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[Feature Request] New "X" Style for rendering layouts -

simon_chsimon_ch
edited July 2015 in General

Hi,

Could an additional style be added to the Style palette for layer properties such that rectangles drawn in that layer have an 'X' accross them comprising intersecting lines between opposite corners?

This can be useful for displaying VIA layers in layout where it's often handy to know where the centre-point is.

Thanks for any consideration of this feature request!

Simon

Comments

  • MatthiasMatthias
    edited July 2015

    Hi Simon,

    It's a fancy feature, I see :-)

    Basically that is possible. But it's not a low hanging fruit.

    The reason is that KLayout keeps the layer information in bit planes internally and will combine the bit planes for generating the view. That is the main secret behind the drawing performance. So for example, thick lines are not implemented by drawing a line with a certain width, but by duplicating bits on the bit plane. That is an operation which is independent from the number of shapes and can be done very quickly in the CPU. Plus, changing the line width does not require a redraw.

    Making a layer invisible simply means to exclude it from the bitplane combination procedure. No redraw required as well.

    Filling is performed by combining the fill pattern with the "interior" bitplane.

    A cross fill cannot be implemented through this scheme right now. To implement it I'll have to add a new bitplane for the cross shape and feed it properly. That's not a simple change and might have some performance impact I need to mitigate somehow.

    BTW: the same is true for the "dashed" line style that Cadence offers for example, although there may be a smart bitmap-based "line detection + apply dash" algorithm which delivers that feature.

    I'll keep your request in my records for the future.

    Matthias

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