Convert all to static, without reading?

davidnhutch

Hi,

I have an old layout with PCells in. The layout was saved with PCell references as .oas file.

Since then I have modified and removed various PCell scripts. Now when I open the old layout, I see a bunch of errors on the screen - this is understandable since the PCells originally used have changed beyond recognition. Since there are PCell errors, there are missing shapes on the layout, where the PCell code hit an error and didn't finish drawing what it was drawing.

I would like to recover the original file, with all cells converted to static. However "Convert to static" is only available *after* I open the file, after which the damage is done.

I presume one solution to this would be to install a fresh version of KLayout perhaps on a fresh computer, open the file, then save. All cells would be converted to static when it was opened, since the PCell references didn't exist. Another solution would be to disable all PCells on the existing installation, however this is not preferred since they are spread across multiple files.

So, is there another way to do it on my existing installation? I guess I'm looking for a feature that says "Forget the PCell references, just read the layout not respecting the PCell references".

Thanks!

David

Matthias

Hi David,

The layout file contains the current layout, so it's always possible to recover the layout. The PCells are stored as normal copies and if KLayout does not find the PCell corresponding to a cell if will just keep the normal cell, hence convert it to static.

In your case the problem is that the PCells are there but no longer functional. In order to load the layout without these, you'd have to disable the PCells.

The easiest solution is to run KLayout with the "-rx" option. This will disable all macros and the PCell code as well. The cells will then be loaded as normal cells and after saving the layout to another file, you should be able to open it as usual - but then without PCells.

Matthias