GDSPY README

Gdspy is a Python module for creating/importing/merging GDSII stream files. It includes key libraries for creating complex CAD layouts:

• Boolean operations on polygons (AND, OR, NOT, XOR) based on clipping algorithm
• Polygon offset (inward and outward rescaling of polygons)
• Efficient point-in-polygon solutions for large array sets

Gdspy also includes a simple layout viewer.

Typical applications of gdspy are in the fields of electronic chip design, planar lightwave circuit design, and mechanical engineering.

Installation

Dependencies:

• Python (tested with versions 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6)
• Numpy
• Python-future (only for Python 2)
• Tkinter (optional: needed for the LayoutViewer GUI)
• C compiler (needed only if built from source)

Linux / OS X

Option 1: using pip:

pip install gdspy

Option 2: download the source from github and build/install with:

python setup.py install

Windows

The preferred option is to install pre-compiled binaries from here.

Installation via pip and building from source as above are also possible, but an appropriate build environment is required for compilation of the C extension modules.

Documentation

The complete documentation can be built from the sources in the docs folder with Sphinx.

The file tutorial.py in the example folder is a sample script to show the features provided by this module.

Support

Help support gdspy development by donating via PayPal

History of changes

Version 1.3.1 (Jun 29, 2018)

• PolygonSet becomes the base class for all polygons, in particular Polygon and Rectangle.
• Added Cell.remove_polygons and Cell.remove_labels functions to allow filtering a cell contents based, for example, on each element's layer.
• Added PolygonSet.scale utility method.
• Added PolygonSet.get_bounding_box utility method.
• Added argument timestamp to Cell.to_gds, GdsLibrary.write_gds and GdsWriter.
• Added unit and precision arguments to GdsLibrary initialization and removed from its write_gds method.
• Changed the meaning of argument unit in GdsLibrary.read_gds.
• Improved slice to avoid errors when slicing in multiple positions at once.
• Improved PolygonSet.fracture to reduce number of function calls.
• Removed incorrect absolute flags for magnification and rotation in CellReference and CellArray.
• Minor bug fixes.
• Documentation fixes.
• Removed deprecated classes and functions.

Version 1.2.1 (Dec 5, 2017)

• GdsLibrary can be created directly from a GDSII file
• Added return value to GdsLibrary.read_gds
• Fixed return value of GdsLibrary.add

Version 1.2 (Oct 21, 2017)

• Added new gdsii_hash function.
• Added precision parameter to _chop, Polygon.fracture, Polygon.fillet, PolygonSet.fracture, PolygonSet.fillet, and slice.
• Included labels in flatten operations (added get_labels to Cell, CellReference, and CellArray).
• Fixed bug in the bounding box cache of reference copies.
• Fixed bug in _chop that affected Polygon.fracture, PolygonSet.fracture, and slice.
• Other minor bug fixes.

Version 1.1.2 (Mar 19, 2017)

• Update clipper library to 6.4.2 to fix bugs introduced in the last update.
• License change to Boost Software License v1.0.

Version 1.1.1 (Jan 27, 2017)

• Patch to fix installation issue (missing README file in zip).

Version 1.1 (Jan 20, 2017)

• Introduction of GdsLibrary to allow user to work with multiple library simultaneously.
• Deprecated GdsImport in favor of GdsLibrary.
• Renamed gds_print to write_gds and GdsPrint to GdsWriter.
• Development changed to Python 3 (Python 2 supported via python-future).
• Added photonics example.
• Added test suite.
• Clipper library updated to last version.
• Fixed inside function sometimes reversing the order of the output.
• Fixed rounding error in fast_boolean.
• Fixed argument deep_copy being inverted in Cell.copy.
• Bug fixes introduced by numpy (thanks to Adam McCaughan for the contribution).

Version 1.0 (Sep 11, 2016)

• Changed to "new style" classes (thanks to Adam McCaughan for the contribution).
• Added a per-point radius specification for Polygon.fillet (thanks to Adam McCaughan for the contribution).
• Added inside fucntion to perform point-in-polygon tests (thanks to @okianus for the contribution).
• Moved from distutils to setuptools for better Windows support.

Version 0.9 (Jul 17, 2016)

• Added option to join polygons before applying an offset.
• Added a translate method to geometric entities (thanks John Bell for the commit).
• Bug fixes.

Version 0.8.1 (May 6, 2016)

• New fast_boolean function based on the Clipper library with much better performance than the old boolean.
• Changed offset signature to also use the Clipper library (this change breaks compatibility with previous versions).
• Bug fix for error when importing some labels from GDSII files.

Version 0.7.1 (June 26, 2015)

• Rebased to GitHub.
• Changed source structure and documentation.

Version 0.7 (June 12, 2015)

• New feature: offset function.
• New GdsPrint class for incremental GDSII creation (thanks to Jack Sankey for the contribution).

Version 0.6 (March 31, 2014)

• Default number of points for Round, Path.arc, and Path.turn changed to resolution of 0.01 drawing units.
• Path.parametric accepts callable final_distance and final_width for non-linear tapering.
• Added argument ends to PolyPath.
• Added (limited) support for PATHTYPE in GdsImport.
• A warning is issued when a Path curve has width larger than twice its radius (self-intersecting polygon).
• Added a random offset to the patterns in LayoutViewer.
• LayoutViewer shows cell labels for referenced cells.
• get_polygons returns (referenced) cell name if depth < 1 and by_spec is True.
• Bug fix in get_bounding_box when empty cells are referenced.
• Bug fixes in GdsImport and many speed improvements in bounding box calculations (thanks to Gene Hilton for the patch).

Version 0.5 (October 30, 2013) - NOT COMPATIBLE WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS

• Major LayoutViewer improvements (not backwards compatible).
• The layer argument has been repositioned in the argument list in all functions (not backwards compatible).
• Renamed argument by_layer to by_spec (not backwards compatible).
• Error is raised for polygons with more vertices than possible in the GDSII format.
• Removed the global state variable for default datatype.
• Added get_datatypes to Cell.
• Added argument single_datatype to Cell.flatten.
• Removed gds_image and dropped the optional PIL dependency.

Version 0.4.1 (June 5, 2013)

• Added argument axis_offset to Path.segment allowing creation of asymmetric tapers.
• Added missing argument x_reflection to Label.
• Created a global state variable to override the default datatype.
• Bug fix in CellArray.get_bounding_box (thanks to George McLean for the fix)

Version 0.4 (October 25, 2012)

• Cell.get_bounding_box returns None for empty cells.
• Added a cache for bounding boxes for faster computation, especially for references.
• Added support for text elements with Label class.
• Improved the emission of warnings.
• Added a tolerance parameter to boolean.
• Added better print descriptions to classes.
• Bug fixes in boolean involving results with multiple holes.

Version 0.3.1 (May 24, 2012)

• Bug fix in the fracture method for PolygonSet.

Version 0.3a (May 03, 2012)

• Bug fix in the fracture method for Polygon and PolygonSet.

Version 0.3 (April 25, 2012)

• Support for Python 3.2 and 2.7
• Further improvements to the boolean function via caching.
• Added methods get_bounding_box and get_layers to Cell.
• Added method top_level to GdsImport.
• Added support for importing GDSII path elements.
• Added an argument to control the verbosity of the import function.
• Layer -1 (referenced cells) sent to the bottom of the layer list by default in LayoutViewer
• The text and background of the layer list in LayoutViewer now reflect the colors of the outlines and canvas backgroung.
• Changed default background color in LayoutViewer
• Thanks to Gene Hilton for the contributions!

Version 0.2.9 (December 14, 2011)

• Attribute Cell.cell_list changed to Cell.cell_dict.
• Changed the signature of the operation in boolean.
• Order of cells passed to LayoutViewer is now respected in the GUI.
• Complete re-implementation of the boolean function as a C extension for improved performance.
• Removed precision argument in boolean. It is fixed at 1e-13 for merging close points, otherwise machine precision is used.
• gds_image now accepts cell names as input.
• Added optional argument depth to get_polygons
• Added option to convert layers and datatypes in imported GDSII cells.
• Argument exclude_layers from LayoutViewer changed to hidden_layers and behavior changed accordingly.
• Shift + Right-clicking on a layer the layer-list of LayoutVIewer hides/unhides all other layers.
• New buttons to zoom in and out in LayoutViewer.
• Referenced cells below a configurable depth are now represented by theirs bounding boxes in LayoutViewer.

Version 0.2.8 (June 21, 2011)

• GDSII file import
• GDSII output automatically include required referenced cells.
• gds_print also accepts file name as input.
• Outlines are visible by default in LayoutViewer.
• Added background color option in LayoutViewer.
• Right-clicking on the layer list hides/unhides the target layer in LayoutViewer.
• Cell.cell_list is now a dictionary indexed by name, instead of a list.
• Added option to exclude created cells from the global list of cells kept in Cell.cell_list.
• CellReference and CellArray accept name of cells as input.
• Submodules lost their own __version__.

Version 0.2.7 (April 2, 2011)

• Bug fixed in the boolean, which affected the way polygons with more vertices then the maximum were fractured.
• gds_image accepts an extra color argument for the image background.
• Screenshots takes from LayoutViewer have the same background color as the viewer.
• The functions boolean and slice now also accept CellReference and CellArray as input.
• Added the method fracture to Polygon and PolygonSet to automatically slice polygons into parts with a predefined maximal number of vertices.
• Added the method fillet to Polygon and PolygonSet to round corners of polygons.

Version 0.2.6 (February 28, 2011)

• When saving a GDSII file, ValueError is raised if cell names are duplicated.
• Save screenshot from LayoutViewer.
• gds_image accepts cells, instead of lists.
• Outlines supported by gds_image.
• LayoutViewer stores bounding box information for all visited layers to save rendering time.

Version 0.2.5 (December 10, 2010)

• Empty cells no longer break the LayoutViewer.
• Removed the gds_view function, superseded by the LayoutViewer, along with all dependencies to matplotlib.
• Fixed a bug in boolean which affected polygons with series of collinear vertices.
• Added a function to slice polygons along straight lines parallel to an axis.

Version 0.2.4 (September 04, 2010)

• Added shortcut to Extents in LayoutViewer: Home or a keys.
• PolygonSet is the new base class for Round, which might bring some incompatibility issues with older scripts.
• Round elements, PolyPath, L1Path, and Path arc, turn and parametric sections are now automatically fractured into pieces defined by a maximal number of points.
• Default value for max_points in boolean changed to 199.
• Removed the flag to disable the warning about polygons with more than 199 vertices. The warning is shown only for Polygon and PolygonSet.
• Fixed a bug impeding parallel parametric paths to change their distance to each other.

Version 0.2.3 (August 09, 2010)

• Added the PolyPath class to easily create paths with sharp corners.
• Allow None as item in the colors parameter of LayoutViewer to make layers invisible.
• Added color outline mode to LayoutViewer (change outline color with the shift key pressed)
• Increased the scroll region of the LayoutViewer canvas
• Added a fast scroll mode: control + drag 2nd mouse button
• Created a new sample script

Version 0.2.2 (July 29, 2010)

• Changed the cursor inside LayoutViewer to standard arrow.
• Fixed bugs with the windows version of LayoutViewer (mouse wheel and ruler tool).

Version 0.2.1 (July 29, 2010)

• Bug fix: gds_image displays an error message instead of crashing when PIL is not found.
• Added class LayoutViewer, which uses Tkinter (included in all Python distributions) to display the GDSII layout with better controls then the gds_view function. This eliminates the matplotlib requirement for the viewer functionality.
• New layer colors extending layers 0 to 63.

Version 0.2.0 (July 19, 2010)

• Fixed a bug on the turn method of Path.
• Fixed a bug on the boolean function that would give an error when not using Polygon or PolygonSet as input objects.
• Added the method get_polygons to Cell, CellReference and CellArray.
• Added a copy method to Cell.
• Added a flatten method to Cell to remove references (or array references) to other cells.
• Fracture boolean output polygons based on the number of vertices to respect the 199 GDSII limit.

Version 0.1.9 (June 04, 2010)

• Added L1Path class for Manhattan geometry (L1 norm) paths.

Version 0.1.8 (May 10, 2010)

• Removed the argument fill from gds_view and added a more flexible one: style.
• Fixed a rounding error on the boolean operator affecting polygons with holes.
• Added a rotate method to PolygonSet.
• Added a warning when PolygonSet has more than 199 points
• Added a flag to disable the warning about polygons with more than 199 points.
• Added a turn method to Path, which is easier to use than arc.
• Added a direction attribute to Path to keep the information used by the segment and turn methods.

Version 0.1.7 (April 12, 2010)

• New visualization option: save the geometry directly to an image file (lower memory use).
• New functionality added: boolean operations on polygons (polygon clipping).
• All classes were adapted to work with the boolean operations.
• The attribute size in the initializer of class Text does not have a default value any longer.
• The name of the argument format in the function gds_view was changed to fill (to avoid confusion with the built-in function format).

Version 0.1.6 (December 15, 2009)

• Sample script now include comments and creates an easier to understand GDSII example.
• Improved floating point to integer rounding, which fixes the unit errors at the last digit of the precision in the GDSII file.
• Fixed the font for character 5.
• Added a flag to gds_view to avoid the automatic call to matplotlib.pyplot.show().
• In gds_view, if a layer number is greater than the number of formats defined, the formats are cycled.

Version 0.1.5a (November 15, 2009)

• Class Text correctly interprets \n and \t characters.
• Better documentation format, using the Sphinx engine and the numpy format.

Version 0.1.4 (October 5, 2009)

• Class Text re-written with a different font with no overlaps and correct size.

Version 0.1.3a (July 29 2009)

• Fixed the function to_gds of class Rectangle.

Version 0.1.3 (July 27, 2009)

• Added the datatype field to all elements of the GDSII structure.

Version 0.1.2 (July 11, 2009)

• Added the gds_view function to display the GDSII structure using the matplotlib module.
• Fixed a rotation bug in the CellArray class.
• Module published under the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Version 0.1.1 (May 12, 2009)

• Added attribute cell_list to class Cell to hold a list of all Cell created.
• Set the default argument cells=Cell.cell_list in the function gds_print.
• Added member to calculate the area for each element type.
• Added member to calculate the total area of a Cell or the area by layer.
• Included the possibility of creating objects in user-defined units, not only nanometers.

Version 0.1.0 (May 1, 2009)

• Initial release.