How to Copy a Specified Cell from One Layout to Another

Jared

Hello Matthias,

I would like to know how to search for and then copy a specified cell within an open GDS file to a different blank layout using Ruby. I hope this question is not too vague.

Regards,
Jared

Matthias

Hi Jared,

there is no one-line copy method for KLayout yet. One user found, that you can use the clip method for that purpose, if you specify a clip box larger than the cell's bounding box. A single-line copy method is on my TODO list yet.

In general case, copying layout from one layout to another involves layer and property mapping.

There has been a discussion about that topic some time ago: http://klayout.de/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=103

Maybe that is helpful.

Regards,

Matthias

Jared

Thank you for that link.
Can you tell me why this script keeps crashing KLayout?

module MyMacro

include RBA

mw = RBA::Application::instance.main_window
ly = RBA::Layout::new
ly.read("LABELS.gds")
cell_index = ly.cell_by_name("LABEL_A")

new_top = ly.add_cell("ROTATED") # "new_top" is newly created cell's name or its "cell index"
ly.cell(new_top).insert(RBA::CellInstArray::new(cell_index,RBA::CplxTrans::new(1,0,false,RBA::DPoint::new(0,0))))

ly.flatten(new_top, -1, true)

layout = mw.create_layout(0).layout
layout_view = mw.current_view
cell = layout.cell(new_top)

# select the top cell in the view, set up the view's layer list and
# fit the viewport to the extensions of our layout
layout_view.select_cell(new_top, 0)
layout_view.add_missing_layers
layout_view.zoom_fit
end

Matthias

Hi Jared,

Inside the script you basically create two layouts: one per "new" and another with "mw.create_layout". The second is empty and "new_top" is only valid in the context of the first one. I guess that is why the program crashes (it shouldn't I admit - but I did no handle every case of invalid values).

This code should be more like what you want to:

mw = RBA::Application::instance.main_window
# This already creates a layout!
ly = mw.create_layout(0).layout
layout_view = mw.current_view

ly.read("LABELS.gds")
# NOTE: this should check if the cell is really there ...
cell_index = ly.cell_by_name("LABEL_A")

new_top = ly.add_cell("ROTATED") 
ly.cell(new_top).insert(RBA::CellInstArray::new(cell_index,RBA::CplxTrans::new(1,0,false,RBA::DPoint::new(0,0))))

ly.flatten(new_top, -1, true)

# select the top cell in the view, set up the view's layer list and
# fit the viewport to the extensions of our layout
layout_view.select_cell(new_top, 0)
layout_view.add_missing_layers
layout_view.zoom_fit

(lacking "LABELS.gds" I have not tested it myself)

Regards,

Matthias

Jared

It worked exactly how I wanted it to. Thank you again Matthias!

Jared

This should be a very simple question. How do I get the index number for a string?
For example, if a = "ABC" what function can I perform on the variable a in order to determine the number of individual string characters which in this case is three.

Matthias

Hi Jared,

Do you mean the length of the string?

That is

"abc".length   # gives 3

Or do you mean the number of distinct characters?

That is

"abc".split(//).uniq.count   # gives 3
"aab".split(//).uniq.count   # gives 2

Matthias