mbk2ps - Creates a PostScript file from a symbolic layout cell
This software belongs to the ALLIANCE CAD system from the CAO-VLSI team at
ASIM/LIP6/UPMC laboratory.
LIP6/ASIM
University P. et M. Curie
4, place Jussieu
75252 PARIS Cedex 05
FRANCE
Fax : {33/0} 1.44.27.62.86
E-mail support : alliance-support@asim.lip6.fr
mbk2ps cellname
[-b] [-c] [-cn] [-fl] [-m] [-i] [-in] [-p] [-r] [-rn] [-rot] [-s]
[-si] [-sn] [-v] [-mn]
[-f X0,Y0,X1,Y1] [-l layernumber=patternnumber] [-sc scale] [-fs
fontsize]
The need for a clean output on paper of designs is an important issue in
every day designer's life, and also in a more long term sight, to archive
and give information about old design, or to build a complete documentation,
for a standard cell library for example.
In order to be as device independant and powerfull as possible, the
choosen output file format is PostScript, since many today's device, laser
printers, plotters, graphical terminals, etc, support it.
The input file format is given by an environment variable MBK_IN_PH that
gives the appropriate symbolic layout file format. The possible values
are cp, ap. See mbk(1)
for details.
The path to the input file is set up by two environment variables
MBK_WORK_LIB(3)
and if not found in the directory then the directory
pointed by MBK_CATA_LIB(3)
is then searched through. The output of mbk2ps
is a PostScript file with the name cellname.ps in the current directory.
The resulting file can be then used on any adequat device.
At invocation time, the first argument must be the cellname. The options
can be given in any order beside this restriction.
With no options, mbk2ps generate a standard file", with all options off. This is ok for leaf cells output, but not for hierarchical circuit.
patternsheet
if cellname is pattersheet", without quotes, then mbk2ps generates
a demonstration file, called patternsheet.ps that draws a segment
in each layer with its name and pattern, and also each contact with
its name. This can be done once in order to have a reference for
all the future uses of this tool.
You should first have a correct execution environment :
setenv MBK_IN_PH cp
setenv MBK_WORK_LIB ~fred/mbk/mbk2ps
setenv MBK_CATA_LIB /labo/cells/scr
mbk2ps n1_y
will create a n1_y.ps file in the current directory the standard"
way.
mbk2ps na2_y -sc 1.1
will create a na2_y.ps file in the current directory with a scale
of 1.1 (in arbitrary unit!). Don't get afraid, mbk2ps gives back a
value for each plot. This option is useful when you want to plot
many cells with the same scale, as in a library document.
mbk2ps bigcell -rot -fl -m -p -in -sn -fs 4 will create a bigcell.ps file in the current directory with a 90 degrees rotation, a flatten to the catalog, no patterns, nor segments names, nor instance names, and without merging the layers, with a font size of 4, that is the minimun allowed value. Tipically, this is what you would do for a routed circuit.
mbk2ps z2l_y -f 20,40,820,1160
will create a z2l_y.ps file in the current directory with a frame
choosen to fit on an A3 paper. Just find the printer now!
mbk(1) , MBK_IN_PH(3) , MBK_CATA_LIB(3) , MBK_WORK_LIB(3) , MBK_CATAL_NAME(3) , pageview(1) , lpr(1) .
Merging algorithm, that makes a polygone from a bunch of crossing rectangles fails if a loop exists. Do use the -m options in order to avoid it. The generated PostScript is version 2.0. It may not run with 1.0 interpreters, due to the use of new structure conventions. The pattern filling algorithm is written in PostScript, and when interpreted, may take a lot of time on big circuits. Even a printer timeout error can occur on machine having to few Kbytes of ram. This is not a mbk2ps generated PostScript error, but a misuse of it. If such a problem occurs, just use the -p option.
This tool is under development at the ASIM/LIP6/UPMC laboratory, cao-vlsi
research team.
We need your feedbak to improve documentation and tools.
If you find bugs, please fill-in the form at
http://asim.lip6.fr/alliance/support/bug-report/
Thanks for doing this.