Running xgdsplot with multiple Stripes

xgdsplot main menu

This page describes the basic procedure for plotting large plots using xgdsplot. In this case, the plot area is bigger than the page width so it is necessary for the program to plot multiple stripes to achieve the desired scale. In this web page we will show how to plot a 72x72 inch plot on HP1050 plotter with 36 inch roll. We will create two plots of 36x72 inch each to achieve that.

STEP 1

Start xgdsplot from the directory where the GDSII file is located. Either add the xgdsplot/bin directory to your path or just specify the full path to xgdsplot The select GDSII file menu will pop up and you can select the file you wish to plot. If you don't see your file, you probably want to change the Filter on top to reflect the correct extension.

STEP 2

From the main menu, click on Configure Options button to open the Configuration menu.
The default values in the picture are good. You can change some of the settings like the ruler, header, legend etc..

STEP 3

From the main menu, Click on the Plot Page Definition button. Click on Manual and then Extents to plot the full extents of the chip.
You may want to specify a specific window to plot. In this case, define the lower left and upper right of the window to plot.
Next, set scale to plot and then click on the Calculate Area to find the page size. Adjust the scale until the page size is about 70x70 inches - we want to leave some room for margins, therefore we use only 70x70 plot area.
Last, you can choose to plot all layers (default) or click on Select to choose the layers to plot as shown in the menu below.

STEP 4

From the Main Menu, Click on Setup Plotter Parameter. The first menu allows you to set the page size you want and the rotation.
In our case, we will set the Page to Custom, Portrait (no rotation), and page size of 36 inch width and 72 inch length.

Click on the Plot Format to set the raster format. For all HP Inkjet Plotters we recommend using the RTL driver.

Click on the Output to select whether you want the plot to go to a file or directly to the plotter. Make sure to put the correct plotter name on the command line.
If you write the output to a file, the program will create one plot file for each stripe plot1_00.out, plot1_01.out etc..

STEP 5

From the Main Menu, Click on Setup Layer Fills and Colors. This menu will allow you to create the MAP file with the outline type, outline color, layer name, and fill assignment for the layers.
This information will be used by the plotting software and will be plotted at the top of the plot if the Legend was on.

STEP 6

From the Main Menu, Click on Start Plotting. The program will tell you that it will create two stripes for our plots - 36x72 inch each.

That will conclude this example.