Operation Codes

The plus sign "+" indicates the UNION operation also known as OR and also known as adding two layers together. This operation can be performed on a single source layer in which case any touching or overlapping polygons are combined.

It is also possible to unionize multiple input layers. In this case all polygons are combined and the results are output on a single target layer.

boolw32f in.gds out.gds TOP 3 +5

boolw32f in.gds out.gds TOP 3 +5,9,22

This reads the in.gds file and unionizes layers 5, 9 and 22. The results are written to out.gds on layer 3.

The small "x" indicates an XOR operation. XOR is constantly used in mask operations. It always requires two layer arguments. As part of the XOR operation the two input layers must first be unionized -- otherwise we cannot proceed with the XOR calculations. XOR operation results do not depend on order of the layers.

Example

boolw32f in.gds out.gds TOP 5 +7x9

This command XOR's layers 7 and 9 from in.gds and puts them in the file called out.gds on layer 5.

The small "a" indicates an AND operation. This operation always requires two layers as the argument and layer order does not matter.

boolw32f in.gds out.gds TOP 5 +7a9

This command AND's layers 7 and 9 from in.gds and puts them in the file called out.gds on layer 5.

The minus sign or dash, "-" indicates a MINUS operation. Two layers must be specified and the order does matter. Minus is not quite the same operation as XOR.

boolw32f in.gds out.gds TOP 5 +7-9

This command subtracts layer 9 from layer 7 and puts the results in the file called out.gds on layer 5.