimes.
• Accept drag & drop of .lyb, .lys, .lyp, .rb, .rbm and layout files.
• Switched to standard file dialogs where this has not been the case yet. In particular on the Windows platform, the application will behave somewhat more consistent.
• Added an option to draw only border instances of arrays. This option can be found on the 'Misc.' tab of the setup dialog.
• Added the capability to define global ruby modules using the ".rbm" extension and putting them into the installation directory.
• Full cell copy & paste functions can now be found in hierarchy panel context menu.
• Enhancement of grid snapping in partial mode. Before, a offgrid vertex could not be brought on-grid because movement was confined to grid steps.
• Number of points for polygons is shown now in the polygon property dialog.
• Hole resolution for GDS2 and OASIS writer. Before, polygons with holes (which can be produced by scripts) were rejected.
• Some bugfixes for clip, using booleans for clip to overcome some problems with hole connectors and spikes - slow but safe..
• '#' character is not longer used when creating cell variants - instead '$' is used to enhance the compatibility with other tools which do not allow the "#" character as part of cell names.
• On paste, a 'fit selection' is done to show what has been pasted.
• Mouse wheel mode is configurable now (shift/ctrl modifier behaviour). The 'alternative mode' can be found on the 'Misc.' tab in the setup dialog.
• Option to clear all rulers when cell is changed. This option can be found on the 'Misc.' tab in the setup dialog in the 'On Cell Change' group.

RBA enhancements:

• A new class: ICplxTrans and related functions.
• A recursive shape iterator simplifies hierarchical region queries and "as if flat" traversal of cells.
• Polygon: hull and hole can be assigned now, compress method, point accessors.
• The installation path now is available.
• Added a method which allows to display a message in the status bar.
• The transient selection now is available for RBA procedures.
• New events are generated if selection and transient selection changes.
• Added a generic assign method for copyable objects.
• Added new classes 'LayerMap' and 'LoadLayoutOptions'.
• Added two 'read' methods to Layout class.
• Added a couple of methods to 'LayerInfo' (constructors, compare, ...).
• Added a 'load_layout' method to LayoutView.
• Added more cm_* methods to MainWindow.

• Some bugs are fixed now (for a list of fixed bugs see Known bugs in version 0.17.1).
• The GDS2 writer now normalizes AREF records. This way compatibility with other EDA systems is enhanced.

• The display freezing bug on Windows is fixed now (i.e. see Known bugs in version 0.17).

• Various layer operations are now available: boolean operations (AND, XOR, NOT), layer merge and sizing. For a detailed description see Layer boolean operations and Layer sizing. These operations are also available in RBA (see RBA::EdgeProcessor and RBA::ShapeProcessor).
• Boolean and sizing operations are also available Shapewise boolean operations and Shapewise sizing.
• Objects can now be aligned. For a detailed description of the alignment function see Object alignment.
• The cell origin can be adjusted relative to the cell's bounding box. For a detailed description see Cell origin adjustment.
• A 'corner rounding' function has been implemented to support soft-cornered layout which is common in power applications. For a detailed description see Corner rounding.
• Various layer operations are now implemented in edit mode: clear layer, delete layer and edit layer properties. For a detailed description see Layer operations: clear, delete, edit specification.
• The selection can now be scaled (The "Scale" function is available in the "Selection" submenu of the "Edit" menu).
• An option is available that allows to select all hierarchy levels automatically when a cell is opened (found in the "Misc." tab of the setup dialog: "Select all hierarchy levels" must be checked).
• Various bug fixes (i.e. see Known bugs in version 0.16.1).

• Various bug fixes (i.e. see Known bugs in version 0.16).

• Some new editing capabilities: flatten, make cell, clear layer and a clip function.
• Some RBA extensions, in particular the ability to modify layout by deleting shapes and instances, replacing and transforming them, changing property handles etc.
• Support for global preset of configuration (through a file called "layviewrc" beside the executable binary) and a global RBA initialisation file (a file called "rbainit" beside the executable binary).
• Transient selection: indicates by a faint selection marker what object is below the mouse (can be disabled).
• The layer specification (layer, datatype, name) can be now be edited which allows to move a complete layer to a different one.
• Undo buffering can now be disabled on the command line with the '-i' option. This saves the memory otherwise required for storing the replay information.
• Directional constraints can be modified by using the Shift and Ctrl modifiers on various operations such as rulers, movement, drawing etc.
• Now there is a 'most recently used' list ("Open Recent" in the "File" menu) which shows the last layouts opened for easy re-opening.
• Reduced memory requirements for particular OASIS constructs (random repetitions)
• The instance browser now has a "Choose cell" button where the cell can be chosen whose instances will be presented.
• For most editing operations, the status bar will now indicate more detailed informations such as move distance.
• Pasted shapes and instances now are selected initially.
• Enhanced OASIS compression mode (can be chosen from the options dialog on saving). Reduces file size considerably by creating regular shape arrays if possible at the cost of higher memory consumption and longer writing times.
• Various bug fixes (i.e. see Known bugs in version 0.15).

• Editing capabilities. "klayout" in it's basic form still operates as pure viewer. However, a mode is available that enables editing capabilities. See Editor mode quickstart manual for a more detailed description
• Some RBA extensions: i.e. conversion from "double" type polygons to "integer" type ones.
• A default layer table can be configured in the "Application" tab of the setup dialog. This table will be loaded whenever a layout is opened or created.
• A installer for Windows is provided now.
• Properties are supported on instances now as well.
• Code is compatible with gcc 4.3.0 now.
• Enhanced compatibility with SunStudio 11 compiler (in particular in RBA).
• Various bug fixes (i.e. in GDS reader and OASIS writer).

• Several RBA extensions: i.e. alternative methods replacing different 'new' variants by one 'new'. Markers now can be filled.
• Fixes for the bugs mentioned in the issues list.
• OASIS and GDS writing capabilities. Menu functions are provided to save a layout and single cells as well as RBA extensions that allow to write a layout. See Saving a layout or parts of it for details.
• Rulers and markers are drawn with a thin halo in background color to enhance their visibility. This can be switched off in the setup dialog if this is not desired. The following screenshots illustrate the differences:
  

  With halo	Without halo

• Support for arbitrary angles on cell instances.
• A bugfix for the OASIS reader (CTRAPEZOIDS have not been read in some cases). The OASIS reader now uses shape arrays to achieve are smaller memory footprint in some cases.
• Multiple transformations are now allowed on layer source expressions (see Transforming views and property selectors for a detailed description).
• Rulers now are configurable to a large extent. Multiple ruler templates may be defined from which a certain ruler type can be chosen. Some of the new ruler styles are no longer "rulers" but rather "annotations". See Ruler properties for a description of that feature.
• Last, but not least: KLayout now can be scripted to some extend using Ruby as the scripting language. For more information about this feature, see RBA introduction.

Tarkit: klayout-0.10.tar.gz

Features:

• The build script has been enhanced and supports Qt installations with different locations for binaries, libraries and headers. See the Build section for details about this.
• OASIS files can be read as well now. The reader automatically determines the kind of file. OASIS layer names are supported. Due to the complexity of the OASIS specification, or more precisely the effort required to test a reader for meeting the specification, OASIS support currently is regarded to be in "beta" state.
• Layers can now be organized hierarchically. Layers can be grouped which allows to control visibility and other properties for the group as a whole. Layers can be removed from the layer view list or new layer views can be created.
• The layout can be transformed (rotated, shifted, mirrored) now. This transformation is specified in the layer panel as a part of the layer source specification. An optional transformation can be applied per layer or layer group. This way for example, different layouts can be aligned over each other.
• Shape properties now are supported. Each shape may carry optional properties that are read from GDS or OASIS files. A property selector can be applied per layer view, so that a layer only shows these shapes that match the given property selection.
• As an experimental feature, the inverse layout tree can be visualised by allowing the minimum hierarchy level to go into the negative range. The effect of this is, that a cell is shown in the context of all of it's direct parents, if the first hierarchy level is set to -1. If set to -2, the cell is shown in the context of all of it's parents and grandparents and so on. Since there is no particular optimization for this feature, performance may be poor, if a cell must be painted in a huge number of contexts. In addition, the context displayed does not participate in selection or ruler snapping.

Release date: 2006-04

Tarkit: klayout-0.9.tar.gz

This was the first official release