Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-19/lasi401a.zip/LHI.HLP

Text File | 1992-06-02 | 147KB | 3,515 lines

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Basic Information

 Introduction

                  LASI (LAyout System for Individuals)

                           (Pronounced "LAZY")


  The LASI CAD System consists of a main program, a set of utility programs
  and an information and help program. It was originally written for the
  author's own professional use to do IC and semiconductor device layout on
  a personal computer. It has also been used for hybrids, printed circuit
  boards, schematic diagrams and other precision drawing applications. LASI
  has become particularly valuable to students, schools, universities, or
  anyone who doesn't have the funding for more elaborate drawing systems.

  LASI is intended to be friendly and intuitively obvious, which makes it
  easy to learn and operate by occasional users. Once the basics are
  understood, the commands usually require little additional explanation.
  Most commands operate on the drawing globally, so that there are no
  special editing procedures for different parts of a drawing. There are no
  hierarchical command structures with pull down menus. All commands are
  essentially random access through menus at the side of the display.
  Information is usually entered by mouse or keyboard. When a command is
  executed, the program is designed so that the results are displayed as
  soon as possible, to give good operator interaction.

  Drawings made using LASI can be translated into other drawing systems by
  utility programs. Presently, translation to and from CALMA Stream Format
  and to Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HP-GL) is available. LASI also
  has a drawing language of its own called TLC. Written in plain ASCII
  text, TLC can be used to interchange drawings or to write auxiliary
  programs that operate on LASI drawings.

  LASI is intended to be propagated by software alone. There is therefore
  no printed manual. This LASI Help and Information program (LHI) displays
  all the documentation, and individual topics can be printed if desired.

                                ----------

  You should read the remaining Basic Information topics. If you are new to
  LASI you should use the demonstration IC layout as a tutorial, if it has
  been included on the distribution disk. By working with a simple layout,
  you will get a good basic idea of how LASI works. If you have been using
  LASI Version 3, you MUST read the Converting Versions topic. You should
  also read the System Log, to see what changes have been made since the
  last release.
 Converting Versions

  If you have not been using LASI Version 3 and do not have drawings made
  using it, you can skip these instructions.

  LASI Version 4 has many new features over Version 3. You should read the
  System Log topic for a listing of the major changes.

  Version 4 of LASI now keeps its files in the directory "\LASI4". It is
  important that the MS-DOS PATH be changed to include "\LASI4" and not
  "\LASI" as was previously used, since many of the new files have the same
  name as the old.

  As a protection, the file name extensions have been changed so that
  internal files are invisible to the wrong version. You need to convert
  your internal files (.BPV and .CEL) to Version 4 files (.BP4 and .CL4).
  To do this quickly, the program 3TO4.COM has been supplied. To convert
  your files simply run 3TO4.COM while logged into a drawing directory.
  3TO4.COM will act only on the files in that directory and will create new
  files and leave the old files unchanged.

  Converting back to Version 3 can be done by using the TLC.EXE program.
  However, any text made using LASI Version 4 will be ignored. The NEW
  TLC.EXE must be used to make the TLC files, and the OLD TLC.EXE must be
  used to convert any TLC files to Version 3 internal files.

  The file CONSTS.DBD used in Version 3 has been replaced by the file
  CONSTS4.DBD. The new file contains more information in a different order
  than the old CONSTS.DBD file. You may leave the old file in your drawing
  directory so that you can use Version 3 again for some reason.

  The CELLS.DBD file has been replaced by the CELLS4.DBD file This is
  really the same file, but the name has been changed to prevent the wrong
  version of LASI from writing to it.

  FORM.DBD in Version 4 contains new parameters. LASI is however smart
  enough to read for parameter titles so that Version 3 can read through a
  Version 4 Form File and pick out only what it needs.
 Installing LASI

  The system files are distributed in compressed form. The distribution
  should consist of a self-extracting executable file named LS4.EXE, and an
  installation batch file LSINSTAL.BAT and possible demonstration files.

  The system files are listed in the System Contents help topic. If for
  some reason you obtain LASI as individual files, you should check to see
  if you have a complete set of files. All files should have the SAME DATE
  to insure compatibility.

  LASI will be ready to run with just the basic installation. When you are
  more familiar with LASI's workings you can do the advanced installation.

  Basic Installation:

  1. Run the installation batch file.

    This will create a subdirectory named "\LASI4" on your hard disk, if it
    has not yet been created, and will extract and copy the system files to
    that subdirectory.

  2. If there is a demonstration present on the distribution disk, the
    installation will ask if you want the files to be installed. If you are
    new to LASI you should install the demonstration, otherwise you can
    skip it.

  3. Add the path "disk:\LASI4" to DOS using the "PATH" DOS Command,
    where "disk" is the hard disk's drive letter name.

    Putting the path in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file is easiest.


  Advanced Installation:

  1. If you have an appropriate line printer or plotter, set the FORM.DBD
    file's "hcopy=" and "plot=" parameters to allow hard copies and plots
    to be made. Use EDLIN.COM or MS-DOS 5's EDIT to change the FORM.DBD
    file, to prevent any word processor formatting characters from being
    inserted into the FORM.DBD file. Read the Form File General Information
    and the HCPY Command Information help topics.

  2. Set the allocation parameters "rank=","box=",path=",vtx=" and "cell="
    in the FORM.DBD files to the desired amounts. If you don't know how
    many you need to allocate, use the default values. Read the Allocating
    Memory and Form File General Information topics.

  3. If you have extended memory, install a RAM disk by putting the driver
    into your CONFIG.SYS file. Turn on the RAM disk provision by setting
    the "rdisk=" parameter in the FORM.DBD file to the letter of the RAM
    disk. Read the Using RAM Disk General Information help topic.

  4. Once you have been using LASI for some time you will have some
    favorite commands that you use often. You can write these into the
    FORM.DBD file under the "fkey=" parameter, and further customize LASI
    to your own way of working.
 Terms of Distribution

  The LASI System can be copied and distributed by anyone. The self-
  extracting executable LS4.EXE, the installation batch file LSINSTAL.BAT
  and any optional files should be copied directly from the distribution
  disk. Files should NOT be distributed individually, since all the files
  are intended to work with each other in the same distribution. Files
  should all have the SAME DATE.

  An attempt will be made to keep known users updated with the latest
  version by informing them that a new version is available, or by just
  sending out new floppy disks.

  If dangerous bugs are discovered an attempt will be made to notify or
  send corrected programs to known users.

  The author maintains a database of know users, but unknown secondary
  users should be kept updated by those who gave them the software.

  Updating secondary users is a responsibility that should be taken
  seriously. People have been found using ancient versions of the programs,
  which have since been debugged, greatly improved, or completely revised.

  To prevent continuously notifying or sending updates to anyone who really
  isn't using LASI, There is a CUTOFF PERIOD OF ONE YEAR, after which
  updates will have to be requested.

  As a general rule, to be sure that you have the most current software
  contact the author directly.

                                ----------

  The LASI System has been written over a period of several years, mostly
  for the author's own professional use, and therefore was not intended as
  profit-making software.

  For this reason, LASI is free for educational use in order to foster IC
  design as a heuristic exercise and a true art. It is also free for non-
  profit applications by individuals.

  However, if LASI.EXE (or LASIA.EXE) is used to MAKE A PROFIT, then a
  VOLUNTARY license fee of $99 PER COMPUTER on which it is installed is
  requested. This license is for a period of ONE YEAR and should be made
  payable to the author.

  When LASI is licensed, free updates will be provided during the license
  period, and will continue to be provided if the license is renewed.

  This fee is not just to ease the conscience of someone making a profit
  and using LASI for free, but helps to pay for improving LASI with new
  hardware and software and sending out updates to everyone. The fee is not
  expected to be a compensation for the endless hours of coding and
  debugging that have gone into producing LASI.
 Terms of Liability

  The LASI System is constantly being revised and is distributed on an
  "as is" basis. Since the programs are quite complicated, software bugs
  may be found, often when someone does something that only rarely would be
  done. If you have what you think is a real bug, then report it, and an
  attempt will be made to fix it.

  Neither the author nor any person distributing the LASI System assumes
  any responsibility for whomever uses the programs or for how the programs
  are used. Also, neither the author nor any person distributing the
  software assumes any liability for any losses monetary or otherwise
  incurred related to the use of the programs.
 Final Comment

  With the proper software, personal computers have easily become adequate
  for small to medium sized IC layout applications. LASI can give everyone
  a personal computer based work station.

  Although it may be used that purpose, LASI was not really intended for
  doing routine IC or ASIC design. Instead, LASI was developed as a
  "fundamental" drawing system, which can generate arbitrary shapes that
  might be needed in any kind of application. It was also intended for
  people who think in a particular spatial way, as anyone working with it
  will soon realize.

  Actually, LASI was really intended to put some fun and relaxation into
  doing layout tasks by allowing a person to work when and where they want,
  and therefore, it is believed, do better more creative work.

  Anyone using LASI for fun or profit is encouraged to contact me with any
  suggestions or requests for additional utility or conversion programs.



                                        Dave Boyce


                                        Dr. David E. Boyce
                                        143B Bergdorf Rd., RR1
                                        Parish, NY 13131, USA
                                        315-625-7291
General Information

 Allocating Memory

  A LASI drawing is made out of boxes, paths, polygons, text and cells,
  which are collectively called OBJECTS. The data for these objects is kept
  in what is known as conventional memory, the memory from 0K to 640K
  bytes. The LASI.EXE program is loaded at some low address determined by
  the DOS system. LASI.EXE will use about 225K, and the remaining memory
  space can be used for drawing data. The partitioning of the data memory
  space between various types of objects is written MANUALLY by the user
  into the FORM.DBD file. In future versions of LASI there may be a memory
  management system that allocates memory dynamically by blocks on demand.

  Since the applications for LASI or even the drawing habits of the user
  can vary considerably, the required numbers of each type of object can
  also vary. For instance, when doing an IC layout, you might use boxes
  heavily. If a schematic is being drawn, polygons and text will be used
  more often. When LASI starts it reads the Form File and allocates a fixed
  number of each type of object. The number can usually be increased if
  necessary, and warnings occur if a limit is reached.

  There is an automatic limit on the maximum number of each type of object
  that can be allocated, but the amount of memory that can be requested by
  LASI with full allocations is just about all that remains of 640K of
  conventional memory. DOS needs at least 64K available to load most
  anything at first. (It can then give memory back.) If you fill your
  memory, you won't be able to call some other small programs from LASI,
  such as the screen hardcopiers, or even help. To make the most memory
  space available, you should minimize the "resident" programs (TSRs) and
  drivers that you install when booting up your computer. With the newer
  DOS's you can load much of your resident software into high memory. Read
  the MS-DOS 5 topic.

  You should be relieved to know, however, that most drawings can be done
  with nowhere near the maximum number of objects permitted. Particularly,
  if you properly use cell nesting. That is, you use the wise practice of
  making repetitious drawing sections into cells. Additionally, LASI in
  System Mode gives back the memory allocated for objects anyway, so that
  larger programs can be called from System Mode than from Cell Mode.

  Boxes are allocated on their own. You will tend to use boxes in some
  situations where rectangular patterns are favored, such as making simple
  transistors in an IC layout. In that case, you will probably allocate
  many boxes.

  Paths and vertices although dependent are allocated independently because
  there is no really good relationship between them. Each path requires at
  least 2 vertices, but after that the number of vertices per path will
  depend on what shapes you make. Curved figures can use many vertices, but
  paths used for orthogonal interconnections will use just a few. LASI and
  the various utility programs treat paths and vertex numbers as virtually
  unrelated. There is a small feature in LASI, where if you allocate
  vertices and leave the path allocation blank, you will get 1/4 the number
  of vertices for your paths.

  The depth to which you intend to nest cells is set by the user in the
  Form File as the maximum RANK. The required number of cells depends on
  the depth to which you nest your drawings. The maximum rank that you set
  is used to divide the total memory space available to cells. If you set
  the maximum rank low, you GET more cells per rank; if the maximum rank is
  set high, you NEED less cells per rank.

  Read the Form File topic for more specific information.
 Backups

  It is highly recommended that you keep current backups of your drawings.
  You should use the TLC external data format. The TLC format is written in
  ASCII text, and is very forgiving. It may in fact be written or repaired
  using a text editor.

  To dump a complete drawing you only need to run TLC.EXE in a drawing
  directory, or alternately, to dump only a certain cell, give it the name
  of the that cell and TLC.EXE will make all the required cells. Backup TLC
  files may be written directly to a floppy disk if they will all fit, or
  they can be written to a hard disk and then to one or more floppy disks.

  Once TLC files are made, a complete drawing or individual cells can be
  reconstructed if necessary.

  It might be said that TLC is the true way of storing LASI drawings. The
  internal data files (BP4 and CL4 files) are really a convenience to
  reduce the startup time for LASI.

  Read the TLC Conversion topic.
 Command Menus

  Most operations are done by selecting a command from a menu on the side
  of the screen. The mouse cursor will turn into a box around the command
  that will be chosen. Clicking the right mouse button activates the
  command.

  In Cell Mode there are two menus that contain the Cell Mode commands. To
  flip between them, simply click the right mouse button with the cursor in
  the drawing area, not in the menu area.

  In Cell Mode the current resident command is shown at the top center of
  the screen.


  The colors usually mean something. Generally the cyan commands affect
  boxes and paths, the yellow affect cells, an the green both, with many
  exceptions. Commands intended to stand out are generally red. Some
  commands are colored just to look pretty or give good contrast.
 Command Types

  The commands that are found on the menus do many things. The commands all
  have help topics. Read the topic for information on each.

  Some types of commands deserve special mention:

    RESIDENT commands are commands that stay in place until you change to
    another resident command. There is always a default resident command
    when working on a drawing.

    The resident commands are: ADD, AGET, CGET, CMOV, CPUT, CPY, FGET,
    FPUT, FULL, GET, MOV, OUTL, PBEG, PEND, PUT, QMOV, TEXT, WGET and WMOV.

    WINDOW commands are commands that change the window display. These
    commands are nestable within a resident command. For example, you can
    reposition the window display an unlimited number of times while you
    still have the second point of a MOV pending. The command listed at the
    top of the display changes color to tell you that you are in a nested
    command that is asking for an input.

    The window commands are: ARROWS, CNTR, DGRD, DRAW, FIT, GRID, OPEN,
    RDRW, VIEW, WGRD, RSTR, SAVE, XPND and ZOOM.

    DOS commands are commands that run other programs with LASI as the
    shell. These commands can cause "out of memory" or "not available"
    errors if you don't have enough RAM available.

    The DOS commands are: DOS, HCPY, PLOT, TLC IN, TLC OUT and help F1.


  Other commands are either self-executing or may request additional
  information before executing. In System Mode information is requested at
  the left of the screen. In Cell Mode information is usually requested on
  the last line. Any default values, shown in parentheses, will be retained
  by pressing ENTER.


  Important:  Any command that is expecting a cursor input point can be
  cancelled by selecting the same command or a new command. Window commands
  can be cancelled within a resident command without cancelling the
  resident command.
 Common Problems

  When LASI is started it checks for the FORM.DBD file, the CONSTS4.DBD
  file, the CELLS4.DBD file and the Text Font File (usually TXT.DBD). It
  also checks the hardware for the mouse and the kind of video adapter you
  have. If there is a problem LASI should tell you. This may not be perfect
  and if you crash first suspect the CONSTS4.DBD file. It may be incorrect.
  Simply erase it from your drawing directory. LASI will make a new one.
  CONSTS4.DBD files made with older versions of LASI are not guaranteed to
  work with newer versions of LASI.

  If you crash or you get a "Not Available" message, when running programs
  such as TLC.EXE or LASI2HP.EXE with LASI.EXE as the shell, you probably
  have run out of conventional memory. Downsize the allocated space for
  boxes etc. to reduce your memory requirements by changing the settings in
  the FORM.DBD file.

  LASI checks memory, and refuses to execute if it thinks that there is too
  little available, but it is not perfect because it really doesn't know
  how much memory a program needs. DOS eventually determines this.


  The LASI System is a very complex and evolving system. It is possible
  that situations will occur with different hardware and software
  environments that will cause difficulties. Once authentic problems are
  reported they are usually fixed. Consult the author or your source of
  this software for the latest version.
 Drawing Speed

  On a fairly slow computer, drawing a large number of cells can take a
  considerable amount of time. LASI has several features to allow you to
  work on larger drawings more effectively. These are as follows:

  1. Pressing the ESC key or clicking the right mouse button causes a
    drawing sequence to abort in two stages. The first stage forces cells
    to be drawn as lightly dashed outlines. The second stops the present
    cell's boxes and paths from being drawn. You don't have to fully draw
    an overall drawing if you only want to locate a certain area. Just find
    where it is and ZOOM in.

  2. Cells may be replaced by their outline, which draws almost instantly.
    Read the OUTL and FULL Command Information topics.

  3. Objects that are too small to draw may be skipped by setting the
    resolution properly. Read the SET Command Information topic.

  4. Objects that are out of a draw window are remembered and are skipped
    for certain commands.

  5. The cell files may be (and should be) automatically transferred to a
    RAM disk. Read the RAM Disk General Information topic.


  Note:  If you speed up drawing using first method, active box sides and
  active vertices are still drawn or marked, and active cells are still
  drawn as filled outlines. This is to indicate where an active object is
  located.
 Error Messages

  Most messages are self-evident and appear in the dialog area in System
  Mode, on the bottom line in Cell Mode, or on the top line in both modes
  when DOS calls are made. Most error messages due to memory limitations
  are less obvious and are as follows:

    "Not Enough Memory!" means that you have run out of memory when
    starting LASI. You are requesting too much memory in your FORM
    parameters.

    "Not Available!" means that LASI will not act as a "shell" to execute
    other programs ("child" processes). If so, downsize your Form File
    allocations if you can.

    "Rank Error!" means that you are trying to work with a cell that has a
    high rank than the limit that you have set in your Form File.

    "Not Enough Space to Load CELLNAME OBJECTS!" means that you have too
    little space allocated to properly load a cell file.

    "OBJECT Limit Reached!" means that you are trying to add an object that
    exceed its allocation.

    "Not Enough Space to Smash CELLNAME!" means that there isn't enough
    space allocated to hold the objects that would result if a cell is
    smashed.
 File Types

  LASI.EXE uses several files when it is run. These are:

  DBD (drawing basic data) files:

    CELLS4.DBD is the master list of cells used by LASI.EXE to know which
    cells it has to use in a drawing. The position of a cell in the file is
    an index used by LASI.EXE to keep track of which cells are used in
    other cells.

    FORM.DBD contains the configuration information used by LASI.EXE when
    it starts. Read the Form File topic.

    CONSTS4.DBD is a file that is maintained by LASI.EXE itself, and
    contains the information (or constants) that determine the immediate
    settings of many parameters. Although it is ASCII this file should not
    be edited.

    TXT.DBD is a generic Text Font File. This file is a binary file that
    contains patterns for the text characters. This file was generated by
    the MAKETXT.EXE utility and can only be modified using that utility.
    Otherwise, the user is free to make his own fonts following the
    directions under the topic Text Generation.


  Cell Data Files:

    Cell data files are named with the name of a cell with a .BP4 or a .CL4
    extension.

    BP4 files are internal binary files that contain information regarding
    boxes, paths, text and vertices. These files are maintained by LASI.EXE
    and other utilities and are not to be externally edited.

    CL4 files are internal files that contain information regarding which
    cells are contained in other cells. Rank 1 cells do not produce these
    files. These files are not to be externally edited.
 Form File

  The configuration information for each drawing is in the FORM.DBD file.
  This file must be in each drawing directory. You write it using a text
  editor in standard DOS text format.

  The FORM parameters are keywords followed by "=" and then the FORM
  variable. These may be in any order, or be omitted. If a parameter is
  omitted a default parameter is used if possible.

  The present FORM parameters are:

    hdisk=C:,D:,etc.          (\LASI4 directory hard disk letter name)
    rdisk=D:,etc. or blank    (RAM disk letter name)
    fdisk=A: or B:            (floppy disk letter name)
    rank=2-15                 (maximum rank available)
    box=6500 max.             (maximum number of boxes per cell)
    path=8100 max.            (maximum number of paths per cell)
    vtx=32700 max.            (maximum number of vertices per cell)
    cell=10900/(rank-1) max.  (maximum number of cells per cell)
    hcopy=XXXX                (name of bitmap program to be used)
    plot=XXXX                 (name of plotter support program)
    text=XXXX                 (name of Text Font File)
    vmode=vga or ega          (forces the display mode)
    fkey=command line         (progressively assigns F-keys)

  The "hdisk=" variable is the letter name of the hard disk where the
  \LASI4 directory is located and is used to find certain files.

  The "rdisk=" variable is the letter name of a RAM disk that was setup in
  memory.  Read the Using RAM Disk topic for more information.

  The "fdisk=" variable is the letter name of the default floppy drive
  where certain files are routinely imported and exported. Read the TLC IN
  and TLC OUT topics.

  The parameters "box=", "path=", "vtx=", "cell=" and "rank=" allocate
  memory space for the respective objects. These are limited automatically
  individually, but you can run out of total memory due to your computer's
  memory limitations.

  If the "path=" parameter is left blank or "0", or if it is left out of
  the Form File, one quarter the number of vertices will be allocated for
  paths.

  The variable of "hcopy=" is the name of the screen hardcopy program. Read
  the HCPY Command Information topic for information on these programs.

  Important:  If you don't have a printer on the computer leave the
  hardcopy parameter "hcopy=" blank. This will prevent the system from
  possibly hanging up if HCPY is pushed.

  The variable of "plot=" is the name of the plotter program. At the
  present there is only one plotter program LASI2HP.EXE.

  The variable of "text=" is the name of the Text Font File. If this
  parameter is left blank or if it is left out of the Form File altogether,
  the name "\LASI4\TXT.DBD" will be assumed. Note that this variable may
  contain a DOS path. This allows you to make your own Text Font Files and
  put them in any directory.

  The "vmode=" parameter overrides the automatic sensing of VGA or EGA
  hardware. If you only have EGA, don't set this to "vga".

  The "fkey=" parameters progressively assign a command line to a function
  key, starting with F2 (F1 is always HELP.) through F10, SHIFT-F1 through
  SHIFT-F10, CTRL-F1 through CTRL-F10 and ALT-F1 through ALT-F10. Read the
  F-keys topic for more details.


  FORM is a command on the menus. It lists the FORM parameters of the
  drawing directory where you are working.

  The FORM command also lists the approximate amount of memory that you
  have left in conventional memory when all the space for objects is
  allocated. Use this as a guide when setting your allocation parameters.
 Hardcopy

  Hardcopies of the drawing display can be made by calling screen bitmap
  printing programs. These are small programs that are included with the
  LASI System. These hardcopy programs can send the bitmap data directly to
  a printing device or can produce a file for later printing.

  Any hardcopy program is installed by including its name in the "hcopy="
  parameter in the FORM.DBD file. Hardcopy programs are always kept in the
  \LASI4 directory. When LASI calls a hardcopy program, it attaches that
  path to the filename.

  Presently there are 2 hardcopy programs in the \LASI4 directory:

  1. LPHCPY.COM makes a black and white copy of the screen in standard IBM
    (or Epson FX or LQ) format, using "standard" control codes.

    There are 3 arguments (upper or lowercase) that may be appended to the
    "hcopy=lphcpy" parameter in the FORM.DBD file:

      "F" which causes a bitmap data file to be produced.

      "Q" which causes LQ format to be produced.

      "H" which causes a heavier copy to be made by duplicating any dots
        printed.

    These arguments may be in any order.

    For example, "hcopy=lphcpy h q f" produces a file with heavy printing
    for an LQ type printer.

    If you are making a data file, a small window will open and close in
    the lower left of the screen requesting a file name.

    If you are operating in VGA graphics mode, the hardcopy that you get
    will have a correct 1:1 aspect ratio.

    If you produce files in the Epson FX printer format. You can build
    single or multiple sheet fax files for transmission using an Intel
    SatisFAXion board.

  2. LJHCPY.COM makes a black and white copy on a  or DeskJet Printer. The
    bitmap is produced at 75 dots/in. LJHCPY.COM produces a data file if a
    command line argument "F" (or "f") is appended to the "hcopy=ljhcpy"
    parameter in the FORM.DBD file. This data file may converted to other
    formats, or copied to a LaserJet for printing later.


  Read the HCPY Command Information topic.
 Hardware

  The LASI will run in some configuration on almost any IBM compatible
  computer with the right hardware options. A faster computer is always an
  advantage. LASI will run quite nicely on a 386 or 486 based PC with clock
  speed 25 MHz or more.

  This is briefly the required hardware:

    1. 640K of conventional memory
    2. A hard disk
    3. VGA or EGA adaptor and color monitor
    4. A mouse
    5. A math coprocessor (see below)


  640K of Conventional Memory

    The main program LASI.EXE takes a minimum of about 225K. Drawing data
    is kept in conventional memory also, so if you don't have full memory,
    the size of your drawing will be excessively memory limited. You will
    also not be able to run certain programs from LASI.EXE.

    Using extended memory and MS-DOS 5 (or newer) from Microsoft or DR-DOS
    6.0 from Digital Research will improve this situation because these
    operating systems move drivers to high memory.

    Read the Allocating Memory topic for more information on use of memory.


  Hard Disk

    While working on a drawing, the basic drawing files (or cell files)
    need to be swapped back and forth to the disk. The hard disk should be
    as fast as possible. Each cell may use one or two files for storage.
    One cell file can be as large as 384K, the other 64K. Files this large
    will be rare, if not impossible due to RAM limitations. However, for
    large drawings with many cells, a total of several megabytes of disk
    space may still be needed.


  EGA or VGA Adaptor and Color Monitor

    LASI.EXE uses some direct hardware access so the EGA or VGA board must
    be register compatible to the IBM standard. If you have VGA graphics,
    the VGA will default to VGA 640x480 16 color graphics mode. If you have
    EGA you will default to 640x350 graphics mode. You may override the
    automatic default by setting the "vmode=" parameter in the Form File
    however.  Because LASI.EXE writes directly to the hardware, you will
    get faster graphics if you use a 16-bit graphics board, instead of an
    8-bit board. In ISA (AT) type computers of any CPU speed, the bus speed
    is usually still 8MHz. A computer with built-in VGA may be faster,
    since graphics data transfer may not be bus speed dependent.


  Mouse

    Pretty much everything is done graphically by mouse. All mouse function
    calls conform to Microsoft Mouse Protocol. LASI.EXE does little more
    than look for button pushes and return screen location. The cursors are
    drawn directly, so LASI is very mouse tolerant. Any mouse that has at
    least two buttons, has driver software that works with EGA or VGA, and
    understands some basic Microsoft mouse driver function calls should
    work with any of the LASI System programs.

    To use the mouse, first be sure that the mouse driver software that
    came with your mouse is installed according to your mouse's
    instructions, and that you know that the mouse works with most other
    programs. Using current Microsoft mouse driver software and a Microsoft
    compatible mouse is usually best.


  Math Coprocessor (80287, 80387, etc)

    Most of the math is done in integer form, which is handled by the CPU
    directly. A certain amount of floating point arithmetic is also done.
    If you try to run LASI.EXE without a coprocessor, the program will
    return a system error. If you don't have a coprocessor and can't afford
    one, another version of LASI, LASIA.EXE is provided that uses alternate
    math function calls and is about half as fast in certain situations as
    LASI.EXE.


  Optional but Desirable:

    1. Extended memory
    2. A printer


  Extended Memory

    In addition to using less conventional memory if a newer DOS is used,
    drawing speed may be improved by using extended memory for a RAM disk.
    The amount of additional memory is dependent on the amount of data in
    the layout drawings that you make. Experience will determine how much
    memory you need. Read the Using RAM Disk topic.


  Printer (Dot Matrix or Laser)

    Hard copies of the screen can be made directly from LASI.EXE. Making
    hardcopies is very handy to examine and keep track of your drawings.
    Hardcopy support is provided for Epson FX (IBM) and LQ type printers
    along with H-P LaserJet printers. Most printers seem to conform to
    these standards. Read the HCPY Command Information topic. If your
    printer doesn't work contact the author to see if anything can be done
    about it, providing you have technical information available on your
    printer and you know that it is capable of bitmap graphics.
 Key Assignment

  Some key on the keyboard are permanently assigned:

    ENTER redraws the screen completely.
    DIRECTION ARROWS move the drawing window in that direction.
    ESC aborts drawing and changes pages.
    TAB toggles the cursor between a small cross and crosshairs.
    C toggles the path center line on an off. (retained)
    N toggles the outline name on and off.
    X or Y opens a PKE entry.
    Z sets the measurement reference point.
    SPACE gives a measurement from the reference point.
    CTRL or ALT toggles the cursor locking between working and unit grid.
    CTRL and ALT pressed together are used to change the effect of the
    cursor window in commands acting on cells.

    Any other unassigned keys cancel commands.

    F1 always calls HELP.


  The remaining function keys are USER DEFINABLE.

  F2-F10, SHIFT-F1 through SHIFT-F10, CTRL-F1 through CTRL-F10 and ALT-F1
  through ALT-F10 may be defined by writing a command with any arguments
  into the FORM.DBD file.

  To assign the keys you simply write the command after an "fkey="
  parameter in the FORM.DBD file. Keys are assigned progressively and the
  exact assignment can be checked by the FORM command.

  A command must be a command from the Cell Mode menus and must be followed
  by any arguments separated by commas.

    examples:   "fkey=view,1-4 10 12"
                makes those layers visible.

                "fkey=wmov,0,0,100,100,0,0,10,0"
                moves objects in the 0,0 to 100,100 rectangle
                10 physical units to the right.

  The command line may be upper or lower case and no longer than 80
  characters. Any coordinates are in physical units. Any text generated in
  this way will be created with case preserved.

  LASI should be smart enough to request additional arguments in the normal
  way if you list too few in the key assignment, or throw away any extras
  if you have too many. Coordinate pairs are always requested in pairs.
 Measurements

  The position of the cursor in the work area is continuously read out at
  the top of the screen. The coordinates are either in working grid units
  or in the smallest possible grid unit, the unit grid. You may toggle
  between these by pressing the TAB key.

  There is no ruler but distances can be measured graphically. The Z key
  zeroes the measurement system to the current cursor grid point. The
  current cursor grid may be the working grid or it may be the unit grid,
  depending on the resident command and if the cursor grid has been toggled
  by the TAB key.

  If the space bar is then pressed, a measurement from the zero point will
  be displayed at the bottom of the screen. The second point will be
  gridded to the present cursor grid.
 Mouse Cursor

  LASI is designed to be very mouse intensive. Positioning the cursor and
  clicking the mouse buttons choses the commands and inputs most all the
  graphical information. The exceptions being when a literal or numerical
  input is required, or when a specially assigned key is used.

  The mouse cursor is usually a small cross that may have other figures
  added to it. When on a menu, a box will appear that indicates which
  command will be chosen. When using drawing commands dotted lines or a
  dotted rectangular window will appear.

  The cursor can be toggled between the small cross and crosshair lines by
  pressing the TAB key. The cursor automatically turns back to the small
  cross if not on the drawing area.

  When a cursor input is expected, the point needed will be shown at the
  top of the screen after the command name. Most commands take one or two
  points.

  The cursor moves in discrete steps. When a command is chosen, the cursor
  is set to move either in the unit grid or in one of a number of preset
  working grids. The working grids are entered using the SET command, and
  are changed with the WGRD command. The cursor's grid type may change from
  command to command or during a command, but it may always be toggled from
  one type of grid to the other by pressing either the CTRL or the ALT key
  on the keyboard.

  Hint:  If you are using a fairly new mouse driver, such as Microsoft's
  versions 6.XX or 7.XX drivers, you can usually pass mouse sensitivity
  arguments back to the mouse driver using LASI's DOS command. This allows
  you to customize your cursor sensitivity while working in LASI.
 Objects

  A drawing is built of things called OBJECTS. In a drawing objects are
  placed in a hierarchy, the position of an object in this hierarchy is
  called its RANK.

  The lowest rank (0) objects are the basic constructions, BOXES, PATHS,
  POLYGONS and TEXT.

  The higher rank (1-15) objects are the CELLS, which are the basic
  structures of a drawing. Any cell can contain one or more objects of
  lesser rank.

  All the cells in a drawing are called the CELL COLLECTION.


  Boxes

    Boxes are objects that have the properties of four sides, each
    orthogonal to the adjacent, and a layer. Only the position of the sides
    and the layer may be changed.


  Paths

    Paths are a set of vertices in some order which display as a set of
    endwise merged rectangles, all with the same width, but usually
    different lengths.

    A path with a zero width is called a polygon (poly).

    A polygon is special case of a path, and the term "path" can be used to
    refer to either, except in the case where a zero width path is
    explicitly indicated.

    A polygon need not be closed. A line of zero width however usually does
    not reproduce anything useful in an integrated circuit, so polygons
    will usually be closed intentionally.

    Vertices may have their position changed, and the vertices of a path
    may be added or deleted. The width or layer of the path may be changed.

    Paths with a positive width are drawn with their ends flush with their
    end vertices, while paths with negative widths are drawn with their
    ends spaced out half the width from the vertices. Paths with negative
    width are discouraged and are provided only for CALMA compatibility.

    A path with width can have no more than 250 vertices. A polygon can
    have no more than 500 vertices.


  Text

    Text is a form of path that instead of displaying vertices, displays a
    string of text characters linearly. Text is stored as a special path,
    and many of the commands that affect paths work on text objects. Text
    can have a layer and a size which corresponds to a path's width.


  There are 32 layers available for boxes, paths and text, numbered 1-32.


  Cells

    All drawing is done on cells. A cell has a NAME by which it is called
    for drawing or for insertion into other cells. The name must be
    acceptable as a DOS filename, since cell files will be made using that
    name. A cell is named when it is created, but it may be renamed. A rank
    is also assigned when a cell is created and cannot be changed, although
    a cell can be copied to a different rank.

    Cell ranking is strictly enforced so that computer memory usage is
    better controlled and ambiguous constructions (i.e. cells in
    themselves) are avoided.

    In general, the overall layout drawing will be the highest ranking
    cell. There however may be many cells of that rank, for perhaps
    different versions of the same integrated circuit.

    Cells have a PROPERTY known as their OUTLINE. An outline is a rectangle
    that fully encloses all the objects within a cell. Cells may be drawn
    in full or may be drawn as only their outline. When a cell is drawn as
    its outline it may be manipulated as though it was drawn fully. Cells
    in a drawing that are not currently in use may be outlined to improve
    clarity and to speed up redrawing.
 Operating Modes

  There are two operating modes, System Mode and Cell Mode:

  System Mode is a housekeeping mode which has commands for overall
  manipulation of cells and the control of certain drawing parameters.

  Cell Mode is the mode where actual drawing is done. When Cell Mode is
  entered a cell drawing is opened for creation or modification.

    Cell Mode has up to 15 ranks.

    The rank of Cell Mode is obtained from the cell being drawn.

    Each Cell Mode rank keeps separate parameters, such as window size and
    position, in order to simplify moving between different ranks of cells
    while working on a drawing.

    The maximum number of ranks is set in the FORM.DBD file.

    All Cell Modes are identical except for the ranking.

    Both modes have a menu of commands on the side of the screen. The
    commands are explained under their own help topics.

    When LASI is started it goes to System Mode.

    Using the SYS command that appears in the Cell Mode menu is the normal
    way to reenter System Mode from Cell Mode.

    Using the CELL and LIST commands which appear in both mode menus is
    normal way to enter Cell Mode and open another cell.


  Cell Mode also may be entered directly by adding the name of a cell to
  the command line when starting LASI.


    Example: "lasi flipflop" when typed in DOS runs LASI and
              enters into the cell named "FLIPFLOP".


  Read the CELL, LIST and SYS commands.
 PKE Feature

  Parallel Keyboard Entry can be done anytime a command is requesting a
  coordinate point normally inputted by the mouse. To activate PKE press
  either the X or Y keys. The coordinates that will be inputted will appear
  in the lower left corner of the screen. The X or Y key clears that
  particular coordinate to zero. The new value may then be typed into that
  coordinate. Corrections may be made using the BACKSPACE key, or the value
  may be cleared to zero by repressing the X or Y keys.

  To enter the coordinate press ENTER. This also clears the pending PKE
  entry. If there is a pending PKE entry the coordinates will always appear
  in the corner of the screen.

  To remove a pending PKE entry, click on any menu button using the mouse,
  except any of the nestable window commands. Pressing a non-numerical key
  will also clear any pending entry.

  Some commands that require a incremental input (MOV for example) accept
  only one PKE entry instead of two mouse cursor inputs.
 Starting a Drawing

  To start a drawing:

  1. Create a "drawing directory" as an independent directory.

    The drawing directory should be named for the drawing to be made. Each
    different drawing is kept on the hard disk by isolating it in its own
    directory. DO NOT make drawings in the \LASI4 directory.

  2. Copy the FORM.DBD file to the drawing directory.

    The FORM.DBD file custom configures LASI to the specific hardware and
    allocates memory. The FORM.DBD is local to a drawing directory so they
    can be different for each drawing.

  3. Edit the FORM.DBD file if necessary.

    The FORM.DBD file is important since it configures your drawing to your
    hardware. You can usually use the default values in the original
    distribution FORM.DBD at first, but you eventually will need to change
    FORM.DBD using a editor such as EDLIN.COM or EDIT from MS-DOS 5. Read
    the Form File help topic.


  Make the drawing directory your current directory, and run the program
  LASI.EXE. The program will start in System Mode. When you first start a
  drawing you should check the scale using the SCALE command to see if the
  parameters are correct.

  Hint:  If you have a similar drawing in another directory and you have
  already defined the hardware and drawing parameters, you can copy the
  CONSTS4.DBD and the FORM.DBD files into the new directory. This will save
  you the trouble of redefining things over again.
 Undoing

  There is no UNDO command. The reason for this is that commands operate
  globally on drawing objects. This makes it simply too cumbersome to
  always keep a backup of certain operations, such as deleting a large
  number of objects.

  Instead, whenever you enter into Cell Mode or use the SORT command, a
  backup copy of the drawing is stored on the hard disk. To retrieve the
  stored backup, you use the ABRT command. This also encourages you to sort
  frequently, which is a good practice.

  Read the SORT and ABRT Command Information topics.
 Universe

  The drawing area is 65536 units in each direction since positions are
  determined by a 16 bit integer. This drawing space might be called the
  drawing's universe.

  If objects are moved they may exceed the signed integer limits of -32768
  to 32767 basic units. Objects that move beyond the limits go through
  "integer infinity" and reappear from the opposite direction.

  If this happens, you will find that objects, particularly paths, can be
  very distorted. To correct this, move the objects back so that all points
  are in the same universe.

  Distortions can always be corrected by a linear move if done immediately.
  More than one "infinity" in sequence may not be correctable.

  Commands affected: CPY, FLP, MOV, ORIG, WMOV, QMOV, CMOV, ROT, STEP
 Using MS-DOS 5

  Using DOSSHELL found in MS-DOS 5 is an easy way to setup drawings when
  using LASI. You can make each drawing a Program Item either by itself or
  as a part of a Program Group. Set the "Commands" property to " lasi" and
  the "Startup Directory" to the drawing directory.

  The ability to MS-DOS 5 to load drivers into the upper memory area (640K
  to 1MB) on a 80386 or 80486 computer should be used to save conventional
  memory. This will give you more memory for a larger number of LASI
  objects. If you have some extended memory, even on a 80286 computer, you
  can still gain more memory by installing HIMEM.SYS and putting "DOS=HIGH"
  in the CONFIG.SYS file.

  Using DOS's FASTOPEN.EXE can help the drawing speed by reducing the time
  that LASI takes to swap data in and out, either to RAM disk or hard disk.

  If you are using another DOS such as DR-DOS, similar advice applies.
 Using RAM Disk

  Drawing speed can be greatly improved if a RAM disk is used. Cell files
  that normally would be kept on a hard disk can be placed on a RAM disk by
  using the MS-DOS VDISK.SYS or RAMDRIVE.SYS drivers, or similar software.
  LASI will automatically swap cell files to a RAM disk when it draws, and
  then restore them to the hard disk when it is finished.

  To use a RAM disk you must first create the RAM disk during DOS bootup
  time by adding the driver to your CONFIG.SYS file. The RAM disk should be
  located in extended memory.

  To have LASI recognize a RAM disk, the "rdisk=" parameter of the FORM.DBD
  file must be the letter name of the RAM disk. For example, if the RAM
  disk installs as disk E:, then "rdisk=E:" would be the parameter.

  If you have no RAM disk installed, set the "rdisk=" parameter to the
  letter name of your drawing directory disk, or simply leave the "rdisk="
  parameter blank, since the drawing directory is on the default disk
  drive.

  The RAM disk must be large enough to hold all the cell files in a
  drawing. Computers with a megabyte or more of additional memory above
  640K are needed for most real work. When creating the RAM disk the
  driver's parameters must be set to hold both the amount of memory and the
  number of files expected.

  When LASI is run, it presently does not erase the RAM disk files. Old
  files may therefore clutter your RAM disk. Since it is not too hard to
  erase the wrong disk, possibly your hard disk, it is recommended that you
  make a batch file (.BAT) to erase the RAM disk when beginning a new
  drawing, load a mouse driver, if needed, and then run LASI. Of course,
  whenever you turn off the computer power, the RAM disk is erased anyway.

  If you do run out of RAM disk space a warning will appear on the screen.
  LASI will try to preserve your drawing by switching to the hard disk if
  it finds that the RAM disk is full. Drawing will slow down noticeably in
  that case. In particular, if the basic objects (boxes, paths and text)
  are no longer swappable to the RAM disk, you will see the hard disk being
  accessed if you are drawing a cell that contains other cells. If this
  happens, you should exit LASI, increase your RAM disk space, if possible,
  and rerun LASI.

  Using a disk caching driver can also speed up the redrawing of cells just
  as using a RAM disk. The disadvantages are that you will occasionally go
  to the hard disk if you lose a file from the RAM cache, and you will use
  more RAM in the DOS program area below 640K unless you cache uses higher
  memory for its manager. The advantage is that you will not have to worry
  about running out of RAM disk space.

  Any disk cache driver, such as SMARTDRV.SYS from Microsoft, should work.
  Installing the disk cache in extended memory just as with a RAM disk is
  preferred, and the cache size should be as large as is needed to get a
  good hit ratio.

  To use a cache set the "rdisk=" parameter in FORM.DBD to the same drive
  letter name as your drawing directory or leave it blank.

  Many of the newer hard disks have caches in their hardware already.
  In that case, using a cache driver will probably not have a significant
  effect and should actually be avoided.


  Important:  If you do not use a RAM disk, run a disk organizing program
  such as Disk Optimizer or Speed Disk from Norton's Utilities on your hard
  disk often. If cell files become highly fragmented, the drawing time for
  LASI can become incredibly long.
 Using MS-Windows

  LASI will run under Microsoft's Windows 3.0 or 3.1 as a Non-Windows
  Application. Each drawing can be setup as an application by creating a
  PIF file for it. When creating the PIF file with the PIF editor you
  should enter the "Program Filename" as disk:\LASI4\LASI.EXE, where "disk"
  is the disk where LASI is installed. (same as the "hdisk=" parameter) You
  should enter the drawing directory as the PIF's "Start-up Directory". An
  appropriate "Window Title" should also be added to the PIF. Otherwise,
  the defaults in the PIF editor can be generally be kept, but some
  experimenting might be necessary, particularly for "Memory Requirements".

  Since LASI is a DOS program and is rather computationally intensive, it
  will run best in Real or Standard Mode, where it will run as a single
  activity. It probably will not run well in 386 Enhanced Mode, where it
  will have to share time with other programs. It must always be run as a
  Full Screen program. It will also be memory limited to DOS's 640K. You
  may have to downsize your allocations in the Form File, or you may run
  out of memory when running programs like TLC.EXE from LASI.

  It helps to install HIMEM.SYS and use only part of any extended RAM for
  your RAM disk (use RAMDISK.SYS), leaving room for Windows to use part of
  extended memory for its own use.

  Installing the disk cache SMARTDRV.SYS can also improve disk speed so
  that a RAM disk may be unnecessary.  Read the Using RAM Disk topic.


  LASI is a DOS level program with its own graphical interface. Although
  its displays may not be as elaborate as Windows displays, LASI functions
  quite a bit faster overall, particularly on slower computers. To those
  who are happily running LASI under DOS, running it under Windows seems to
  have little advantage. You might like to experiment however to see if
  there are any benefits in your own individual case.
Command Information

 Abrt

  ABRT aborts the current Cell Mode cell.

    This command will restore either the original cell that existed when
    the mode was entered or the cell as it was when the last SORT command
    was done.

    Answering anything other than "o" or "s" to the "Aborting ..." question
    aborts the ABRT command.


  Using the ABRT command along with the SORT command provides and "undo"
  feature.  Read the SORT topic.
 Add

  ADD adds an object to the drawing.

    The object to be added is set initially by OBJ and is indicated at the
    bottom of the screen.

    A box requires two points at diagonally opposite corners.

    A path takes a vertex from each cursor input. A path adds a new vertex
    after the first active vertex found in the order in which the path is
    drawn.

    A cell is added with its origin at a single cursor input point.


  The cursor will indicate the adding action that will take place. On
  boxes, the box outline will be shown in dots. On paths, segments will be
  previewed as dotted lines. Cells are added as a single point.
 aGet

  AGET (all get) is a combination of FGET and CGET.

    This command acts on cells, boxes, paths and text in the same way as
    those commands.

    It is useful if you want to activate a number of objects of different
    types to do some operation on all of them simultaneously.


  AGET is useful if you are MOVing, CPYing or FLPing large sections of a
  drawing because you can see just which object are active before the
  operation, and unlike WGET it will not distort paths.
 aPut

  APUT (all put) makes all boxes, paths and cells inactive.

    This command is for making sure that all objects are inactive.

    The active object count is cleared directly by this command.


  APUT is a handy command to make objects inactive with a single mouse
  button click.
 Arc

  ARC calls the arc generator.

    An arc is generated starting at the first active vertex found on a path
    and is swung around an arc center point to an end point.

    The center and end points are single cursor input points.

    The number of segments and the direction of generation (cw or ccw) must
    be entered as requested.

    To start an arc from nothing you must first add a single active vertex
    and then call the generator. The arc takes its width and layer from the
    original path object or "arc seed".

    Arc internal points are made to the nearest unit grid.

    Arc end points are snapped to the nearest working grid.


  Hint:  You can speed up generation by pressing ESC or clicking the right
  mouse button, bypassing drawing.
 Arrows

  Up, down, left and right arrows pan the drawing window.

    The window is moved by a certain fraction of its width in the indicated
    direction.

    The display is redrawn.


  The arrow keys on the keyboard perform this same function to be
  consistent with other drawing systems.

  Read DRAW.
 Cap

  CAP calls the capacitance calculator.

  This command functions as follows:

    You will be asked for the capacitance per physical unit area.

    After you enter the capacitance per unit area, all paths with ANY
    active vertex will be measured and the total capacitance will be
    displayed. To compensate for corners, half the width is subtracted from
    each segment length.

    After all paths are measured, all boxes with ANY active sides will be
    measured, and the total capacitance of the paths and boxes will be
    displayed.

    The command will then go into manual mode. Any polygons or areas in
    cells that should be included can then be manually measured.

    When in manual mode, at the command prompt "[/]", you must fill the
    area to be measured with rectangular cursor areas by clicking the left
    mouse button at diagonally opposite corners of the areas.

    An area's capacitance and the sum of previous capacitances will always
    be displayed at the bottom of the screen.

    To end measuring, click the mouse on any menu button except the window
    commands, or press any key except those listed under Key Assignments.


  Note that to automatically measure an area, it must be either a path or a
  box in the present cell. Areas that are visible but are part of a cell
  within the present cell must be still manually measured.

  This command may be used as an area parameter calculator. For example,
  you can calculate the area of an integrated circuit by setting the
  capacitance per area to 1.
 cCel

  CCEL changes any active cells into the specified cell.

    This command will not work in a rank 1 cell.

    Attempting to change to an unknown cell or a cell too high in rank will
    abort the command.


  Cancel CCEL by pressing ENTER only.
 Cell

  CELL exits Cell or System Mode and reenters Cell Mode.

    A cellname must be provided.

    If you execute CELL in Cell Mode, the first active cell that is found
    in the drawing becomes the default cellname. If there is a default
    cellname, you will be transferred to that cell directly.

    If no cellname is found, you will be asked for one.

    If a cell is a new one, the rank will also be requested.

    To create a new cell you must use this command.


  If a mistake is made, or you want to go to System Mode press ENTER only
  to the cellname or rank question.
 cGet

  CGET (cell get) makes cells active.

    If the rectangular cursor window completely encloses the cell's outline
    the cell will become active.

    If the CTRL and ALT keys are pressed while making the cursor window, a
    cell will become active if the cells's outline overlaps the cursor
    window.

    An active cell turns bright white on all layers.

    An active cell in outline turns bright white and is filled with dots.

    There is no dependence on VIEW or OPEN.


  CGET only works on the top level of cells and has no effect on boxes or
  paths.
 Clrs

  CLRS enters into the Layer Attribute Display and allows the color of a
  layer to be set.

    The number of the layer is shown in the layer color.


  To exit, press ENTER only to the "Color Layer" question.
 Clyr

  CLYR changes the layer of boxes, paths or text.

    If the value entered is not 1 through 32, the layer will be reasked.

    The default layer is the layer currently set by the LAYR command.

    Boxes must have ALL sides active to change layer.

    Paths must have ANY vertex active to change layer.

    Text will change layer if active.


  Read LAYR.
 cMov

  CMOV (cell move) moves cells directly.

    A cell will be moved if the rectangular cursor window completely
    encloses the cells outline.

    If the CTRL and ALT keys are pressed while making the cursor window,
    the cell will be moved if the cell's outline overlaps the cursor
    window.

    The first two cursor points form the cursor window.

    The next two cursor points determine the distance to be moved.

    The move part of the command accepts a single PKE entry.


  CMOV only works on the top level of cells and has no effect on boxes and
  paths.
 Cntr

  CNTR centers the drawing window.

    The new center is a single input point from mouse or PKE.

    The display is redrawn.


  Read DRAW.
 Copy

  COPY allows cells to be copied or appended to other cells.

    The source cell must be in the drawing cell collection.

    If a destination cell doesn't exist, it will be created.

    If the destination cell exists the source cell will be appended.


  Inter-rank copying is permitted. If the source cell contains cells that
  have rank equal to or greater than the destination cell, those cells will
  not be copied. Boxes, paths and text are always copied.

  Appended objects appear as active objects in the destination cell. This
  allows you to move the appended parts if they overlay any previous
  objects. When you first enter Cell Mode when doing this procedure, the
  status at the bottom will not indicate any active objects. Ignore it.

  If the source or destination cells are incorrect, or if copying will
  overflow the allocation in FORM of any objects, the copy operation will
  be cancelled and a message will be shown.
 cPut

  CPUT (cell put) makes cells inactive.

    This the inverse of CGET, and works the same way.


  Read APUT.
 Cpy

  CPY copies active objects.

    The displacement is determined by a 2-point cursor input.

    The original objects are made inactive and the copies are made active.

    Boxes are copied if ALL sides are active.

    Cells are copied if they are active.

    Vertices of paths are copied only if they are active. To copy a path
    completely it must be fully active. This feature allows you to copy
    sections of paths.

    Text is copied if it is active.

    CPY accepts a single PKE entry.


  Read STEP.
 Cut

  CUT breaks a path into two separate paths at an active vertex.

    This command works if there is ONLY ONE active vertex.

    The last vertex at the cut point of the newly created path is made
    active.


  Use this command to break paths into segments to create new
  constructions, and to make shorter paths and poly that will be more
  manageable for translation into other drawing systems.
 cWth

  CWTH changes the width of paths and the size of text.

    The default width is the width currently set by the WDTH command.

    Paths with ANY vertex active will change width.

    Text that is active will change its size to the new width.


  Read WDTH.
 Dash

  DASH enters into the Layer Attribute Display and allows the type of dash
  to be set for a layer.

    The pattern of the dash number is shown by the sample lines.

    The dash number of the layer is shown above the corresponding colored
    layer number.


  To exit, press ENTER only to the "Dash Layer" question.
 Del

  DEL deletes objects or parts of objects.

    An object's layer must be VIEWed and OPENed to be deleted.

    Boxes are deleted if ALL sides are active.

    Active vertices of paths are deleted. If only one vertex remains then
    an entire path is deleted.

    Text is deleted if it is active.

    Cells that are active are deleted without regard to the layers that
    they contain and the status of the VIEW and OPEN commands.


  When deleting a large number of vertices expect a short delay because the
  computer has to do a lot of sorting.
 dGrd

  DGRD sets the dot grid.

    The dot grid is in physical units.

    The dot grid may be any acceptable size and can be toggled on and off
    with the GRID command.

    If the grid is smaller than the resolution set by the SET command it
    will not be drawn.

    The present dot grid will be shown at the bottom of the screen.


  Read SET.
 DOS

  DOS temporally runs other programs from the DOS command line.

    At least 64K of memory must be available for this command to work.

    The DOS command from System Mode makes more memory available than the
    DOS command from Cell Mode because it deallocates drawing space. If you
    use too much memory you may get an "Not Available" message.

    Certain DOS command line operations may be done, like DIR for example.

    Certain small programs may be run if they can load into available
    memory.


  DO NOT run LASI utility programs from this command.
 Draw

  DRAW redraws the drawing area on the screen.

    Drawing of boxes, paths and text takes place in ascending layer order.

    Lesser cells are drawn starting at the lowest rank and are overlayed
    upward.

    The boxes, paths and text of the current cell always overlay all layers
    of any lesser cells.

    If during redraw a cell to be drawn exceeds the space allocation set
    with the Form File, a message will be printed and redrawing will stop.

    Paths with widths near the unit grid limit may appear distorted. This
    is because all drawing points are set in the unit grid.

    If you try to draw a path or poly with a vertex count exceeding the
    limits of 250 and 500 respectively, the object may not draw or fill
    correctly, but drawing will fail gracefully.


  Read the Drawing Speed General Information topic for useful information.
 fGet

  FGET (full get) makes a box or path fully active.

    A box is made fully active if ANY side is made active as would be done
    using GET.

    A path is made fully active if ANY vertex is made active as would be
    done using GET.

    FGET is the same as GET for text.

    This command allows the entire box or path to be operated upon by any
    subsequent command if only a part is accessible.


  If you want to delete a box or path completely use this command first.
 Fill

  FILL enters into the Layer Attribute Display and allows the type of fill
  to be set for a layer.

    The pattern of the fill number is shown by the sample boxes.

    The fill number of the layer is shown above the corresponding colored
    layer number.

    Boxes, paths and closed polygons will be filled with the chosen fill
    pattern.

    The fill of all layers may be temporally turned off by answering "off"
    to the "Fill Layer" question. Calling FILL again will turn fill back
    on.


  To exit, press ENTER only to the "Fill Layer" question.
 Fit

  FIT sets the size of the drawing window so that it will show all of the
  objects in a cell.

    There is no dependence in VIEW or OPEN.

    The display is redrawn.

    If there are no objects present, fit will expand the window to the
    maximum size permitted or the whole "universe".


  Read DRAW and the Universe General Topic.
 Flp

  FLP flips objects.

    Flipping in either X or Y determined by a 2-point cursor input.

    The larger dimension of the cursor input determines the flip axis.

    The cursor will show the approximate flip axis.

    Boxes flip if ALL sides are active.

    ALL vertices of a path flip if ANY vertex is active.

    Text will flip if active.


  Note:  FLP and ROT do no commute. That is, the order in which these
  commands are used is important. Objects FLPed and ROTed in different
  orders are not the same.

  Read ROT.
 fPut

  FPUT (full put) makes boxes and paths fully inactive.

    This is the inverse of FGET.

    A box is made fully inactive if ANY side is made inactive.

    A path is made fully inactive if ANY single vertex is made inactive.

    FPUT is the same as PUT for text.


  Use this command to make fully inactive a box or path when only a part of
  the box or path is displayed.
 Full

  FULL removes cells from being drawn as an outline.

    Cells are changed from being shown as an outline if a cell's outline is
    completely enclosed by the rectangular cursor window.

    If the CRTL and ALT keys are pressed while making the cursor window,
    cells will be changed if the cell's outline overlaps the cursor window.


  Read OUTL.
 Get

  GET makes single parts of boxes and paths active.

    The layer must be VIEWed and OPENed.

    Box sides are made active if they pass anywhere within the rectangular
    cursor window.

    Path vertices are made active if they are within the cursor window.

    Text is made active if its reference point is in the cursor window.


  When made active:

    Box sides turn bright white.

    Vertices are marked and segments of paths that will move as a unit turn
    bright white.

    Text turns bright white.


  GET is the default command when LASI is started.
 Grid

  GRID toggles the dot grid on and off.

    The menu button intensifies to indicate that the grid is on.


  Read SET and DGRD.
 Hcpy

  HCPY expands the screen and calls a hardcopy program that makes a bitmap
  copy of the screen on a printing device or to a file.


  When HCPY is called the screen will redraw to full size. The system will
  wait for a key to be pressed:

  ∙ Press ENTER if you want to add the name, date and time to the screen
    and start a hardcopy.

  ∙ Press CTRL-ENTER if you want to make a hardcopy of the screen without
    the name, date and time.

  ∙ Press ESC anytime if you want to abort hardcopying.


  Note:  At least 64K of remaining memory is necessary to run a hardcopy
  program. If there isn't, the hardcopy will not execute and you will
  return to LASI Cell Mode.
 Iden

  IDEN identifies an active object.

    Objects are taken in the order: box/path/cell.

    Only the first active object found is reported.

    For a box the layer is shown.

    For a path the layer and the width are shown.

    For text the layer and size are shown.

    For a cell the name, position and orientation are shown.

    No active object gives a parts count of the current cell.


  Read SHOW.
 Join

  JOIN connects two paths head to tail to form a new single path.

    This command works only if there are exactly two active vertices which
    are the end and beginning of a path.

    If the active vertices are beginning and end of the same path, a
    segment will be added to close the path.

    If the active vertices are beginning and end of different paths and the
    vertices are at the same location, the paths will be merged into a
    single path.

    If the active vertices are beginning and end of different paths and the
    vertices are at different locations, a segment will be added and the
    paths will be merged into a single path.

    All vertices will be made inactive.


  Use this command to condense paths to reduce data, and to make closed
  poly constructions out of poly segments.
 Kill

  KILL removes a cell from the drawing

    Cells are removed from the drawing's cell collection.

    KILLed cells are removed from any other cells.

    The cell internal files at the DOS system level are erased.


  Important:  It is recommended that you keep an archive of your cells
  using the TLC.EXE utility program. This is the only way that you can
  recover a cell that has been accidentally KILLed.
 Layr

  LAYR sets the layer of boxes, paths or text to be ADDed.

    If the value entered is not 1 through 32, the layer will be reasked.


  Read CLYR.
 List

  LIST lists the cells in the cell collection.

    This command appears in both System and Cell Modes.

    The mouse will also be active and the cursor can be positioned on the
    name of any of the cells listed. If the left mouse button is clicked on
    the cellname, Cell Mode will be entered for that cell.

    If the left mouse button is clicked in a location that will not select
    a cell, it will be ignored.

    Pressing ESC or clicking the right mouse button will step to the next
    page or will exit to the present mode.


  The list of cells has a history feature. The number that appears in front
  of a cellname indicates the inverse order in which the cells were last
  opened. That is, number 1 is the last cell you worked on, number 2 the
  second to last, and so on. This allows you to go through a sequence of
  deeply nested cells, and then randomly return to a higher ranked cell.

    If a cell is opened again, previous events for that cell are purged
    from the history.

    An asterisk indicates the current cell.


  Hint:  LIST is the fastest way to change from cell to cell because you
  don't have to type or even precisely remember a cellname.
 Make

  MAKE makes a cell from the active cells, boxes, paths and text.

    Boxes and paths are copied if ANY part is active.

    The rank will be one higher than the highest rank of any cells.

    The name must not already be in the cell collection. If it is, the
    prompt will be reasked. No name at all will cancel MAKE.


  When MAKE makes a new cell it first determines the outline of the current
  cell on which you are working. It then uses this outline as the outline
  of the new cell. It also uses the current origin as the origin of the new
  cell. Normally, you will enter into Cell Mode with the new cell and
  reposition the origin with the ORIG command. When Cell Mode is then
  exited the correct outline will be recalculated.

  Hint:  When MAKE is used to create a new cell, its name is at the end of
  the cell list. Use LIST to go to the new cell to make any changes.
 Mov

  MOV moves the active sides of boxes, active vertices, and active cells.

    The distance is determined from a 2-point cursor input.

    The cursor will show the approximate move.

    MOVs are always done in multiples of the working grid, unless you press
    the CTRL or ALT keys to switch to the unit grid.

    MOV accepts a single PKE entry.


  Read WMOV, QMOV and CMOV.
 Obj

  OBJ sets the name or type of object to be added.

    Responding with "b" will make boxes and "p" will make paths.

    For adding a cell give the name of the cell.


  Note:  Boxes, paths and cells are treated equally as far as adding is
  concerned. However, boxes, paths and text are "basic" objects while cells
  are compound objects. Generally, there are different commands for these
  different types of objects.
 Octo

  OCTO is a toggle that changes octagonal cursor mode on certain commands.

    The menu button intensifies to indicate that octagonal mode is on.

    When octagonal mode is on, the cursor displacement is snapped to the
    nearest 45 degrees. The commands ADD (for paths), MOV, WMOV, QMOV, CMOV
    and CPY are affected.


  This command is used to restrict drawing so that only 45 and 90 degree
  angles are allowed, which preserves drawing neatness and conforms to
  certain physical artwork generation requirements.
 Open

  OPEN sets the layers that can have their boxes, paths and text made
  active.

    Boxes, paths and text that are not OPENed are blocked from the GET,
    FGET, WMOV, QMOV, PBEG and PEND commands.

    Cell commands like CGET, CPUT or CMOV are not affected.


  VIEW and OPEN accept layer inputs that can be single layers in any order,
  or a dash (-) can be used to indicate all inclusive layers between the
  end layers. A dash alone will give all layers from 1 to 32.
 Orig

  ORIG relocates the coordinates of all objects in a drawing so that the
  single cursor input point is the 0,0 position.

    This allows objects to be constructed almost anywhere on the drawing
    area and then be repositioned as desired.

    The working grid is the default grid, but may be changed to the unit
    grid with the CTRL or ALT keys.


  Set you cell origin as soon as you make a cell, or you may have to
  relocate the cell each time it is used in higher ranking cells.
 Outl

  OUTL sets cells to draw as their outline.

    Cells are changed to outlines if a cell's outline is completely
    enclosed by the rectangular cursor window.

    If the CRTL and ALT keys are pressed while making the cursor window,
    cells will be changed if the cell's outline overlaps the cursor window.

    An outlined cell will be drawn as a white rectangle with the name of
    the cell in text in the lower left corner. An active cell in outline
    will be drawn as a bright white rectangle filled with dots.

    The cell's name can be toggled on and off by pressing the N key.


  You can greatly speed up an overall redraw by setting the cells in an
  area where you are not currently working to outline. When a cell is set
  to outline, retrieval of the cell's files from a disk is unnecessary and
  drawing the internal parts of a cell is skipped.

  Read FULL.
 OvSz

  OVSZ expands the sides of boxes, paths and closed poly by a given
  distance.

    A negative distance shrinks the sides.

    This command operates only on active box sides.

    It acts on all vertices of paths or closed poly if any vertex is
    active.


  Acute angles on closed poly are not oversized correctly. You need to
  insert an additional vertex at an acute angle to prevent the peak of an
  acute angle from extending beyond the oversize distance.

  The algorithm used must identify a poly as having a rotational angle of
  +/-360 deg. If this cannot be done, the poly will be unchanged.

  Read PSIZ.
 pBeg

  PBEG makes the first vertex of a path active.

    This command works if ANY vertex of a path falls within the rectangular
    cursor window.


  This command is useful when the JOIN command is being used.

  Read PEND.
 pEnd

  PEND makes the last vertex of a path active.

    This command works if ANY vertex of a path falls within the rectangular
    cursor window.


  This command is useful both to find the end of a path and to reopen a
  closed path.

  Read PBEG.
 Plot

  PLOT calls the plotting program.

    A plot will be made of the last cell as it was shown in the drawing
    window.

    The drawing window center and width and the cellname are passed to the
    plotting program.

    The plotting program is named in the FORM parameter.

    The only present plotting program is LASI2HP.EXE.


  It is possible that you will not have enough contiguous memory available
  to run a plot program from LASI. If this happens, the program will not
  execute and you will return to LASI. To remedy this situation, either add
  more RAM, if possible, remove any unnecessary resident programs (TSRs) or
  reduce the amount of memory used by LASI in the "box=", "path=", "vtx="
  and "cell=" FORM parameters. If this fails, run the plotting program by
  itself.  Read the HPGL Conversion help category for how to do this.
 pRev

  PREV reverses the order of the vertices in a path.

    A path must have at least one active vertex.


  Reversing the order allows vertices to be added to either the beginning
  or end of a path. It also allows paths to be JOINed properly.
 pSiz

  PSIZ changes the size of a path while still preserving its shape.

    The multiplier is 1 for no change, and can be any number that will not
    cause the path to overflow the drawing area. The geometric center of
    the path is kept constant.

    If a small path is resized or if it is made too small, it may change
    shape due to the limited resolution of the unit grid.

    PSIZ acts on paths that have ANY vertex active.


  Use PSIZ to make different sizes of complex polygon figures such as
  symbols or lettering.

  Read OVSZ.
 Put

  PUT makes single parts of boxes and paths inactive.

    This is the inverse of GET and works the same way.


  Read FPUT and APUT.
 qMov

  QMOV (quick move) functions like the sequence GET, MOV, PUT.

    The command works on box sides that pass through the cursor window, and
    on vertices or text reference points that are enclosed by the cursor
    window.

    Box and path layers must be VIEWed and OPENed.

    The move part of this command accepts a single PKE entry.


  QMOV is useful for making small vertex movements and small box side
  movements when the path or box is only partly accessible.

  Read WMOV.
 Quit

  QUIT exits from the LASI drawing system to DOS.

    All current information about the drawing is saved on the hard disk in
    the drawing directory.


  The drawing may be reentered by running LASI.EXE again. However, the
  cells that may have been stored on a RAM disk will be unknown to LASI and
  will have to be relearned by drawing them once.
 ReNam

  RENAM changes the name of a cell.

    Cellnames must conform to DOS filename rules.

    This command will not work if the new name is the name of a cell that
    already exists in the cell collection or is a reserved name such as "b"
    or "p".


  To give a cell another cell's name in a cell collection, you must first
  RENAM or KILL the original cell and then RENAM the cell.
 Res

  RES calls the resistance calculator.

  This command functions as follows:

    You first will be asked for the Sheet Resistance.

    You will next be asked for the End Compensation. This is the number of
    squares to be added or subtracted to compensate for any effects of
    resistor heads. This depends on how you draw your resistors and can be
    a fractional number.

    After you enter the sheet resistance, if a path with ANY active vertex
    is found, the path will be traced from beginning to end and the total
    resistance will be displayed. To compensate for corners, half the width
    is always subtracted from each segment length.

    After a SINGLE path is measured the command will enter manual mode.

    If no path has been found, you will have to manually enter the resistor
    width, otherwise, the path width is taken as the resistor width.

    In manual mode, at the "<-->" command prompt, the width of the resistor
    must be measured by a 2-point cursor input or a PKE distance entry.

    At the command prompt "R-->", you can then calculate resistance by
    making 2-point cursor distance measurements along the length of a
    resistor. The distance will be displayed by a dashed line, and the
    incremental resistance and the total resistance will be displayed at
    the bottom of the screen.

    To end measuring, click the mouse on any menu button except the window
    commands, or press any key except Z, SPACE or a function key.


  Note that to automatically measure a path, it must be a path in the
  present cell. Paths that are visible but are part of a cell within the
  present cell must still be manually measured.

  This command can be used as a ratio parameter calculator. For example, to
  measure a MOS gate size, set the sheet resistance to 1. Measure the gate
  width as the resistor width and the gate length as the resistor length.
 rDrw

  RDRW is the same as DRAW except that layers are drawn in reverse
  decending order.

    The drawing order rules for lesser cells of DRAW apply to RDRW.


  This command is useful if you want to overlay fills so that objects that
  would normally be covered by objects on higher layers remain visible.

  Read DRAW.
 Rot

  ROT rotates objects.

    Rotation is around a single cursor input point.

    Boxes, text and cells rotate +/-90, 180 deg.

    Paths rotate through any angle.

    Boxes rotate if ALL sides are active.

    ALL vertices of a path rotate if ANY vertex is active.

    Text and cells rotate if they are active.


  Note:  Sometimes a rotated path may not be exactly identical to an
  original if it has been rotated and then rotated back. This is caused by
  rounding coordinates to the unit grid each time a rotation takes place.

  Read FLP.
 Rstr

  RSTR restores a drawing window.

    Only the keys 1-9 will execute the command, otherwise the window number
    will be reasked.

    The window should have been previously saved using the SAVE command.

    The restored window is immediately redrawn.

    RSTR does not accept keyboard entries in the usual way, that is,
    terminated by ENTER. It requires only a number key to be pressed.


  RSTR has a LAST WINDOW FEATURE. Whenever a window is changed, the
  previous window remembered. Reclicking the right mouse button will cause
  the original window to be restored.
 Save

  SAVE saves a drawing window.

    The windows are numbered 1-9.

    Only the keys 1-9 are acceptable window numbers, otherwise, the window
    number will be reasked.

    SAVE does not accept keyboard entries in the usual way, that is,
    terminated by ENTER. It requires only a number key to be pressed.


  The windows saved are global, that is they are independent of the Cell
  Mode rank that you are in. The windows are stored in the CONSTS4.DBD file
  when you quit LASI, and are returned when you rerun the program.
 Scale

  SCALE is used to set the name of the physical scale units of the drawing
  and the number of basic units per physical unit.

    The physical units can be anything, but for integrated circuits "um"
    and "mil" are preferred because some utility programs use these units.

    The number of basic units per physical unit will usually be an integer
    greater than 1, but fractional scales are permitted.


  The scale that is set by this command really only relates the basic units
  in which a drawing is internally done to the inputs that you give to
  certain questions and to dimensions that you see externally. All inputs
  and outputs are converted by the scale to and from basic units.

  When setting up a scale, you should determine the maximum size that your
  drawing could be and then set your scale so that the maximum number of
  basic units (65536) is slightly larger than that size. For example, a
  typical integrated circuit will fit in 16 mm, which would result from
  using a scale of 4 basic units/micron, or .25um drawing resolution.
 Set

  SET allows you to change certain parameters and the actions of certain
  commands.

  Presently 4 parameters can be set:

  1. SET sets the resolution of the drawing in (screen width/size of
    figure) units.

    Boxes are not drawn if both dimensions are less than the resolution.

    Paths or poly are not drawn if the distance from the minimum vertex to
      the maximum vertex in both dimensions is less than the resolution.

    Paths are drawn as lines if their width is less than the resolution.

    Text is not drawn if its size (height) is less than the resolution.

    The dot grid is not draw if its spacing is less than the resolution.

    Normally, resolution of 200 is about right.


  2. The text spacing ratio can be set. This is the fraction of the size of
    text characters with which the characters are spaced. The value is
    clamped between .5 and 2.

  3. The number of working grids that you intend to use can be set so that
    you won't have to step through extra working grids with the WGRD
    command.

  4. The size of the working grids in physical units can be set. You must
    enter all the grids, but pressing ENTER keeps the default value in the
    parentheses.
 Show

  SHOW gives information about an object.

    In System Mode, SHOW gives a listing of the named cell's lesser cells
    and the number of boxes and paths (text) on the layers.

    In Cell Mode, SHOW gives information on the first active object that it
    finds in the order: box/path/cell.

    For a box the positions of the sides and the layer are shown.

    For a path the vertex positions, the layer, the width and an active
    vertex mark "*" are shown.

    For text the reference point, the layer, the size and the characters
    will be shown.

    For a cell the information is similar to the System Mode SHOW, but also
    includes the position and orientation of the cell.

    No active object gives a parts count of the current cell.


  Press ESC or click the right mouse button to continue or exit from SHOW.
 Smsh

  SMSH smashes any active cells, text or boxes into their component objects
  and adds them to the current cell. The original active objects are
  deleted.

  Cell Smashing

    Cells are smashed down one rank at a time. You may have to do multiple
    smashes if you want to reduce higher rank cells all the way to boxes,
    paths and text.

  Text Smashing

    Text is smashed into poly objects that replace the original text. These
    poly are the same as any other poly, and may be rotated to any angle or
    given width to make paths. Smashing text can increase the number of
    paths and vertices considerably if you are not careful.

  Box Smashing

    Boxes must have all sides active. A box will be replaced by a five
    vertex polygon with the same dimensions.


  Note:  If you try to SMSH any object that will cause any of your object
  limits set in FORM.DBD to be exceeded, the object will not be smashed but
  will remain intact and active. You will get a message for each object
  component that cannot be added. If you are smashing text or boxes you may
  get a partial poly conversion, but the original object will remain.
 Sort

  SORT cleans, sorts and stores a backup of the drawing.

    Boxes which have two or more sides superimposed are deleted.

    Sequential vertices with the same coordinates are deleted.

    Any cells that may for some reason have rank greater or equal to the
    current cell will be deleted.

    Boxes, paths and text are sorted in ascending order of their layers and
    their Y-position.

    Cells are sorted according to their Y-position and their order in the
    master CELLS4.DBD file.

    Files of the current cell are updated on the hard disk.

    The backup files SORTBKUP.BP4 and SORTBKUP.CL4 are updated on the hard
    disk. These may be used to restore the cell if the ABRT command is
    used. This allows you to "undo" what was done since the last SORT.

    You may stop a long sort by pressing the SPACE bar. Eventually, when
    objects are in good order, sorting will be fast.


  Hint:  Sorting should be done periodically while working on a drawing.
  This not only cleans any defective objects, but also improves drawing
  speed by ordering the cells.
 Step

  STEP steps active objects into an Nx by Ny two-dimensional array.

    Stepping distances in X and Y are determined by a 2-point cursor input.
    This may also be entered as a single PKE entry.

    The original active objects are copied repeatedly just as though the
    CPY command was used. The final copied objects remain active, while all
    previous copies become inactive.

    Stepping can be ended by pressing the SPACE bar.


  Note:  Care should be used with this command because you can easily fill
  up your cell's object capacity if you don't watch your numbers. If this
  happens press SPACE to end stepping.
 Sys

  SYS exits directly from Cell Mode to System Mode.

    All active objects are made inactive.

    The current cell is saved on the hard disk in the drawing directory.


  Any cells that may have been put on a RAM disk remain known to LASI when
  you go to System Mode. You lose these only when you QUIT.
 Text

  TEXT generates a text object.

  You will be asked for the following:

  ∙ The reference point, a single cursor input point, which is the lower
    left corner of the character field where the first text character is to
    be placed.

  ∙ The text character string of up to 40 characters terminated by ENTER.


  The string of text should appear in the drawing made from polygons. The
  layer and size of the characters will be taken from the current LAYR and
  WDTH settings. The CLYR and CWTH commands may be used to change the text
  layer and size.

    Text is always left justified and appears on a single line. There is no
    text editor, so you must delete and rewrite any text.

    You can make the text active using the GET or FGET commands.

    You may copy, rotate, flip and move the text using the CPY, ROT, FLP
    and the several types of move commands.

    A text object is seen by LASI as a single point, the reference point.
    To operate on a text object, the reference point must fall within any
    cursor window.

    Text size will always be in integral multiples of 15 basic units. This
    is to prevent distortion of the characters.


  Hint:  To make text characters that are to appear permanently on any IC
  masks, first make text of the appropriate size and then SMSH the text.
  Since any characters must have a width that will reproduce on the masks,
  you will first have to give the smashed poly some width with the CWTH
  command, and then modify the paths using the MOV, CUT, JOIN, etc.
  commands to make the characters look better.

  Read the Text Generation help topic for more information.
 TLC In
 TLC Out

  TLC IN and TLC OUT are commands that call the TLC.EXE program which
  converts internal cell data TO and FROM transportable (TLC) format. "In"
  means convert TLC files FROM some source TO internal form in your present
  drawing. "Out" means convert FROM internal form in your present drawing
  TO some destination in TLC format.

  Normally TLC files are put on a floppy disk. This lets you keep your
  drawing on floppy disk, and then load and save that drawing or individual
  cells as needed. It is also recommended that you keep drawing backups
  this way.

  With either command, the default source or destination disk drive is the
  floppy drive that is in the "fdisk=" parameter in the FORM.DBD file. Any
  acceptable drive or path may be entered in place of that drive.

  If you want to refer to TLC files in the current drawing directory enter
  a period "." to the drive question.

  You may specify up to 10 Cell Names separated by spaces.

  TLC OUT without any Cell Name(s) dumps to the destination disk ALL
  drawing cells as TLC files along with the CELLS.REF file.

  TLC IN without any Cell Name(s) retrieves ALL cells by reading the
  CELLS.REF file on the Source disk and translating TLC files into internal
  file form (.BP4 & .CL4 files).

  These commands have considerable power since you can also specify the
  name of any system disk device as the source or destination. You can also
  give a path as part the disk specification, so that cell files can be
  TAKEN FROM or SENT TO other directories other than your drawing
  directory.

  Unless you are familiar with the use of DOS paths and remember just where
  you put things, you can also get into trouble this way.

  TLC must be used if you add a cell to your drawing that was not created
  within the drawing. Cells from other drawings that need to be imported
  must be installed using TLC. The reason for this is that LASI uses
  pointers in its internal files to save space. The cell references for
  cells within other cells may be incorrect, unless correctly installed by
  TLC.


  As an example of how TLC would be used, suppose that someone sends you
  cell files made using TLC on a floppy disk. A certain cell is to be added
  to the drawing that you have. The floppy disk should have the TLC file of
  that cell and the TLC files of any cells that the cell might contain, if
  they are not already in your drawing. By using TLC IN and specifying the
  cell name, that cell will be automatically installed from the floppy disk
  along with any lesser cells that don't already exist.

  Similarly, if you want to send cells to someone else, you would use TLC
  OUT to a floppy disk destination, naming the cells that you want to
  export. TLC will make all lesser cells if you want it to.

  This cell interchange is very useful if you keep cell archives in TLC
  form on a local area network.

  Note:  These commands really only run TLC.EXE as a child process from
  LASI.EXE. It is possible that you might run out of memory, and the
  program will not execute, or will return an "Not Available" error. If
  this happens, you must run TLC.EXE alone in memory. Read the TLC
  Conversion help category for instructions on running TLC.EXE.
 View

  VIEW sets the layers that will be drawn on the display.

    Boxes, paths and text that are not VIEWed are blocked from the GET,
    FGET, WMOV, QMOV, PBEG and PEND commands.


  VIEW and OPEN accept layer inputs that can be single layers in any order,
  or a dash (-) can be used to indicate all inclusive layers between the
  end layers. A dash alone will give all layers from 1 to 32.

  Read OPEN.
 Wdth

  WDTH sets the width of paths and the size of text to be ADDed.

    The present range of acceptable widths is 2 to 1024 basic units.

    If a pathwidth is entered that is unacceptable, then the prompt will be
    repeated with the value in the default parentheses.

    A width of 0 is also acceptable. This produces paths of zero width or
    polygons (poly) or text of minimum size.


  A positive width causes the end of a path to be flush with its
  coordinate. A negative width produces a path whose end extends half the
  width beyond the coordinate. This is for CALMA compatibility. Use of
  negative widths is generally discouraged.

  Read CWTH.
 wGet

  WGET (window get) is a combination of GET and CGET.

    Cells, boxes, paths and text are affected the same way as those
    commands.

    It is useful if you want to activate a number of objects of different
    types to do some operation on all of them simultaneously.


  WGET is useful if you are MOVing large sections of a drawing because you
  can see just which object are active before the operation. WGET makes
  active single sides of boxes and single vertices of paths, which are then
  pulled with active cells when MOVing is done.

  Read AGET.
 wGrd

  WGRD steps through the list of working grids.

    The working grids should have been entered using the SET command.

    The present working grid will be shown at the bottom of the screen.


  WGRD when assigned to a function key accepts a numerical argument.

  For example, the parameter in the FORM.DBD file:

                            fkey=wgrd,10

  assigns a function key so that when the key is pressed, the working grid
  is set to 10 physical units.

  Read SET and the Form File General Information topic.
 wMov

  WMOV (window move) moves boxes, paths and cells.

    The sides of boxes or vertices of paths are moved if they are enclosed
    within the rectangular cursor window.

    Cells are also moved, but only if the cursor window completely encloses
    the cell's outline. The cell may be drawn fully or be in outline.

    If the CTRL and ALT keys are pressed while making the cursor window,
    cells will be moved if the cell's outline overlaps the cursor window.

    Boxes and vertices are unaffected.

    The first two cursor points form the cursor window.

    The next two cursor points determine the distance to be moved.

    A box side must be completely enclosed by the cursor window.

    Box and path layers must be VIEWed and OPENed.

    The move part of this command accepts a single PKE entry.


  WMOV is useful for stretching large sections of drawings orthogonally,
  for selectively doing box side movements and for quickly doing small
  vertex movements.
 Xpnd

  XPND expands the width of the drawing window.

    The new window width is multiplied by 2.

    The display is redrawn.


  Continuously XPNDing will eventually cause the window to expand to the
  maximum size permitted or the whole "universe".

  Read DRAW and the Universe General Information topic.
 Zoom

  ZOOM reduces the drawing window size.

    The new size will be the best fit of the rectangular cursor window
    formed by a 2-point cursor input.

    The display is redrawn.

    ZOOM works over a 1000:1 range.


  Hint:  To ZOOM to a minimum window at a certain position, click the mouse
  on that same position twice. This will zoom to the default minimum window
  size centered at the cursor position.

  Read DRAW.
TLC Conversion

 Introduction

  TLC (Transportable LASI Cells) is a form of LASI cell data that is used
  for drawing cell data storage and interchange. TLC files are ASCII
  sequential files written in a well documented form. TLC files are easily
  readable by programming languages including BASIC and C. TLC is
  convenient for writing special programs to be used with LASI such as
  drawing transformation utilities or translators from other drawing
  systems. (TILT.EXE and CSF2TLC.EXE are examples.)

  Each TLC file contains the information needed to construct a single cell.
  The file contains information on the boxes, paths, text and cells in a
  cell. It does not contain information on how to make any cells that may
  be used within a cell. To build a complete drawing you need a COMPLETE
  set of TLC files.

  By way of definition, cell files in TLC are called EXTERNAL files, while
  cell files used by LASI directly (.BP4 and .CL4) are called INTERNAL
  files. TLC files have the extension .TLC in DOS. Internal files are
  designed for the computers convenience, while external files are designed
  for human convenience.

  Using TLC is the ONLY WAY that cells can be installed in a LASI drawing
  from an external source. This is because the internal files use a pointer
  system of referring to a cell to save memory space. This pointer is the
  position in the CELLS4.DBD file of a cell's information, which cannot be
  changed without changing all cell references. The program TLC.EXE takes
  referencing into account and adjusts accordingly.

  Since each cell has its own TLC file, and a TLC file may not really
  contain all the information to construct a cell if it has lesser cells
  within it, the TLC files for the lesser cells will have to be present for
  conversion to internal form. When converting to external form, the
  TLC.EXE program is smart enough to make the TLC files of any lesser cells
  automatically.

  When conversion from external to internal is being done, the lesser cells
  will also be made in internal form if they are not already present in the
  drawing cell collection. You may optionally also replace any cells that
  are already there with new ones.
 Conversion Errors

  It is possible that files may be missing, incorrect or there may not be
  enough memory when converting. TLC.EXE will try to construct a drawing as
  best as possible by making a FALSE CELL. A false cell is a cell
  containing only the name of the cell in text enclosed in double angle
  brackets on layer 32. The rank of a false cell will always be 1, so that
  it will always appear in other cells. If a false cell is made, TLC will
  indicate the error, and continue as well as it can.

  Since it has rank 1, the false cell will contain no other cells. However,
  if the error is corrected, and TLC is used to overwrite the false cell,
  normal cell nesting will be constructed. The false cell may be thought of
  as a token or placeholder for the missing cell where it is used in other
  cells. TLC will always try to replace the token cell with the actual cell
  in the drawing cell collection once the correct information is available
  to make the actual cell.
 Conversion Options

  The TLC.EXE program has 4 Conversion Options, two for conversion TO TLC
  and two FROM TLC:

  1. Convert ALL Cells to TLC:
    ALL Cells are converted from the source to the destination. This is the
    standard drawing dump to TLC form.

  2. Convert NAMED Cells to TLC:
    NAMED cells are converted to TLC from the source to the destination.
    Cells that are needed to construct a cell of greater rank are also
    converted as an option.

  3. Convert ALL Cells from TLC:
    This requires that the CELLS.REF file exist at the source. The names of
    all the cells at the source are simply read from the CELLS.REF file in
    that location and are converted as if they had been named individually
    in Option 4. If the CELLS.REF file is missing at the source then Option
    4 only may be used.

  4. Convert NAMED Cells from TLC:
    NAMED cells are converted to internal files. The CELLS4.DBD file at the
    destination is augmented with the NAMED cell. If lesser cells are
    needed they are also converted from the source TLC into internal files
    at the destination. If the cells are not present at the destination
    they will be converted automatically. If the lesser cells are present
    at the destination you will have the option to replace them with new
    ones. Therefore, to fully reconstruct a cell from TLC, all lesser cells
    must be present either in the source or destination cell collections in
    TLC or internal form.

  When converting back from TLC form, the TLC program knows if a cell is in
  the destination by reading the CELLS4.DBD file. TLC will replace the
  named cell but will OPTIONALLY replace lesser cells, the cells within the
  named cell. If any cells do not exist in the drawing cell collection they
  will be made.

  If the CELLS4.DBD file is not present at the destination, then one is
  made.

  To convert a complete layout drawing from TLC, you start with a blank
  directory, and name the main drawing cell to be converted (or use Option
  3). The TLC program then reconstructs the whole drawing by making all
  lesser cells first, and then the named main cell.

  In all options the CONSTS4.DBD file of the source or destination
  directory is left unaffected. If a drawing is reconstructed from TLC, you
  must load your favorite CONSTS4.DBD file, or let LASI provide a default
  one when it starts up.
 Running TLC.EXE

  When running TLC.EXE you pass parameters as arguments on the DOS command
  line. Arguments are separated by one or more spaces.

  The FIRST parameter is the CONVERSION DIRECTION consisting of the brace
  characters "{" or "}". The direction is indicated by how the brace points
  at "tlc".  For example, "tlc } etc." converts FROM TLC form.

  The SECOND is the SOURCE path, the disk name or "." for the current
  directory.

  The THIRD is the DESTINATION path, the disk name or "." for the current
  directory.

  The NEXT parameters are needed only if options 2 or 4 are be used, and
  are a list of up to 10 NAMES of cells to be converted according to that
  option.

  Hint:  Run the TLC.EXE program without any arguments to get HELP.

  Important:  The FORM.DBD file must always be present in the directory
  where the internal (.BP4 and .CL4) files exist or are to be generated.
  TLC.EXE needs this information to allocate space.


  Things to remember when converting:

    The first THREE parameters MUST be present to be counted correctly.

    For options 1 and 3 the file CELLS4.DBD or CELLS.REF must be in the
      source directory.

    If there are no NAME parameters, options 1 and 3 are assumed and
      performed according the direction of the brace character.
 The CELLS.REF File

  As TLC makes it, the CELLS.REF file is a copy of CELLS4.DBD.

  You may change the CELLS.REF file to convert modified lists of cells into
  Internal form.

  To remove a cell, delete the cell's name and the data line that follows
  it in the CELLS.REF file.

  To add a cell, insert the cell's name on a single line and then the
  cell's rank on the next line. You don't need any additional data on the
  second line.

  The entry on the first line of the CELLS.REF file is the number of cells
  in the file. If you add or delete cells, you should adjust this number.
  When TLC converts to Internal form using CELLS.REF, it counts either to
  the number of cells it reads on the first line or to the end of the file,
  whichever comes first.

  Do all this with a text editor that produces standard DOS text files.
 TLC Format

  Cell files in TLC have a record structure. There are presently five kinds
  of records: Header, Cell, Box, Path and Text.

  The records for the objects in the cell are preceded by an "equals code"
  consisting of two characters: the first being "=" and the second being
  "H", "C", "B", "P" an "T" for Header, Cell, Box, Path or Text
  respectively. The TLC program then looks for the type of object to be
  made and acts accordingly. If at some time in the future, other objects
  are added to LASI, similar code will be used.

  If a data error is encountered during translation, it is possible that
  one or two objects may be incorrectly reconstructed from TLC. The equals
  code will try to resynchronize the data and correct translation will then
  resume. The Header record contains an object count and this is compared
  to the actual number of objects made, and miscounts are indicated by the
  TLC program.

  All records, including the Header, may be written in any order in a TLC
  file.
 Records in Detail

  Header Record:      <nl>= carriage return + linefeed    <sp>= space

      1= "=H" (literal)<nl>
      2= Name of Cell (DOS file name)<nl>
      3= Version of LASI (literal)<nl>
      4= Version of TLC (literal)<nl>
      5= Basic Units per Physical Unit<nl>
      6= Name of Physical Unit (literal)<nl>
      7= Date of Cell Conversion (literal)<nl>
      8= Time of Cell Conversion (literal)<nl>
      9= Rank of Cell<sp>
      10= Left Outline Boundary in basic units<sp>
      11= Bottom Boundary in basic units<sp>
      12= Right Boundary in basic units<sp>
      13= Top Boundary in basic units<nl>
      14= Number of Boxes<sp>
      15= Number of Paths<sp>
      16= Number of Vertices<sp>
      17= Number of Cells<nl>

      Note:  Versions must begin with a numeric character

  Cell Record Entries:

      1= "=C" (literal)<nl>
      2= Name of Lesser Cell<nl>
      3= Orientation (see below)<sp>
      4= X Position in basic units<sp>
      5= Y Position in basic units<sp>
      6= reserved (presently zero)<nl>

      Property Number: (0-15)
        16 bit integer, all bits 0 except:

          Bit 4,
            0= draw cell fully
            1= draw cell outline

        Orientation:
          Bit 3,
            0= cell not flipped
            1= cell is flipped in X before rotation

          Bits 2 and 1,
            0,0 = no rotation
            0,1 = 90 deg rotation CCW
            1,0 = 180 deg rotation CCW
            1,1 = 270 deg rotation CCW

  Box Record Entries:

      1= "=B" (literal)<nl>
      2= Layer of Box<sp>
      3= X of Lower Left Corner in basic units<sp>
      4= Y of Lower Left Corner in basic units<sp>
      5= X of Upper Right Corner in basic units<sp>
      6= Y of Upper Right Corner in basic units<nl>

  Path/Poly Record Entries:

      1= "=P" (literal)<nl>
      2= Layer of Path/Poly<sp>
      3= Width in basic units<sp>
      4= No. of Vertices in path/poly<nl>
      5= Vertices in basic units in the form:
      X1<sp>Y1<sp>X2<sp>Y2<sp>X3<sp>Y3<sp>X4<sp>Y4<sp>X5<sp>Y5<nl>
      .......Xn-1<sp>Yn-1<sp>Xn<sp>Yn<nl>

      (Groups of 5 coordinates separated by <sp> ended by <nl>,
      always with <nl> after Last Coordinate Pair)

  Text Record Entries:

      1= "=T" (literal)<nl>
      2= Layer of Text<sp>
      3= Size in basic units<sp>
      4= No. of Vertices used by text (includes Ref Point)<sp>
      5= Orientation 0-7 (same as cells)<nl>
      6= X Ref Point in basic units<sp>
      7= Y Ref Point in basic units<nl>
      8= ASCII character text string<nl> (u/l case, up to 32 characters)
CSF Conversion

 Introduction

  LASI drawings are not very useful if they cannot be transformed into the
  more commonly used CAD system formats. The most common is CALMA Stream
  Format. Although CALMA drawing systems for ICs have become somewhat
  obsolete, the data format survives, and newer CAD systems such as CADENCE
  or MENTOR can usually convert it. LASI can be converted to CALMA Stream
  Format (CSF) exactly, and from CSF with some limitations.

  LASI has a drawing structure that is very similar to the CALMA drawing
  system, with the exception that LASI has box objects and is more limited
  in its data capacity and cell nesting depth. In LASI, cells are similar
  to CALMA structures, except that a definite rank is attached to a cell.
  Also in LASI there are no boundaries, instead there are zero width paths
  called poly. LASI drawings transform easily into CALMA because a box can
  be made into a boundary, a poly can become a boundary also, a path can
  transform directly into a path, and cells can become structures, partly
  due to their ranked nesting.

  Since LASI drawings are more or less a subset of CALMA, conversion to
  CALMA is easy. More difficult is conversion from CALMA to LASI because
  there are things in CALMA (like arrays) that don't exist in LASI (yet).
  Conversion is possible in most cases if certain restrictions are used in
  the original CALMA drawing (like limiting the structure nesting or using
  only small arrays).
 Conversion Programs

  The LASI2CSF.EXE program converts a LASI drawing into a binary file which
  is in CALMA Stream Format (CSF). This format is used as the standard for
  preserving and interchanging CALMA drawings. The file generated by
  LASI2CSF.EXE may be sent directly to a CALMA, may be put onto magtape if
  sent to some larger computer that has magtape capability, or may be put
  on a floppy disk for reading by other work stations with that capability.

  The CSF2TLC.EXE program will read back a CSF file and will construct a
  LASI drawing in TLC form as best as possible. A drawing first done on
  LASI will reconstruct exactly if returned from a CALMA without having
  been modified in some non-compatible way. Drawings made originally on
  CALMA may occasionally convert differently, since LASI presently doesn't
  have such things as datatypes, 64 layers, text or arrays. Rectangular
  CALMA boundaries will be optionally converted to LASI boxes.

  Note that CALMA Stream Files used by LASI2CSF.EXE and CSF2TLC.EXE have
  the extension ".CSF". This is a convention that not always standard. You
  may have to rename you file extensions.
 Running LASI2CSF.EXE

  1. LASI2CSF.EXE must be present in the \LASI4 directory with a "PATH"
    opened to it by execution of the DOS PATH command. You MUST run the
    program with the current DOS directory the directory of the drawing to
    be converted.

  2. LASI2CSF will ask for the CALMA drawing name. This is the name that
    the drawing would have on the CALMA.

  3. LASI2CSF reads the CELLS4.DBD file, the CONSTS4.DBD file and the
    FORM.DBD file in the source directory. CONSTS4.DBD sets the scales that
    appear in the starting dialog as default values. FORM.DBD will allocate
    memory for the data that the program processes so that memory usage
    will correspond to LASI's usage.

  4. LASI2CSF asks for the "Disk\Path\Name" of the CSF file. The extension
    ".CSF" will be added, so don't include it in the name of the CSF file.
    If a name is unacceptable, it will be reasked until an acceptable one
    is given.

  5. If you have previously run LASI2CSF, there will be a setup file in the
    drawing directory named LASI2CSF.SET. If this is found, you will be
    asked if you want to use the information. This can save time if you do
    conversions often on a drawing. If you choose to use the default setup
    data, steps 7-11 below will be skipped.

  6. LASI2CSF will then ask for scale information. When converting to CALMA
    you must know what physical units you used and how many LASI units per
    physical unit you used in the LASI drawing. You must tell LASI2CSF how
    many CALMA units you want per physical unit. You may default to 1000
    basic units/micron and produce an exact 56-bit floating point
    representation in the CSF file. This seems to be necessary for CADENCE
    conversion.

  7. You will be asked if you want to relocate any LASI layers (1-32) to
    CALMA layers (0-63). Sometimes layers above 32 are used on a CALMA for
    special purposes. You can relocate LASI layers to those layers to
    conform to a general practice, and then relocate those layers back to
    LASI layers if you convert back from CALMA.

  8. CALMA uses several parameters to construct text. The most important
    are Texttype and Font, which may be used to identify the text. You can
    relate these to each of four LASI text sizes. The parameters that LASI
    can set are in order:

    ∙ Texttype, which can be 0-63.

    ∙ Font, which can be 0-3.

    ∙ Magnification, which can be used to change text size if the other
      parameters produce text of the same size.

    ∙ Text Width, which is usually 0, but may have to be set so that
      certain CAD systems will accept the text.

    ∙ Vertical Justification, which may be set to top, center and bottom.
      LASI text is always left-bottom justified so normally you will set
      this to bottom or "B".

  9. Certain CAD systems use filenames in lowercase. You can have the names
    of cells or structures converted to lowercase in the CSF file.

  10. When converting to CALMA, you will be given the choice of converting
    only certain cells to CALMA structures. This is useful when you have
    most of your structures already in the CALMA. If you chose to select
    certain cells to be converted, you will be given a choice of also
    converting the lesser cells that are used in the specified cells. A
    list will be displayed during conversion that will show just what cells
    are being converted to the CSF file.
 Running CSF2TLC.EXE

  1. When converting from CALMA to LASI path and filename questions similar
    to those when running LASI2CSF.EXE will be asked.

  2. If you have previously run CSF2TLC, there will be a setup file in the
    drawing directory named CSF2TLC.SET. If this is found, you will be
    asked if you want to use the information. This can save time if you do
    conversions often on a drawing. If you choose to use the default setup
    data, steps 3-8 below will be skipped.

  3. When converting from CALMA the physical units will automatically be
    microns, but you may specify the LASI basic units.

  4. You will be asked if you want to use the "2048"VAX filter. If the
    binary file has been run through a VAX on magetape, it might contain
    two extra characters at the CSF record boundaries. You can tell CSF2TLC
    to drop two characters every 2048 characters. If errors occur try this
    option.

  5. You will then be asked for the layers and the datatypes to be
    converted. You respond to this question with the notation similar to
    the VIEW, OPEN, etc. commands in LASI, with numbers separated by spaces
    or dashes.  A space separates individual layers and a dash means
    "include all layers between".

  6. You will be given the option of converting CALMA 4-sided rectangular
    boundaries to LASI boxes. If the rectangular boundaries are not to be
    modified, boxes are better for LASI.

  7. There is an option to convert any text found in the stream file to
    LASI text. The Texttype number (0-63) or the Font number (0-3) in a
    CALMA text record may be related to a LASI text size. A texttype is
    always present in a CALMA text record, but font may also be used by
    other CAD systems. If a texttype of 0-63 is related to a LASI text
    size, it will be used first, regardless of the font set. If you want to
    use font, enter "-" as the texttype to use. If neither texttype nor
    font is designated, a default minimum set of parameters will be used.

    Additionally you may use some of the other CALMA text parameters by
    setting them to "y" or "n":

    ∙ If magnification information is present, it may be used.

    ∙ If orientation (+/-90, 180 deg) is present, it may be used.

    ∙ If vertical justification information is present, it may be used.

    Any multiple line CALMA text will be broken into separate LASI text
    lines, and any horizontal justification will be changed to left
    justification.

    The text that you get may not look exactly the same as the original
    text since LASI uses its own character patterns.

  8. You will also be asked to equate CALMA layers to LASI layers. CALMA
    layers 0 and 33-63 may be relocated to any LASI layers 1-32. Layers
    that don't exist in LASI may therefore be translated from CALMA to
    LASI. Any layers not specified that are out of 1-32 will default to
    layer 32.

      Example: "0=1" relocates CALMA layer 0 to LASI layer 1.


  9. Like LASI2CSF, CSF2TLC request options on just which cells or
    structures you want to be converted. You may name specific cells or
    structures to be converted if a few are wanted. If the named structures
    contain other structures that have not been named, CSF2TLC will find
    these and try to convert them also. You may therefore name only your
    top structure and CSF2TLC will find the rest.

  10. LASI cellnames must be legal names for DOS files. The names of the
    CALMA structures may not conform to DOS standards and must be changed.
    CSF2TLC will try to find acceptable names, but you may also manually
    change any illegal names.

  11. You will be asked if you want CSF2TLC to replace any TLC files that
    it finds already in the directory. Otherwise, CSF2TLC will keep any old
    TLC files that it finds and will only create the new ones that it
    needs.

  In most questions, the default entry will appear in the parentheses if
  one is available. Pressing ENTER defaults.
 CSF2TLC Operations

  CSF2TLC first scans the CSF file to determine a hierarchy of cells. It
  also tries to convert CALMA structure names to names that are DOS
  acceptable. If a name is found that is a reserved word such as "PRN", or
  the name contains characters that aree illegal in DOS such as "*", you
  will be asked for a substitute name. If you have told CSF2TLC not to try
  to rename, any names with greater than 8 characters will call for a
  substitute also.

  CSF2TLC will search the current directory for the TLC cell file of a cell
  that might not exist as a structure in the CSF file, but still be used in
  other structures in the CSF file. This allows the TLC file of a cell to
  be reconstructed without the lesser cells being present as structures in
  the CSF file. The only requirement is that the TLC files of its lesser
  cells exist already in the drawing directory.

  After the scanning has been done to establish hierarchy and the presence
  of TLC files, a list of the cell names, their rank, the presence of the
  structure in the CSF file, the presence of a TLC file in the directory
  and the structure name is printed.

  If the TLC file is already present it is retained even though the
  structure may exist in the CSF file. To have a new TLC file generated,
  the old TLC file must be deleted from the current directory, or the
  option of replacing all TLC files must be used when running CSF2TLC.

  If the lesser cell exist neither as a structure in the CSF file nor as a
  TLC file in the drawing directory, then the name of the expected cell is
  inserted into the TLC file being made and a warning message is given.
 Possible Problems

  On conversion from CALMA to LASI, if any structures are missing and a TLC
  file is not present, there is no way to tell if the missing structures or
  TLC files contain other missing structures or cells.

  Presently, arrays of objects do not exist in LASI. Therefore, when
  converting from CALMA, CSF2TLC makes arrays by copying cells. This can
  fill the LASI cell capacity if you don't watch out.

  When CSF2TLC encounters text in a CSF file, it ignores justification and
  breaks down any multi-line CALMA text into single line LASI text objects.
  This means that your translated text may not be located in the same
  place. You should also use only single line left justified text on the
  CALMA or other drawing system if you intend to bring it into LASI.

  Some features of CALMA are presently simply ignored, such as stretched
  components, and nodes.

  If you abort while CSF2TLC is making a TLC file you will probably get an
  incomplete file. Erase it.
HPGL Conversion

 Introduction

  LASI drawings can be quit large and complex. It is necessary to produce
  large plots to examine drawings for errors, or just for display. LASI
  therefore must be able to produce plots. The most commonly used plotting
  language is Hewlett-Packard's HPGL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language),
  which is used by all H-P and many other makes of plotters. By using the
  LASI2HP.EXE program, LASI drawings can be converted directly into HPGL,
  either as a file, or as a direct drive for a plotter from one of the
  personal computer's serial ports.
 Configuration Files

  Before you run LASI2HP on anything you must make a configuration data
  file. Run "lasi2hp" and answer "y" to the Configure (y or n) prompt.

  The program stores plotting configurations in ".PCF" files. The title of
  a configuration must conform to DOS file naming rules. These files remain
  in the drawing directory.

  Some of the questions asked will be defaulted from the program
  initialization or the previous configuration file. Pressing ENTER to any
  question will default to the value show in parentheses. Otherwise enter
  the new value.

  Some of the questions will be obvious and some may need explanation:

  1. Configuration will ask if your plotter has a center or lower-left
    (bottom-left) hardware origin. Most small plotters have a lower-left
    origin, while larger plotters use a center origin. Read your plotter
    manual for this information.

  2. The borders that you must specify are the distance at the edges of a
    sheet of paper that the plotter can't use, i.e. roller track, etc. Read
    your plotter manual for this distance. The size of your paper less
    these borders is the useful size of your paper.

  3. You can set the location and size of the plotting area on the paper by
    specifying the left, bottom, right and top edges. You can use this to
    make multiple drawings on a single sheet of paper.

  4. If you use hardwired handshaking to keep the plotter buffer from being
    overflowed by plotting data, you will be asked if you want to use the
    DSR (data set ready) line or the CTS (clear to send) line to detect
    that the plotter buffer is full. On an AT type of PC these lines are
    pins 6 and 8 respectively on a 9-pin serial port. The Hewlett-Packard
    plotters normally indicate a full buffer by dropping the DTR (pin 20 on
    the 25-pin RS-232 connector) line. This line can be connected to either
    CTS or DSR, but DSR is preferred.

  5. LASI2HP will ask you if you want to use your plotter's polygon mode
    commands. These are the commands PM, EP and FP which are available on
    the better plotters (see your plotter manual). These commands allow you
    to fill closed polygon outlines. If this mode is used paths will be
    expanded into a closed polygon outline.

  6. If you want to have paths standout in the drawing answer that you want
    path center lines drawn. Paths will be drawn with a dashed line along
    their center.

  7. LASI2HP will draw any cells that are displayed in LASI Cell Mode as an
    outline either in outline or in full detail. The configuration may set
    to always draw fully if desired. You may also set the pen to be used
    for outlines.

  8. Each layer has three attributes, Pen, Line and Fill. You may assign
    attributes randomly, by giving a layer number 1 to 32 to the "Layer?"
    question. Pressing ENTER only will end the assignment process.

  9. When assigning pens to layers note that you may enter up to 8
    different pens. Your plotter might not support that many, so assign
    them accordingly.

  10. You may assign different line types to make dashed lines. The types
    are numbered 0-6 and correspond to the line types described in the H-P
    plotter manual that comes with an H-P plotter. If a line is to be drawn
    solid, set the layer by pressing only ENTER.  A dash "-" will indicate
    a solid line on that layer.

  11. You may set the fill type attribute to be used on a layer. These
    presently are left crosshatch, right crosshatch, horizontal, vertical
    and nothing (indicated by "L","R","H","V" and "-"). Boxes will always
    be filled, but you must use the plotter's polygon mode to fill polygon
    outlines.

  12. If a layer has had its Fill set as above, and a line type has also
    been set, the line type is used as the fill line type. The outline of a
    filled area is drawn solid and not with the line type set for that
    layer. The spacing of the dashes and fill lines will be calculated from
    the fill spacing configuration parameter.

  13. After you are satisfied with the configuration, you may store it with
    the same title or any other title. You can save time by copying
    configurations, make changes, and then storing under a new title.
 Running LASI2HP.EXE

  LASI2HP.EXE reads .BP4 and .CL4 internal files in the local drawing
  directory.

  You must be logged into the drawing directory of the cell to be plotted.

  To drive a plotter directly, the plotter must be connected to one of the
  computer's serial ports, COM1, COM2, COM3 or COM4.


  There are 3 ways to run LASI2HP:

  1. Run by typing "lasi2hp", which allows you to configure and then run a
    plot, or to simply make configuration files.

  2. Run by typing (or batch filing) "lasi2hp name", where "name" is the
    cell that you want to plot. In this case configuration must be done
    previously, and the plot will be fitted to the full size of the cell.

  3. Run by typing "lasi2hp name x-center y-center width". This is how LASI
    passes the particular window to be plotted when the PLOT button is
    pushed in the System Mode menu.


  In each case you will be asked for the configuration title and whether
  your plotter or disk is ready.

  When making a plotting file you may specify a name, path or disk for the
  output file. Entering nothing makes a file with the plotted cell's name
  in the local drawing directory.
 Other Uses

  Since the plot file that LASI2HP makes is in standard HPGL language. The
  file can be changed to other formats using a converter such as HIJAAK. It
  can also be converted directly by WordPerfect 5.1 and other desktop
  publishers into drawings that can be inserted into WordPerfect (or other
  DTP) written text. Drawings made by LASI can therefore be placed directly
  into reports, theses, dissertations, etc. that are written using common
  wordprocessors that can do graphics converted from HPGL.

  The HPGL can be converted into LaserJet format to print high quality
  diagrams. Also, conversion to FAX format is possible so that you can send
  high quality fax diagrams using any of the available fax boards.
Text Generation

 Introduction

  Text is generated by LASI Version 4 by storing strings of ASCII
  characters as though they were paths. A reference point is stored as the
  first vertex, and then subsequent vertices contain up to 4 ASCII
  character bytes. When a string of text is drawn, it is expanded much like
  a path, except that the characters are drawn in sequence from predefined
  polygon patterns.

  Each character is defined in the Text Font File. (TXT.DBD is the generic
  file supplied with the system.) This file may have any name other that
  TXT.DBD, but this name must be installed the FORM.DBD file using the
  "text=" parameter. Otherwise the default "TXT.DBD" is assumed. Read the
  Form File General Information topic.

  The Text Font File is a binary file which contains a single record of 128
  bytes for each of 96 characters. The characters may be drawn and modified
  by the user using LASI itself. The information in this file is loaded
  into memory when LASI is started, so that drawing of text can be done
  without slow disk access.

  When entering text, the position is requested and the size and layer are
  taken from the current pathwidth and layer settings. The text string is
  then simply typed in and terminated by ENTER. Like paths, text layer,
  size, orientation and position can be changed using the same commands
  that are used for paths.
 The Text Font File

  The Text Font File is ninety-six 128 byte records long. Each record
  corresponds to an ASCII character starting at decimal 32 (space) and
  ending at decimal 127 (delete, non-printing). When a character is typed
  under LASI, the correct record is found and the information is used to
  make path objects in the drawing. The records are randomly written by the
  MAKETXT.EXE program by typing the desired character and then giving the
  name of the cell which contains the character drawing.

  The vertices of the path pattern are written in a single byte of a record
  in the form of the X-coordinate as the upper 4 bits and the Y-coordinate
  as the lower 4 bits (nibbles). The coordinates may then be only the
  numbers 0-15. The coordinate combination (15,15) is however prohibited
  because it is used to indicate the end of a path.

  A record therefore contains vertex coordinate bytes from 0-254, with 255
  decimal (or FF in Hex) bytes marking the end of a path. The remaining
  bytes in a record are always filled with FF bytes to prevent further
  paths being made as the record is read.

  The maximum number of vertices that a record can hold is dependent on the
  number of independent paths, but can be determined from:

              total no. vertices = 128 - total no. paths


  There can be any character drawing in the pattern file corresponding to a
  given typed character. In fact, different Text Font Files (with different
  names) can be kept for different uses, and they can be conveniently
  "turned on" by naming them in the Form File.
 The Character Field

  Characters start as little cells containing a drawing of a character. The
  data format of the character drawing is quite different from a cell and
  will be describe later. A character is drawn as a rank 1 cell using paths
  (of 0 width) on a 16x16 field of basic drawing units. The lower left
  corner of the field is position 0,0. The vertices of the paths fall on
  the basic unit grid points. The vertices may be on any grid point except
  15,15.


                                              15
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x 15  (15,15 not used)
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ^
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  |
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Y
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
      (origin)0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                0
                            X -->

                Character Drawing Field in basic units


  Once a character cell is drawn, the program MAKETXT.EXE is used to
  install the character in the Text Font File.
 Usefulness of Text

  Text is usually used to mark your drawings with information such as the
  names of cells or component names and values. Text will be translated
  with the other drawing data into text in other drawing systems. Text may
  also be used as a pattern for putting writing on IC masks by smashing the
  text using the SMSH command and giving the resulting polygons some width.

  Text objects have a very useful property. Inversely, text can be
  considered as a NODE or single point with a NAME. You can therefore use
  text to mark connection points to cells or subassemblies. You can then
  search for those points by name and obtain a physical location on a
  drawing. This can be used to do automatic cell placement and inter-
  connection. This  means that you can do schematic capture or do actual
  layout from wiring lists used by programs like PSPICE. You would write
  programs in C or BASIC that create TLC files that would immediately
  translate into a layout.
System Contents

 LASI System Files

  LASI.EXE        Main program
  LASIA.EXE       No coprocessor version of LASI.EXE
  LASI2CSF.EXE    LASI to CALMA converter
  CSF2TLC.EXE     CALMA to TLC converter
  LHI.EXE         LASI help and information reader
  LHI.HLP         LASI help and information data file
  LASI2HP.EXE     Hewlett-Packard plotter utility
  MAKETXT.EXE     Text Font File maker
  TLC.EXE         Transportable cell file converter

  CELLSORT.EXE    Cell sorting utility
  CPYLAYER.EXE    Drawing global layer copier utility
  DELLAYER.EXE    Drawing global layer deleting utility
  MOVLAYER.EXE    Drawing global layer mover utility
  RESIZE.EXE      Resizing utility
  SNAP.EXE        Cell grid snapping utility
  TILT.EXE        Drawing tilting 3-D presentation utility
  UNDUP.EXE       Drawing duplicate object remover utility

  3TO4.COM        LASI vers 3 to vers 4 converter
  LPHCPY.COM      Screen hardcopy for Epson type FX and LQ printers
  LJHCPY.COM      Screen hardcopy for LaserJet type printers

  FORM.DBD        Generic configuration file
  TXT.DBD         Generic Text Font File

  Optional:       (Available on Request)
  DEMO            Demonstration layout
  CHRS            Text character cell collection
System Log

 System Update Log for Version 4.0

  Changes since Version 3.5:

  The LASI.EXE program has been completely rewritten in a combination of C
  and Assembly Language. Many new features have been added, which include:

  1. Text objects, which retain the ASCII character identity and which use
    much less memory than the previous text that was generated from poly
    objects. The new text is treated as a modified poly object and may be
    rotated and reflected using the same commands. Since it keeps its ASCII
    identity, the new text may be translated as true text into other
    drawing systems.

  2. New internal data format, which uses less memory and loads faster. A
    conversion program 3TO4.COM is supplied to change the old format into
    the new format.

  3. VGA 640x480 pixel display mode support, with automatic VGA sensing,
    but an optional EGA 640x350 display mode.

  4. User definable function keys that allow any command formerly needing
    mouse or keyboard input to be executed by simply pressing a function
    button. (40 keys, F1-10, SHIFT F1-10, CTRL F1-10, ALT F1-10)

  5. An oversize command OVSZ that replaces the BPEXP.EXE program
    previously supplied, that allows boxes, poly and paths to be expanded
    or compressed by a constant distance.

  6. Different dashed line patterns that are assigned as an attribute to
    each drawing layer.

  7. A drawing cell collection that can now hold 500 different cells in
    place of 255 as with previous versions.

  8. New hardcopy programs that work with VGA or EGA automatically.

  9. A WGRD command that when assigned to a function key accepts working
    grid size argumemts.

  10. A CMOV command that moves cells only.

  11. Improved RES and CAP commands with automatic measuring.

  12. Different text fonts may now be included in the Form File.

  13. The cursor can now be toggled between a small cross and crosshairs.

  14. LASI.EXE now works only with a coprocessor. Another version LASIA.EXE
    is supplied for non-coprocessor computers.

  15. TLC.EXE now generates token files for missing or incorrect cells.

  16. Outlined cells now have their name in the lower left corner

  17. OUTL and FULL commands now work directly, not only on active cells,
    and these commands are now resident commands.

  18. A cells history feature has been added that allows you to retrace a
    series of nested cells.

  19. The JOIN command now closes open polygons.

  20. The working and unit cursor grids can be toggled by pressing the CTRL
    key OR the ALT key. The effect of the cursor window on certain cell
    commands can be toggled by pressing the CTRL key AND the ALT key.

  21. The CALMA conversion programs LASI2CSF.EXE and CSF2TLC.EXE now have
    more elaborate text conversion facilities.

  22. The SMSH command now works on text and boxes.
Suggestion Box

 Suggestions for Improvement

  These are some of the ideas for LASI improvements or for special programs
  that operate in the LASI drawing environment. Some are fairly ambitious.
  People are encouraged to contribute ideas of their own or, even better,
  to write programs using TLC that do useful things.

  1. Design Rule Checking - a utility program that allows you to do inter
    and intra layer distance checking to find the layout errors that you
    never seem to notice.

  2. Automatic Layout - a utility program that takes connection information
    from lists used by simulation programs (various SPICE's) and uses the
    node property of LASI text to place and interconnect cells.

  3. Automatic Verification - a utility program that uses the properties of
    design rule checking and text nodes to determine if everything is
    properly connected in an IC layout.

  4. A 32-bit LASI - another version of the LASI drawing program that uses
    32-bit position information instead of 16-bit. This would give almost
    unlimited precision, but would require more memory usage and slightly
    slower operation. Present IC technology is borderline with 16-bit
    precision, so this may be the next version of LASI.

  5. Memory Management - a higher precision version of LASI will require
    more drawing data memory than is available in a PC's 640K of
    conventional memory. To find more memory LASI will have to swap blocks
    of data probably to expanded memory (EMS). This will slow LASI down a
    bit but will allow almost unlimited drawing size.

  6. Graphics Hardware Support - although LASI is intended to run on
    conventional hardware, graphical processor boards that accept vector
    data inputs may someday be used. The drawing speed should greatly
    improve and higher resolution will be available. LASI presently draws
    more or less pixel by pixel, but internally vector information is used
    which could be passed to a graphics processor.