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Basic Information
Introduction
LASI (LAyout System for Individuals(ists))
(Pronounced "LAZY")
Version 4.2
The LASI CAD System was originally written several years ago for the
author's own professional use to do IC and semiconductor device layout on
a personal computer. Since then it has been continuously improved, taking
advantage if new hardware and software. 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 version 4.2 has all the features of previous versions of LASI, but
has been enhanced with a smart little memory manager that permits simpler
drawing setup and more efficient use of memory to hold a drawing's data.
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 and
may be easily aborted. 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.EXE
displays all the documentation, and individual topics can be printed if
desired. If a printed manual is needed, a program MANUAL.EXE is supplied
that builds a manual complete with index from any LASI help file (files
with .HLP extension).
You should read the remaining Basic Information topics. After that, you
can work your way through the General Information topics.
If you are in a hurry to run LASI, it is recommended that you read the
Hardware General Information topic to see if your PC is capable of
running LASI adequately, and then go to the Quick Start topic.
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, or is
available on the network where you downloaded LASI. By working with a
simple layout, you will get a good idea of how LASI works.
If you have been using LASI version 3.X or 4.0, 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.
Installing LASI
The following information outlines the installation procedures for
installing LASI on any PC. If you are reading this, you probably have
done the basic installation already. The information is given here so
that you can verify that installation has been done correctly.
The system files are distributed in compressed form. The distribution
will be either a High-Density 5.25" or 3.5" floppy disk version
consisting of a self-extracting executable file named LASI42.EXE, or a
network version consisting of files compressed into three ZIP files
LASI42?A.ZIP, LASI42?B.ZIP and LASI42?C.ZIP, where "?" represents the
revision number digit (1-9).
If distributed on floppy disk, an installation program INSTALL.EXE should
have been included. If distributed on a network, a README.TXT file,
containing installation instructions should have been included within
each ZIP file.
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.
Installation procedure for networked ZIP compressed files:
1. Make a subdirectory named "\LASI4" on your hard disk under the root
directory.
2. Using PKUNZIP or similar program, uncompress and copy the ZIP files
LASI42?A.ZIP, LASI42?B.ZIP and LASI42?C.ZIP into the \LASI4
subdirectory.
3. Add the path "disk:\LASI4" to DOS using the "PATH" DOS Command, where
"disk" is the hard disk's letter name.
Installation procedure for self-extracting floppy disk version:
1. Run the installation program INSTALL.EXE
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, you can
install it by running the associated installation program that should
have been included. 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 letter name.
Hint: It is usually easiest to put the \LASI4 path in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file.
Quick Start
If you are eager to try out LASI here is what to do:
1. Install a mouse and its driver software if you havn't already.
You must have an active mouse to operate LASI.
2. Create a "drawing directory" on the hard disk where you installed the
system files and make that directory your default directory.
DO NOT make drawings in the \LASI4 directory.
3. Copy the FORM.DBD file from the \LASI4 directory to the drawing
directory.
The FORM.DBD distributed with the system files is a "generic" version
and should work with most hardware.
4. Run LASI by simply typing "lasi".
The main drawing program should come up in "System Mode". You can get
help on any command by putting the mouse cursor on a command button and
then pressing F1.
You are now free to experiment on your own!
Converting Versions
Version 3.X to Version 4.0
If you have not been using LASI version 3, or do not have drawings made
using it, you can skip these next 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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Converting back to version 3 can be done by using the TLC converter
programs. However, any text made using LASI version 4 will be ignored.
The NEW TLCIN.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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.DBD file and pick out only what it needs.
Version 4.0 to Version 4.1
If you have not been using LASI version 3 or 4.0, or do not have drawings
made using either, you can skip these instructions.
1. Version 4.1 of LASI allows basic cells to be taken from a common pool
located on the same PC or from a Local Area Network. You may run LASI
4.1 on any drawing done using LASI 4.0. However, the reverse is true
only if you have no pooled cells. If there are pooled cells the
results will be unpredictable, but generally not fatal. Read the
General topics: Pooling, Pooling Old Cells, Attached Cells and the
Command topic ATTACH.
2. Version 4.1 also has 64 layers available instead of the previous 32.
The only change necessary is to modify the CONSTS4.DBD file. A
converter program 40TO41.COM has been furnished to easily create the
new file.
3. The utility programs have been modified to work with 64 layers. They
will work on old 4.0 drawings, but 4.0 utilities will only work on the
first 32 layers of version 4.1 drawings.
Version 4.1 to Version 4.2
Version 4.2 modifies the CONSTS4.DBD file slightly to include separate
text and path information.
If you run LASI it will create a new file automatically with default
parameters. You may also run the 41TO42.COM program in a drawing
directory. This program rewrites the CONSTS4.DBD file to add the new
parameters. If you happen to have an intermediate versions of 4.1 from
somewhere, you should erase the CONSTS4.DBD file and allow LASI 4.2 to
create a new one.
LASI 4.2 no longer reads the FORM.DBD file in a drawing for the "box=",
"path=", "vtx=", "cell=" and "rank=" parameters. These can be erased from
the FORM.DBD file... unless you think you might go back to previous
versions of LASI. Leaving these parameters in FORM.DBD is harmless. All
the utility programs that come with LASI also no longer use these
parameters, and, in time, their need will completely disappear.
Missing CL4 Files
Some drawings made with version 4.0 may not have CL4 files for cells with
rank greater than 1 but containing no lesser cells. Version 4.2 requires
that all cells with rank greater than 1 have CL4 files even though the
cells have no lesser cells. Version 4.2 will not load a cell if the CL4
file is missing.
To remedy this situation, you need to provide a blank CL4 file. this can
be done in several ways. You can create a dummy cell with rank >1 but no
lesser cells. This will produce a CL4 file with only a single blank
record. You can then copy the blank CL4 file under DOS as "CELLNAME.CL4",
where "CELLNAME" is the name of the cell that needs a CL4 file.
As an alternative, you can use the TLC-OUT and then the TLC-IN commands
from LASI System Mode while in a drawing, or you can run TLCOUT.EXE and
TLCIN.EXE from DOS. The TLCOUT.EXE program will read a cell without a CL4
file and TLCIN.EXE will rewrite the cell with a CL4 file.
Terms of Distribution
The LASI System can be copied and distributed by anyone. For floppy
distribution, the self-extracting executable LASI42.EXE, the installation
program INSTALL.EXE and any optional files should be copied directly from
the distribution disk.
For the network distribution, the three files LASI42?A.ZIP, LASI42?B.ZIP
and LASI42?C.ZIP should be uploaded. Any optional files may be included
on the network separately. DO NOT put optional files into any of the
three LASI42 ZIP files.
If LASI is to be placed on a bulletin board or network, THE AUTHOR SHOULD
BE INFORMED OF ITS LOCATION. LASI has been found all over the country,
mostly in duplicates or old versions.
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.
LASI42.EXE or the three ZIP files will fit on a single 5.25" or 3.5"
High-Density floppy disk. Breaking the file set into individual files is
strongly discouraged because of the possibility of losing files or mixing
file dates.
The three ZIP files MAY BE distributed on floppy disk, either on a single
High-Density disk or on more than one Double-Density disk. Distributing
in ZIP form assumes that the recipient has the means to decompress.
A person distributing LASI is allowed to charge a fee that will cover
their distribution costs (labor, floppy, packing, postage, etc.). Any
fees are ultimately left to the spirit of LASI as being free for personal
and educational use.
Updates
An attempt will be made to keep known users updated with the latest
version by informing them that a new version is available, where (on a
network) it 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.
Licensing
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 NOT SHAREWARE in the usual sense; that is,
everybody is expected to pay if they use the software. 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 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 including any NEW PROGRAMS 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 THINK YOU HAVE FOUND A REAL BUG, REPORT IT TO THE AUTHOR.
The bug will be fixed, and you will receive a corrected version.
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. This is particularly true for
students learning IC technology. In fact, it is the intention of the
author to eventually develop LASI as a complete educational software
system for use in IC design courses.
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, new or old. 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
Author of LASI:
Dr. David E. Boyce
143B Bergdorf Rd., RR1
Parish, NY 13131, USA
315-625-7291
General Information
About LASI Programs
Although the LASI uses mostly integer math, it does use some floating-
point math during the drawing process. For this reason, the main drawing
program is compiled in two different versions:
1. For use with a coprocessor, it is compiled with inline coprocessor
instructions, making LASI87.EXE.
2. For use without a coprocessor, it is compiled with alternate floating-
point math function calls, making LASIA.EXE.
These main drawing programs are written in C and assembly language. The
source code consists of 4 separate modules containing, briefly:
1. The main(), System Mode command and utility functions (C)
2. The Cell Mode command functions (C)
3. The drawing, file and hardware functions (C)
4. The elementary graphical functions (Assembly)
For maximum speed, the elementary graphical functions are written in
assembly language. The C modules are complied using Microsoft C/C++ 7.0
in the Large Model, and the assembly is compiled using Microsoft Macro
Assembler 6.1. The four object codes are linked together to build the
main drawing programs.
To start LASI you actually run the small C program LASI.EXE. This program
determines if there is a coprocessor present, and then writes over itself
with LASI87.EXE or LASIA.EXE.
Some of the utility programs, such as TLCIN.EXE or TLCOUT.EXE are also
written using C/C++ 7.0, while some of the simpler utility programs are
written in Microsoft BASIC 7.1. All utility programs are compiled using
alternate floating-point math function calls, so they will all run the
same with or without a coprocessor.
Advanced Installation
Once you have mastered getting LASI up and running and probably know what
you are doing, you can "customize" LASI to your particular hardware or
drawing style. To do this you can set certain parameters in the FORM.DBD
file as follows:
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 topic and the HCPY
Command topic.
2. 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 topic.
3. 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. Read the Key Assignment topic.
Attached Cells
A cell that is kept in a common cell pool that is shared among several
drawings is called an ATTACHED cell. The attached cell will be draw
normally, but will follow certain rules and will have some special
properties:
■ Attached cells are protected and may NOT be changed using Cell Mode.
■ Attached cells must have the same physical scaling as the drawing.
■ Attached cells must fit within the memory available for allocation by
the memory manager for boxes, paths and vertices.
■ Attached cells may NOT be renamed with the RENAM command.
■ Attached cells are searched for in the pool directory only, while
normal cells are searched for in the drawing directory only. If a cell
file (BP4) is not found, a "null" cell is drawn. LASI draws a null cell
as a dotted outline. A null cell is different from a cell that has
nothing in it in that there is no BP4 file for a null cell.
■ Attached cells may be added to the drawing directory in two ways:
1. You can use the System Mode IMPORT command and give the imported cell
the SAME NAME. This copies the cell's BP4 file to the drawing
directory and turns the attached cell into a normal cell.
2. You can use the IMPORT command and give the copied cell a NEW NAME.
This is preferred if you are going to modify the cell and use it in a
few places.
■ Attached cells may be smashed using the SMSH command. This effectively
adds an attached cell's boxes and paths to the current cell.
■ Attached cells may be used in the MAKE command. They will be added to
the new cell as would any other cell, but they will still be attached
cells.
■ The commands OUTL, FULL, INFO and SHOW work on attached cells.
■ If you are using a RAM disk, the first time you draw a attached cell it
will be copied to the RAM disk. It will still remain protected but will
draw faster.
■ Attached cell names appear in red in the LIST command cell listing.
Cells with rank greater than 1 may be attached, but only the boxes, poly
and paths will be drawn and the cell will be forced to rank 1. The reason
for this is that LASI presently uses pointers to cells in its cell
placement data. These pointers would be different for different drawings.
The TLC program must be used to install any cells containing other cells.
More often, cells containing other cells are usually drawing specific and
would not be shared with other drawings anyway.
Archiving
It is highly recommended that you keep current backups or archives 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 TLCOUT.EXE in a drawing
directory, or alternately, to dump only a certain cell, give it the name
of the that cell and TLCOUT.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.
Backups
LASI contains an amount of protection against drawing loss. It will write
your latest drawing files to your hard disk at certain times so that if
the computer is turned off or fails, or you simply make a mistake or
change your mind, your drawing will survive.
Whenever you exit Cell Mode all files are updated on the hard disk. This
includes the BP4 and CL4 files for the particular cell and the CELLS4.DBD
and CONSTS4.DBD files. This happens even if you are using a RAM disk for
temporary file storage.
There are two files CELLBKUP.BP4, CELLBKUP.CL4 that store your cell as it
was when you enter Cell Mode. These may be used to return a cell to the
same state that it was when you entered Cell Mode.
Also, there are two files SORTBKUP.BP4 and SORTBKUP.CL4 that are updated
when you use the SORT command. You may use these files to restore if you
make a major mistake. These files are also updated by a timed automatic
sort that protects your drawing even if you leave it unattended for a
while and someone comes by and turns off the computer.
Finally, there are two files DSBKUP.BP4 and DSBKUP.CL4 that are updated
whenever you use the DEL or the SMSH command. You may recover from an
accidental delete or smash using these files.
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 different menus. To flip between them, simply
click the right mouse button with the cursor in the drawing window, 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, and 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 in Command Information.
The System Mode commands either operate immediately or request additional
information to be typed in. The commands may be aborted or continued to
completion.
Cell Mode commands may be grouped into four types:
1. 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.
Examples of resident commands are: ADD, GET, PUT, CGET and CPY.
2. ONE-TIME commands are commands that abort any other commands that may
be in progress, but are not retained.
Examples of ONE-TIME commands are: SORT, FILL, LAYR, and OBJ.
3. WINDOW commands are commands that change the window that is displayed.
These commands are nestable within a resident command. For example,
you can reposition the window 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, OCTO,
OPEN, RDRW, VIEW, WGRD, RSTR, SAVE, XPND and ZOOM.
4. 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.
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 or ESC.
Usually, ENTER continues the command and ESC aborts the command.
Important: Any command that is expecting a cursor input point can be
cancelled by selecting the same command, a new command or by pressing
ESC. 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 TLCIN.EXE, TLCOUT.EXE or LASI2PGL.EXE with the LASI drawing
program as the shell, you probably have run out of conventional memory.
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 Display
When operating in Cell Mode the drawing area occupies most of the screen.
The command menu appears on the right of the screen, and status
information is displayed on the top and bottom of the screen.
┌─ Cell(Rank)── Command (Point)──── Cursor Position ──┬─────────┐
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ Drawing Area │ Menu │
│ │ Area │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ (Active Count etc.) │ │
├─ View(layers)── Open(layers)─────────── Indicators ─┤ │
└─ wGrd ─── dGrd ─── Obj ─── Layr ─── Wdth ───────────┴─────────┘
(Input and Messages)
The top status line shows the name of the cell and its rank on the left.
Near the center is the name of the current command and the point to be
inputted. Commands usually display in cyan, but nested "window" commands
display in red.
The top line also shows the current position of the mouse cursor. The
lowercase "w" or "u" prefixing X or Y indicates that the cursor is in the
"working" or the "unit" grid.
The upper bottom line shows the layers that are viewed and open for
modification, and at the extreme right, the status of the cell outline
name, the path center line and the text reference keyboard toggle
switches. (Read Key Assignment and the OUTL, DRAW and TEXT Commands.)
The upper bottom line may also display other information, such as the
number of active objects or INFO command information.
The lower bottom line normally displays the working and dotted grids, the
name or type of object that will be added with the ADD command, the layer
if the object is a box or path, and the width of the path.
The lower bottom line also serves as an input line for various keyboard
inputs, such as direct X and Y coordinate inputs or text string inputs.
The bottom line also displays certain warning messages that may be sent
to indicate a problem, for example, "RAM Disk Full or Unavailable ...",
which can occur quite often.
When the bottom two lines return to their normal status information, this
indicates that a command has been successfully completed (or aborted) and
LASI is waiting for a new command.
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 draw
completely if you only want to locate a certain area. Just find where
the area is, abort further drawing and ZOOM in.
2. Cells may be replaced by their outline, which draws almost instantly.
Read the OUTL and FULL Command topics.
3. Objects that are too small to draw may be skipped by setting the
resolution properly. Read the SET Command topic.
4. Objects that are out of a drawing 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 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. Some error messages are less obvious and may be
explained as follows:
"Out of Object Memory!" means that you have completely run out of
memory avaiable to hold the objects of a cell. Use some method to get
more conventional memory on your PC, or better, use more cell nesting
to reduce the parts count in a cell.
"Unable to Load File(s)!" means that you are not able to load a cell
file, usually because you have too little memory space available. This
also indicates that a cell file (BP4 or CL4) may be missing, or you are
trying to load a pooled cell.
"Box/Path/Vertex/Cell Limit!" means that you are trying to add an
object that exceeds the maximum number for its type.
"Not Available!" means that LASI will not act as a "shell" to execute
other programs ("child" processes).
"Rank Error!" means that you are trying to add a cell that has rank
greater than or equal to the cell on which you ar working.
"File Error!" means that a file error occurred at the DOS system level.
Usually you tried to erase a file that did not exist, or you tried to
rename a file that didn't exist or had a name conflict.
"No Object!" means that you are trying to set an object to be added
that cannot be found in the cell list.
"Not Enough Space to Smash CELLNAME!" means that there isn't enough
memory to hold the objects that would result if a cell is smashed.
"RAM Disk Full or Unavailable ... Using Hard Disk!" means that you
either have set a RAM disk in the FORM.DBD file that doesn't exist, or
the RAM disk has run out of space for new files or new filenames. You
should erase old files from your RAM disk or, if possible, reconfigure
it in the DOS CONFIG.SYS file to provide more file space or a larger
directory.
File Types
The LASI drawing program 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 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 to keep track of which cells are used in other
cells.
FORM.DBD contains the configuration information used by LASI when it
starts. Read the FORM File topic.
CONSTS4.DBD is a file that is maintained by LASI 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 on boxes,
paths, text and vertices. These files are maintained by LASI and other
utilities and are not to be externally edited.
CL4 files are internal files that contain information on 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.DBD file is an IMPORTANT
file because it is used by the LASI drawing program and most of the
UTILITY PROGRAMS to configure to the particular drawing environment.
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)
hcopy=XXXX (name of bitmap program to be used)
plot=XXXX (name of plotter support program)
text=XXXX (path\name of Text Font File)
vmode=vga,ega,svga,mono,lcd (forces the display mode)
pool=pool directory (path\name of cell pool directory)
fkey=command line (progressively assigns F-keys)
■ "hdisk=" sets the letter name of the hard disk where the \LASI4
directory is located and is used to find certain files.
■ "rdisk=" sets the letter name of a RAM disk that was created in memory.
Read the Using RAM Disk topic for more information.
■ "fdisk=" variable sets the letter name of the default floppy drive
where certain files are routinely imported and exported. Read the
TLC-IN and TLC-OUT topics.
■ "hcopy=" is the name of the screen hardcopy program. Read the HCPY
Command 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.
■ "plot=" is the name of the plotter program. At the present there is
only one plotter program LASI2PGL.EXE.
■ "text=" is the path\name of the Text Font File. If this parameter is
left blank or if it is left out of the FORM File altogether, the
default "\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.
■ "vmode=" overrides the automatic sensing of VGA or EGA hardware. This
can take multiple arguments separated by spaces. The arguments may be
"ega", "vga", "svga", "mono" or "lcd".
∙ "vga" or "ega" force 640x480 or 640x350 16 color graphics mode.
∙ "svga" forces 800x600 16 color VESA standard graphics mode. You must
have the hardware or the driver software that conforms to the VESA
standard or you will probably crash.
∙ "mono" redefines the color palette to black, gray, white and bright
white for use with monochrome monitors and laptops.
∙ "lcd" increases the thickness of the cursor so that it is more
visible on a slowly changing LCD display.
The arguments may also contain two floating point numbers separated by
spaces that set the "mouse sensitivity" (or mickey multiplier) for the
x and y axes respectively. These numbers default to 1 if omitted. Set
these numbers to whatever feels best with your mouse.
Example: vmode=svga mono 1.5 .75
Sets the display to 800x600 monochrome display mode, and changes the
mouse sensitivity to 1.5 times normal in X and .75 times normal in Y.
■ "pool=" sets the directory where pooled cells are stored. If the pool
directory is on a different disk than the drawing directory, precede
the directory name with the disk letter. Omit "\" from the end of the
pool directory name. If you don't have a pool directory leave this
parameter blank or erase it from FORM.DBD altogether.
■ "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.
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. DMHCPY.COM makes a black and white copy of the screen in standard
Epson FX or LQ dot matrix format.
There are 4 arguments (upper or lowercase) that may be appended to the
"hcopy=dmhcpy" 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
"G" which turns on "generic" printer codes that will work with almost
any IBM/Epson printer. Aspect ratios will be not be 1:1.
These arguments may be in any order.
For example, "hcopy=dmhcpy 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 produce files in the Epson FX printer format. You can build
single or multiple sheet fax files for transmission using an Intel
SatisFAXion board. You can also translate the files into other formats
using a converter such as HIJAAK.
If you are operating in VGA graphics mode, the hardcopy that you get
will have a correct 1:1 aspect ratio, that is, if you don't use the "G"
argument.
2. LJHCPY.COM makes a black and white copy on a LaserJet or a DeskJet
type 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 topic.
Hardware
The LASI will run in some configuration on almost any IBM compatible
computer with common basic hardware options. In fact, it is the
philosophy of LASI not to require the latest, fastest or any special
hardware. LASI will run on an old AT type computer (or even painfully
slow on an XT type), but a faster computer is always an advantage. LASI
will run quite nicely on a 386 or 486 "average" PC with clock speed of 25
MHz or more.
This is the minimum hardware required:
1. 640K of conventional memory
2. A hard disk
3. VGA or EGA adaptor and color monitor (see below)
4. A mouse
5. A math coprocessor (see below)
640K of Conventional Memory
The LASI drawing program takes a minimum of about 240K. 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.
Using extended memory and MS-DOS 5 or 6 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 with Color (or Monochrome) Monitor
LASI 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 a "vmode=" parameter in the FORM File.
If you have a VGA board and a monitor capable of 800x600 16 color
graphics, you can run LASI in that mode by setting "vmode=svga" in the
FORM File. You must have a board that is VESA (Video Electronics
Standards Association) compatible with supplemental driver software
(furnished by the board's maker), or the board must have a BIOS that is
directly compatible with the VESA standard. Most new boards will meet
one of these requirements.
If you have a monochrome monitor with a gray scale VGA display, you can
redefine the color palette to black, gray, white and bright white by
adding "mono" to the "vmode=" parameter in the FORM File. You may have
to trick your VGA board into thinking that it has a color monitor by
grounding the ID bit 0 (pin 11 on the 15 pin D connector).
Laptop computers with a VGA display will also run LASI. A possible
problem when using a laptop is that the LCD display isn't fast enough
to track the mouse cursor. To improve this, the cross shaped mouse
cursor may be expanded to more pixels to improve the cursor's
visibility if "lcd" is added to the "vmode="parameter.
Because LASI 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 8 MHz. This limits the drawing speed of LASI and most of any
other graphical software, including Windows or OS/2.
There are also some new bus architectures that raise the bus speed when
servicing video, or have an independent high-speed bus, such as the
VESA Local Bus (VL-Bus). If your graphics board can work at a higher
speed or is VESA Local Bus compatable, your LASI drawing speed will
greatly improve.
If you are buying a computer to run LASI (or anything else), it is
recommended you get one with a VESA Local Bus. Some manufacturers have
their own proprietary bus; it is likely that these will die out and the
VESA Bus will be standard. Note also that "accelerated" video boards
are available, but are often designed to speed up Windows or specific
CAD systems, like AutoCAD, using special driver software. These may not
help LASI very much.
Mouse
Pretty much everything is done graphically by mouse. All mouse function
calls conform to Microsoft Mouse Protocol. LASI 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 (numbers
0-5, 10 and 11) 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.
LASI reads "mickeys" directly (actual movement count) and moves the
cursor accordingly. Certain mouse driver sensitivity switches (/H /V)
won't work when this is done, but sensitivity can be sent in the
FORM.DBD file. Read the FORM File topic.
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 run LASI.EXE, it will examine your hardware and overlay either
LASI87.EXE or LASIA.EXE. If you try to run LASI87.EXE without a
coprocessor, the program will return a system error. If you don't have
a coprocessor and can't afford one, LASIA.EXE will always run, but it
draws about half as fast in certain situations as LASI87.EXE and uses a
little more memory.
Optional but desirable:
1. Extended memory
2. A printer (dot matrix or laser)
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
Hard copies of the screen can be made directly from LASI. Making
hardcopies is very handy to examine and keep track of your drawings.
Hardcopy support is provided for Epson Generic, FX and LQ type printers
and H-P LaserJet type printers. Most printers seem to conform to these
standards. Read the HCPY Command 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.
Help on Help
If you are reading this help topic you are probably running the LASI Help
and Information program LHI.EXE. LHI is called from LASI by pressing F1.
If the mouse cursor is on a COMMAND NAME the name will be passed to LHI
and that command's help information will come up immediately.
LHI.EXE will also accept optional DOS command line arguments as follows:
lhi [disk\path\filename] [topic1 or topic2] [topic2]
[Disk\path\filename] is the full name of the help file to read. The
filename must contain the extension ".HLP" or the argument will be
considered as a topic argument. Leaving this argument out causes a
default to "\lasi4\lhi.hlp".
The [topic1 or topic2] argument is the topic for the first search. This
may be a primary topic such as "Command Information" or a secondary topic
such as "Copy". If the topic is more than one word enclose it in double
quotes ("") as DOS requires.
The [topic2] argument is the subtopic of topic1. This is only necessary
if topic2 appears as a subtopic of topic1 in more than one place in the
help file. For example, if "Introduction" appears more than once, you
must specify the primary topic as topic1 and then "Introduction" as
topic2.
All arguments may be upper or lower case.
Key Assignment
Some keys on the keyboard are permanently assigned:
CTRL-END exits to DOS from Cell or System Mode.
ENTER enters information and does a DRAW command.
DIRECTION ARROWS move the drawing window in that direction.
TAB toggles the cursor between a small cross and crosshairs.
A toggles the cursor between working and unit grid.
C toggles the path center line on and off. (retained)
N toggles the outline name on and off.
T toggles the text reference point on and off. (retained)
X or Y opens a PKE entry.
Z sets the measurement reference point.
SPACE gives a measurement from the reference point.
ALT while pressed changes the cursor between working and unit grid.
ESC has multiple uses:
1. Press ESC to abort most commands at any stage of completion.
2. Press ESC to abort drawing at various stages. Read the Drawing Speed
topic for details.
3. Pressing ESC causes a default value to be retained in any input that
has a default value shown in parentheses, even if a new value has been
typed.
4. ESC returns a NULL (no characters) to such questions as the name of a
cell and therefore aborts the process.
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.
Commands assigned to function keys are executed on a ONE-TIME basis even
though normally the command may be a resident type of command.
Function keys work differently in System Mode, so no System Mode command
may be assigned to a function key. Certain commands in Cell Mode work
differently also and may no be assigned to function keys. These are LIST,
CELL, SYS and UNDO.
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. Coordinates are always requested in pairs.
Local Area Network
It should be possible to use the cell pooling feature of LASI 4.2 to
provide a common pool of basic cells over a Local Area Network (LAN)
consisting of several PCs or work stations.
Put the network server disk directory prefix in the "pool=" parameter in
the FORM.DBD file. LASI will then load an attached cell's BP4 file from
the server. If you are using a RAM disk locally, the file will then be
stored on the RAM disk the first time you draw it, and will remain there
until you quit LASI.
You can also make a permanent copy of a pooled cell from the network
using the IMPORT command.
For transferring cells with rank greater than 1, you must use TLCIN.EXE.
In that case, the "fdisk=" parameter in FORM.DBD can be set to the server
directory prefix with TLC files in that directory on the server. Any
files transferred by TLC will become normal cells not attached cells.
Care also must be taken not to write back to the server, since TLC works
both ways.
Managing Objects
So that it can be accessed rapidly, the data for LASI drawing objects is
kept in what is known as conventional memory, the memory up to 640K
bytes. The LASI main program is loaded at some low address determined by
the DOS system. The main program will use about 240K, and the remaining
memory space can be used for object data.
Conventional Memory Map:
Object Data Area small prgms.
DOS+TSRs LASI (free in System Mode) or more data
├───────────┼────────────┼────────────────────────┼──────┤
0K <Minimum> <≈240K > <≈310K> <64K> 640K
LASI has to perform the following tasks to control object data:
1. When LASI loads a cell, it has to clear the memory in the Object Data
Area of any previous cell object data and load the object data for the
new cell if it will fit, and fail gracefully if it will not.
2. Since commands work globally, LASI has to keep the data for all the
different types of objects immediately available in memory.
3. If objects are added, LASI has to allocate more memory if necessary,
and fail gracefully if none is available.
4. While drawing cells that contain other nested cells, LASI must also
swap in and out object data at different levels of nesting, and still
retain necessary basic data.
Doing all this is obviously not a trivial job, at least to do it
efficiently. LASI 4.2 has a set of interacting functions that do all this
and form what is usually called a "object manager". The manager works
transparently, and may only be noticed on some slower computers when its
additional layer of programming abstraction makes things run a little
more slowly.
Specifically, the object manager controls the memory used for box, path,
vertex and cell object data records.
LASI stores paths or polggons and their vertices as separate records, and
therefore allocates space in memory for them separately. This is because
there is no good relation between the number of paths you use and the
number of vertices that you put into the paths. To be efficient, path
data is packed together and vertex data is packed together. Read the
Objects topic, and if curious, read the LASI42.DSS file for the data
record format.
Memory is allocated in 8K blocks, without regard to the type of object.
You can therefore have one cell that has many paths with many vertices,
and another cell that has many boxes, all in the same drawing, and LASI
will accommodate. Memory will be adjusted to the objects that you use.
There are limits on the number of a type of object that may be used in a
single cell. These limits are as follows:
Boxes = 13104 max.
Paths = 10920 max.
Vertices = 32736 max.
Cells = 10920 max. (no dependence on level or rank)
If you use any object up to its limit, you probably are not using cell
nesting very efficiently. You will discover that using many objects in a
single cell slows down some operations considerably.
When drawing, you may add objects to a cell until the maximum limit for
each type of object is reached, or you may simply run out of object
memory altogether. In either case, a message will tell you what has
happened, and the event should be harmless.
You will also discover that there isn't enough conventional memory to
reach maximum limits simultaneously. This should not be a problem because
you should have broken up a cell into lesser cells long before you reach
that situation.
When you start LASI in System Mode, the maximim amount of available
memory will be displayed in the Environment area. When in Cell Mode, the
INFO command shows how much memory is still free. Unless you make cells
with thousands of objects, you will probably not use much memory, and you
won't have to worry about it.
The actual memory available is dependent on the hardware and software
configuration of your computer. It is possible that cells that "fit" on
one computer will not "fit" on another. It is therefore important that
you make as much memory initially available as possible. When to start a
program that manages objects, either LASI or one of the utility programs,
the available memory is shown. Use this number for comparison.
DOS needs at least 64K available to load almost 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, or you should move them to "high memory", 640K
to 1024K.
The newer DOS's you can load much of your resident software into high
memory. Read the MS-DOS 5 or 6 topic.
You can also gain quite a bit of memory by using one of the better memory
managers such as QEMM-386 or 386MAX, which move TSRs and drivers into
high memory more effectively than DOS 5. MS-DOS 6 has MEMMAKER which does
the same as QEMM-386 and 386MAX and will probably do quite nicely.
Measurements
The position of the cursor in the drawing window 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
switch between these by pressing the A or ALT keys.
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 point may be either in the working grid or the unit
grid, depending on the resident command or if the cursor grid has been
switched by the A or ALT keys.
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 chooses 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 rectangle 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 window.
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 A or the ALT key on
the keyboard.
Certain cell commands use a DOUBLE CLICKING of the left mouse button to
change the way that the command acts on cells. If you click twice
rapidly, the cells that overlap the mouse cursor points will be affected.
If you wait a bit between clicks, only the cells that have their areas
fully enclosed by the mouse cursor window will be affected.
The time between mouse clicks is set as the number of "ticks" using the
SET command in Cell Mode. Each tick is about 1/20 sec. Adjust this to
your own comfort. The number of ticks is saved and returned when you
restart LASI.
Hint: If you want to turn off double clicking entirely, set the number
of ticks to 0. If you always want double clicking actions, set the
number of ticks to a large number, such as 32000.
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 for short).
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 64 layers available for boxes, paths and text, numbered 1-64.
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. The term "cellname" may be
used to refer to the name of cells in general.
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 AREA. The area of a cell is the region
within the rectangle that fully encloses all the objects that make up
the cell. A cell's OUTLINE is the perimeter of the area, or simply the
enclosing rectangle. Cells may be drawn in full, or may be drawn as
only their outline. Cells in a part of a drawing that is not currently
being worked upon may be outlined to improve clarity and to speed up
redrawing.
When a cell is drawn as its outline it may be manipulated as though it
was drawn fully. However, when cells are outlined, double clicking the
mouse has no effect on the action of a command. An outlined cell must
always be fully enclosed by the mouse cursor window to have any action.
Read the Mouse Cursor General topic and the individual command topics.
Operating Modes
LASI runs from DOS in two operating modes, System Mode and Cell Mode:
LIST ┌<----------┐
┌─────────┐ "lasi" ┌─────────┐ CELL ┌─────────┐ |
│ │-------->│ System │----->│ Cell │ |
│ DOS │ │ │ │ │-->┘
│ │<--------│ Mode │<-----│ Mode │
└─────────┘ QUIT └─────────┘ SYS └─────────┘
| |
└---------------------------------->-┘
"lasi cellname"
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 the following properties:
■ 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.
■ 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 may be entered directly from DOS (as shown above) 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 any time a command is requesting a
point normally inputted by the mouse. To start a PKE entry press either
the X or Y keys. The coordinate pair will appear in the lower left corner
of the screen.
Pressing the X or Y key clears that coordinate to zero and a new value
may then be typed into that coordinate. Coordinate values may contain a
decimal point or a minus sign. Corrections may be made by pressing X or Y
again, clearing the value to zero, or by using the BACKSPACE key.
To enter the coordinate pair press ENTER.
To abort a pending PKE entry, click on any menu button using the mouse,
except any of the window commands, or press ESC.
Note: Some commands that require an incremental input and not an
absolute position (MOV for example) accept only a single PKE distance
entry instead of two mouse cursor inputs.
Pooling
In version 4.2 of LASI, rank 1 cells may be kept in a common "pool". This
pool is a drawing directory that contains cells that might be used in
many different layouts, such as logic elements or standard transistors.
The basic cell BP4 file is taken either from the default drawing
directory or the pool drawing directory.
Cell Source Diagram:
┌───────────┐ Attached Cell
BP4 │ POOL │----->-┐
File └───────────┘ | Attach
| | Command
| | ┌───────────┐
| IMPORT ├--->│ Drawing │
| Command | └───────────┘
V |
┌───────────┐ |
BP4 │ Draw Dir. │----->-┘
File └───────────┘ Normal Cell
The pool directory is set with the "pool=" parameter in the FORM.DBD
file. The pool variable is the name of the directory where pooled cells
are stored.
Example: "pool=c:\ourpool" would be a line in FORM.DBD
If the pool directory is on a different disk than the drawing directory,
precede the directory name with the disk letter. Omit "\" from the end of
the pool directory name.
The cells are "attached" to a drawing using the ATTACH command in System
Mode.
The attached cells may be included in a drawing by first making them the
object to be added with the OBJ command and then adding with the ADD
command. Once added the attached cells may be manipulated like any other
normal cell.
Read the Attached Cells topic and the ATTACH and IMPORT Command topics.
Pooling Old Cells
It is fairly easy to replace cells made with previous versions of LASI
with cells from a common pool. First, the cells to be replaced must be
placed in the POOL directory cell collection. The easy way to do this is
to use the TLC program to first produce TLC files and then use the TLC
program to transfer the TLC files to internal form in the POOL directory.
After you are sure that the cells are in the pool, you can run LASI
version 4.2 in the DRAWING directory and use the ATTACH command on the
cells to be taken from the pool.
Once you have decided that all is correct, and you expect to never need
the cell in the drawing directory again, you can simply erase the unused
BP4 files from the DRAWING directory using DOS's file delete.
Do NOT use the KILL command to erase cells, because this removes cells,
normal or attached, completely from a drawing.
If you happen to run the 4.0 version of LASI on a drawing containing
attached cells, the results that you get when drawing will be somewhat
unpredictable. Whatever is in the buffers at the time will be drawn in
place of the attached cell. This does no harm to the drawing data unless
you go into Cell Mode on one of the attached cells. Doing this will
generate a BP4 file in the DRAWING directory, and the parameters of the
cell in the cells list (CELLS4.DBD) will be rewritten.
Fortunately, if you run LASI 4.2 again on the drawing data, the attached
cell will be rerecognized and the pool cell will reappear. To correct any
problem of wrong data in the cells list you can simply reATTACH the cell.
You can also cautiously delete any false BP4 files that may have been
placed in the DRAWING directory.
Starting a Drawing
This is an elaboration on Quick Start. If you have run LASI you already
know how to get LASI up and working, here are more details that you would
normally go through when really using LASI seriously.
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. The drawing directory will contain certain .DBD files
(drawing basic data) and the "internal" files (.BP4 and .CL4) for the
cells that you create.
NEVER make drawings in the \LASI4 directory.
2. Copy a FORM.DBD file to the drawing directory.
The FORM.DBD file customizes LASI to the specific hardware and software
you are using. The FORM.DBD is local to a drawing directory so it can
be different for each drawing. You may copy a FORM file from another
drawing or use the generic one that comes with the system files. Read
the FORM File topic for a description of the different parameters.
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 or 6.
Once you establish a "normal" FORM.DBD file, you can just copy it from
drawing to drawing.
4. Make the drawing directory your default directory and run LASI.EXE.
The program will start in System Mode. When you first begin a drawing
you should check the scale using the SCALE command and decide if the
parameters are what you want. The scale really only relates the
physical units in which you do a drawing to the basic units in which
the drawing is actually stored. If you do not use the appropriate
scale, you may create cells that have too little resolution, or too
much resolution, and the overall size of your drawing will be too
small.
Note: The RESIZE.EXE utility program allows the resolution or basic
units used to draw cells to be changed later, but it is better to set
the correct scale in the beginning.
5. If you are using the cell pooling feature of LASI 4.2 attach any
pooled cells that you think you might need.
You can always attach cells, but bringing in basic cells is a good
place to start.
6. Use the CELL command to go to Cell Mode and create new cells.
Start by drawing the lowest rank cells that will be used as building
blocks for higher rank more complex cells, and eventually the overall
layout. Generally, repetitive structures should be made as individual
cells and used to build other cells. However, too few boxes or paths
can be a waste of a cell. With experience you will develop a feel of
how to partition your cell structuring.
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 file into the new directory. This will save you the trouble
of redefining things over again. The CELLS4.DBD file is NEVER copied
from drawing to drawing since it serves as a cell reference list that
is different with each drawing. For the same reason, you MAY NOT copy
BP4 and CL4 files between drawings.
Undoing
Whenever you enter into Cell Mode or use the SORT, DEL or SMSH command, a
backup copy of the drawing is stored on the hard disk. To retrieve the
stored backup, you use the UNDO command.
If you don't sort, and you leave LASI unattended, after a certain amount
of time, LASI will automatically sort and backup cell drawing data on its
own.
Read the SORT, DEL, SMSH and UNDO Command 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 or 6
Using DOSSHELL found in MS-DOS 5 or 6 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.exe" and the "Startup Directory" to the drawing directory.
The ability to MS-DOS 5 or 6 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.
You should experiment to find which DOS features work best.
MS-DOS 6 has a program MEMMAKER.EXE that finds places to move TSR
programs out of conventional memory. This should be used if at all
possible because it will automatically make more memory available to
LASI.
If you are using another DOS such as DR-DOS, similar advice applies.
Using a 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 (or expanded) 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.
Important: If you do not use a RAM disk, run a disk organizing program
such as DISK OPTIMIZER or SPEEDISK from Norton's Utilities on your hard
disk often. If cell files become highly fragmented, the drawing time
for LASI can become incredibly long. MS-DOS 6 now includes DEFRAG.EXE
which is a cut-down version of SPEEDISK. Running any of these programs
frequently can greatly improve drawing speed.
Using a Disk Cache
Installing a software 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 your
cache uses high 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 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. If you run Windows, you probably have SMARTDRV already
installed, in fact, SMARTDRV.EXE 4.0 that comes with Windows 3.1 is quite
good.
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. You
may find that the hardware cache is adequate and that a software cache is
not necessary. The best thing to do is to experiment.
Using MS-Windows
LASI will run under Microsoft's Windows 3.1 as a DOS Application. Each
drawing can be setup by first creating a "LASI" Program Group and
installing it as a Program Item using the Program Manager. When creating
the Item you should enter and appropriate "Description" and a "Command
Line" as disk:\LASI4\LASI.EXE, where "disk" is the disk where LASI is
installed. You should enter the particular drawing directory as the
"Working Directory".
Since LASI is a DOS program and is rather computationally intensive, it
will run best in Standard Mode, where it will run as a single activity.
It probably will not run well in 386 Enhanced Mode, where it may 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.
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 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; it in fact wastes memory. You might like to
experiment however to see if there are any benefits in your own
individual case.
Command Information
Add
ADD adds an object to the drawing.
■ The object to be added is set by the OBJ command and is indicated at
the bottom of the screen.
■ A box requires two coordinate points at diagonally opposite corners.
■ A path (poly) takes a vertex from each coordinate 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 coordinate point.
The cursor will indicate the adding action that will take place. For
boxes, the box outline will be shown in dots. For paths, segments will be
previewed as dotted lines. Cells add 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.
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.
APUT is a handy command to make objects inactive with a single mouse
button click.
Arc
ARC calls the arc generator.
Rules for making arcs:
■ 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 radius of the arc is a linear function of the angle and the
difference in radius between the start and end points.
■ The center and end points are single coordinate input points.
■ The number of segments and the direction of generation (cw or ccw) must
be entered when 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 added on the nearest unit grid.
■ Arc end points are added on the nearest working grid.
Hint: If you are generating an arc with many vertices, you can speed up
the process by pressing ESC or clicking the right mouse button, which
causes drawing to be bypassed.
Arrows
Up, down, left and right arrows pan the drawing window.
■ The drawing window is moved by a certain fraction of its width in the
arrow's direction.
■ The display is redrawn.
The arrow keys on the keyboard perform this same function to be
consistent with other CAD systems.
Read DRAW.
Attach
ATTACH installs a cell from a common cell pool in a drawing's cell
collection.
■ ATTACH will first search to find if a cell already exists in the
drawing. If one is found you will be ask if you want to continue. If a
cell is not found, it will be immediately added to the cell collection.
■ ATTACH will turn a normal cell into an attached cell, but the attached
cell must exist in the pool directory.
■ Higher rank cells may be attached but you will only get the boxes, poly
and paths of the cell, and the cell will changed to a rank 1 cell.
■ If the "pool=" parameter in FORM.DBD is missing or blank, the ATTACH
command will not work.
Read the Attached Cells General topic.
Cap
CAP calls the capacitance calculator.
To measure capacitance:
1. You first must enter the capacitance units/physical area unit. This
will usually be in pF/um2.
2. After you enter the capacitance per unit area, all paths with ANY
active vertex will be measured automatically, and the total
capacitance will be displayed. To compensate for corners, half the
width is subtracted from each segment length.
3. After all paths are measured, all boxes with ANY active sides will be
measured automatically, and the total capacitance of the paths and
boxes will be displayed.
4. The command will then go into manual mode. Any polygons or areas in
cells that should be included in the capacitance can then be manually
measured.
5. 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.
6. An area's capacitance and the sum of previous capacitances will always
be displayed at the bottom of the screen.
7. To end measuring, click the mouse on any menu button except a window
command, or press ESC.
Note: Measured areas are indicated by a lightly dotted fill. To measure
an irregular area manually you simply click small rectangular areas
until the total area is filled with minimum overlaps.
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 or ESC.
Cell
CELL exits Cell Mode or System Mode and (re)enters Cell Mode.
From System Mode:
■ You will be asked for a cellname.
■ If a new cellname is not in the cell collection, the rank will also be
requested and you will create a new cell.
From Cell Mode:
■ The first active cell that is found in the drawing becomes the default
cellname, and you will automatically exit and reenter Cell Mode with
that cell.
■ If no default cellname is found, you will be asked for one.
■ If a new cellname is not in the cell collection, the rank will also be
requested and you will create a new cell.
In either mode, press ENTER only or ESC to the cellname or rank question
and you will go to System Mode.
Note: You can also enter Cell Mode in two other ways:
1. You can use the LIST command and click the left mouse button on the
name of a cell.
2. You can go directly to a cell from DOS by typing the cellname on the
command line after "lasi" when starting the program.
cGet
CGET (cell get) makes cells active.
■ A cell can be made active in two ways:
1. If the rectangular cursor window completely encloses the cell's area,
the cell will become active.
2. If the left mouse button is double clicked while making the cursor
window, a cell will become active if the cells's area overlaps the
cursor window. This does not work if the cell is drawn only as an
outline.
■ An active cell turns bright white on all layers.
■ An active cell drawn as an outline turns bright white and is filled
with dots.
■ There is no dependence on VIEW or OPEN.
■ If a cell is not found in the cursor window a cellname will be asked.
CGET only works on the top level of cells and has no effect on boxes,
paths or text.
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's color.
To exit, press ESC to the "Color Layer" question.
Clyr
CLYR changes the layer of boxes, paths or text.
■ If the value entered is not 1 through 64, the layer will be reasked.
■ 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 and TLYR.
cMov
CMOV (cell move) moves cells directly.
■ A cell can be moved in two ways:
1. A cell will be moved if the rectangular cursor window completely
encloses the cell's area.
2. If the left mouse button is double clicked while making the cursor
window, the cell will be moved if the cell's area overlaps the cursor
window. This does not work if the cell is drawn only as an outline.
■ 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 distance 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 point input from the mouse or a PKE
coordinate entry.
■ The display is redrawn.
Read DRAW.
Copy
COPY allows NORMAL cells to be copied or appended to other NORMAL cells.
Rules for COPYing:
■ The source cell must be a NORMAL cell (not attached) in the drawing
cell collection.
■ If the destination cell has a NEW NAME, a new cell will be created.
■ If the destination cell already exists, the source cell will be
APPENDED to the existing cell.
■ If either the source or destination cells are attached cells, the
command will abort.
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.
If the source or destination cells are incorrect, or if copying will
overflow the maximum number of any objects, the copy operation will be
cancelled and a message will be shown.
Since COPY may be used to append to existing cells, it may be used as a
means to copy parts of one cell into another. This is done by first using
the MAKE command to create a temporary cell. Read the MAKE Command Topic.
Also read the IMPORT Command Topic.
cPut
CPUT (cell put) makes cells inactive.
■ This the inverse of CGET, and works the same way.
■ If a cell is not found in the cursor window a cellname will be asked.
Read APUT.
Cpy
CPY copies active objects.
■ The displacement is determined by a 2-point coordinate 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 (use FGET). This feature allows you
to copy sections of paths.
■ Text is copied if it is active.
■ CPY accepts a single PKE distance 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 and polygons into smaller segments to
create new constructions, and to make shorter paths and polygons that
will be more manageable for translation into other CAD systems.
cWth
CWTH changes the width of paths and the size of text.
■ Paths with ANY vertex active will change width.
■ Text that is active will change its size to the new width.
Read WDTH and TWTH.
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 ESC 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.
■ Text is deleted if it is active.
■ Paths with one or no vertices on any layer are deleted.
■ Cells that are active are deleted without regard to the layers that
they contain and the setting of the VIEW and OPEN commands.
Important: Before any object is deleted, the hard disk files DSBKUP.BP4
and DSBKUP.CL4 are updated. If you make a mistake and delete the wrong
thing, you can use the UNDO command to restore the drawing.
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 System Mode deallocates drawing
space. If you use too much memory you may get an "Not Available"
message.
■ Certain DOS command line operations may be done, 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 since the drawing
information may not be current on the hard disk.
Draw
DRAW erases the drawing window and redraws the current cell.
■ 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's objects exceed the memory available, or a
cell's BP4 or CL4 files are not found, a dotted outline will be
substituted for the cell.
■ 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 path or poly may not draw
completely or fill correctly, but drawing will fail gracefully.
■ Paths may be drawn with or without a dashed center line. To toggle the
center line on and off press the C key. A "C" displayed in the lower
right of the screen indicates that center lines are ON.
Read the Drawing Speed General 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.
■ A path is made fully active if ANY vertex is made active.
■ 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 the fill
back on.
To exit, press ESC 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 drawing 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 coordinate 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.
Form
FORM displays the settings in the FORM.DBD file.
■ The parameters and their variables are shown on the first page.
■ The function key assignments are shown on the next two pages or until
there are no more assignments.
■ Press ESC or click the right mouse button to goto the next page.
Read the FORM File topic in General Information.
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 drawn as an outline if a cell's area is
completely enclosed by the rectangular cursor window.
■ If a cell is not found in the cursor window a cellname will be asked.
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.
■ The dot grid will not be drawn if the spacing is less that the drawing
resolution set using the SET command.
Read SET and DGRD.
Hcpy
HCPY expands the screen and calls a hardcopy program that makes a bitmap
copy of the screen on a printer 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.
Read the Hardcopy General topic.
Info
INFO identifies an active object or gives drawing information.
■ 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, number, position and orientation are shown.
■ No active object gives a parts count of the current cell and tells the
amount of memory that is still free.
Read SHOW.
Import
IMPORT allows ATTACHED cells to be brought into a drawing as NORMAL
cells.
Rules for IMPORTing:
■ The source must be an ATTACHED cell in the drawing cell collection.
■ If the destination cell has the SAME NAME as the source cell, the cell
becomes a NORMAL cell and replaces all occurrences of its use in all
other cells.
■ If the destination cell has a NEW NAME, a NEW NORMAL cell will be
created with the new name.
■ The destination will always become a rank 1 cell.
■ If the source cell is not attached, the destination cell is already
present or is an attached cell with a different name, the command will
be aborted.
■ Cells never export back to the pool.
If imported to the SAME NAME, a BP4 file will be copied from the pool to
the drawing directory. You would use this procedure if you want to
replace all occurrences of an attached cell in other cells with a normal
cell that may be modified. You can then RENAM the normalized cell, and
ATTACH the original cell again to make other modified versions.
If the destination has a NEW NAME, a new normal cell will be created and
the attached cell will remain unaffected. You can then modify the new
cell and use it where desired.
Notice that the difference between these two procedures is that in the
first procedure the attached cell is replaced automatically wherever it
is used. In the second procedure you generate an independent cell and you
must replace any occurrences of the attached cell individually.
If the source or destination cells are incorrect, or if importing will
overflow the memory available, the import operation will be cancelled and
a message will be shown.
Read the COPY Command topic.
Join
JOIN connects two paths head to tail to form a new single path.
Rules for JOINing:
■ This command works only if there are exactly two active vertices which
are the beginning and end of a path.
■ If the active vertices are beginning and end of the same path and the
path is not already closed, a segment will be added to close the path
and both vertices will be made inactive.
■ 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, one vertex will be deleted, and one vertex will be made
inactive.
■ If the active vertices are beginning and end of different paths and the
vertices are at different locations, a segment will be added, the paths
will be merged into a single path, and both vertices will be made
inactive.
Use this command to condense paths to reduce data, and to make closed
polygons out of open polygon 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 TLCOUT.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 or paths to be ADDed.
■ If the value entered is not 1 through 64, 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.
■ Attached cell names appear in red in the cell list.
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.
Rules for cell history:
■ 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 new cell from the active cells, boxes, paths and text.
Rules for MAKE:
■ Boxes, paths and text are copied if ANY part is active.
■ The rank of the new cell will be one higher than the highest rank of
any active cells.
■ The name must not already be in the cell collection. If it is, the
prompt will be reasked. No name at all or ESC will cancel MAKE.
Note: When MAKE makes a new cell it first determines the area or outline
of the current cell on which you are working. It then uses this area as
the area 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 area 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.
MAKE can be used to copy all or part of one cell to another cell. First
make a temporary cell and then go to System Mode and COPY the temporary
cell to the destination cell. When you enter the destination cell the you
will find the temporary cell appended to it. You can later KILL the
temporary cell. Notice that you are in effect placing all or part of a
cell on a "clipboard" and then inserting the objects on the clipboard
into another cell. This is a common procedure used with many types of
data exchange.
Mov
MOV moves the active sides of boxes, active vertices, active text and
active cells.
■ The distance is determined from a 2-point coordinate input.
■ The cursor will show the approximate move.
■ MOVs are always done in multiples of the working grid, unless you press
the A or ALT keys to switch to the unit grid.
■ MOV accepts a single PKE distance 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 enables octagonal cursor mode on certain commands.
■ The menu button intensifies to indicate that octagonal mode is on.
■ When octagonal mode is on, the cursor movement vector 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 64.
Orig
ORIG relocates the coordinates of all objects in a cell drawing so that
the single cursor input point is the 0,0 position.
■ This command allows objects to be constructed almost anywhere on the
drawing window and then be repositioned as desired.
■ The working grid is the default grid, but may be changed to the unit
grid with the A 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 an outline.
■ A cell can be turned into an outline in two ways:
1. Cells are changed to outlines if a cell's area is completely enclosed
by the rectangular cursor window.
2. If the mouse is double clicked while making the cursor window, cells
will be outlined if the cell's area 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. An "N"
displayed in the lower right of the screen indicates that names are ON.
■ If a cell is not found in the cursor window a cellname will be asked.
You can greatly speed up an overall redraw by setting the cells in an
region 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 certain
distance.
Rules for OVSZing:
■ A negative distance shrinks the sides.
■ Only active box sides are oversized.
■ All sides of paths or closed polygons are oversized if ANY vertex is
active.
■ The oversizing algorithm used must identify a polygon as having a
rotational angle of +/-360 deg. If this cannot be done, the poly will
be unchanged.
■ If a poly contains adjacent sides that are folded back 180 deg on each
other, the results will be undefined since the direction of folding
cannot be identified.
Note: 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.
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.
■ PBEG is useful when the JOIN command is to be 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 X,Y and width, and the cellname are passed to
the plotting program.
■ The plotting program is named in the FORM "plot=" parameter.
■ Presently, the only plotting program is LASI2PGL.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, and remove or move to high memory any unnecessary
resident programs (TSRs), if they are being kept in conventional memory .
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.
■ ALL paths that have ANY active vertex will be reversed.
■ The original active vertex remains active.
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.
■ This 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 distance 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 condition of DOS when LASI was entered is restored.
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.
CTRL-END has the same effect as QUIT.
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.
To measure resistance:
1. You first must enter the sheet resistance in resistance units/square.
This will usually be ohms/square.
2. 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.
3. After you enter the sheet resistance, if a path with ANY active vertex
is found, the path will be automatically 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.
4. After a SINGLE path is measured the command will enter manual mode.
5. 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.
6. In manual mode, at the "<-->" command prompt, the width of the
resistor must be measured by a 2-point coordinate input or a single
PKE distance entry.
7. At the command prompt "R-->", you can then calculate resistance by
making 2-point coordinate 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.
8. To end measuring, click the mouse on any menu button except a window
command, or press ESC.
Note: 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 redraws the drawing with the layers in descending 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.
■ RSTR does not accept keyboard entries in the usual way, that is,
terminated by ENTER. It requires only a number key to be pressed.
■ Only the keys 0-9 will execute the command, otherwise the window number
will be reasked.
■ Window 0 is always the previous window.
■ Windows 1-9 should have been saved using the SAVE command.
■ The restored drawing window is immediately redrawn.
■ Press ESC to abort RSTR.
Note: 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.
■ SAVE does not accept keyboard entries in the usual way, that is,
terminated by ENTER. It requires only a number key to be pressed.
■ Only the keys 1-9 are acceptable window numbers, otherwise, the window
number will be reasked.
■ Press ESC to abort SAVE.
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.
Rules for setting scales:
■ The scale units name can be anything, but for integrated circuits "um"
and "mil" are preferred because some utility programs use these units.
■ Only the first 5 characters will be accepted for the scale name.
■ 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 5 parameters can be set:
1. The resolution of the drawing can be set.
Resolution = size of drawing window / minimum size of figure.
Resolution affects the following:
∙ Boxes are not drawn if both dimensions are less than the minimum size.
∙ Paths or poly are not drawn if the distance from the minimum vertex to
the maximum vertex in both dimensions is less than the minimum size.
∙ Paths are drawn as lines if their width is less than the minimum size.
∙ Text is not drawn if its size (height) is less than the minimum size.
∙ The dot grid is not draw if its spacing is less than the minimum size.
Note: Normally, a resolution of 200-500 is about right for standard VGA.
Usually there is no need to make the resolution greater than the number
of pixels across the drawing window. Occasionally, some small figures
may disappear if the resolution is too low. If this is a problem set
the resolution higher.
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 "ticks" that determine the mouse button double click
interval can be set. The number is an integer and is clamped between 0
and 32767.
4. The Auto Sort Time, the time before an automatic SORT and backup takes
place can be set. The time can be from 1 to 32767 minutes.
5. 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.
6. The size of the working grids in physical units can be set. You must
enter all the grids, but pressing ENTER or ESC keeps the default value
in the parentheses.
Press ESC to exit SET anywhere in the sequence.
Show
SHOW gives information about an object.
In System Mode, SHOW gives the following information about a cell:
■ The cell's rank, number in the cell collection and if it is attached.
■ The cell's outline boundaries as found in the cell collection list.
■ The number of cells, boxes, paths and vertices in the cell.
■ A listing of the named cell's lesser cells.
■ The number of boxes and paths (including 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.
Rules for SMSHing:
■ 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 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.
■ 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 to be exceeded, or if you run out of memory, 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.
Important: Before any object is smashed, the hard disk files DSBKUP.BP4
and DSBKUP.CL4 are updated. If you make a mistake and smash the wrong
thing, you can use the UNDO command to restore the drawing.
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.
■ Paths with one or no vertices 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
CELLS4.DBD file.
■ BP4 and CL4 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. If the UNDO command is used, these may be used to restore the
cell to what it was when the last sort was done.
■ You may stop a long sort by pressing the SPACE bar. Eventually, when
objects are in good order, sorting will be fast.
Note: The SORT command will be executed automatically if you do not
click either mouse button before the Auto Sort Time times out. This
feature protects your drawing if you leave it unattended.
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.
■ Nx and Ny are presently limited to 1024 max.
■ Stepping distances in X and Y are determined by a 2-point coordinate
input. This may also be entered as a single PKE distance 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.
Note: 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.
To generate text you must provide the following:
1. The reference point, a single coordinate input point, which is the
lower left corner of the character field where the first text
character is to be placed.
2. 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 TLYR and
TWTH settings. The CLYR and CWTH commands may be used to change the text
layer and size.
Text Properties:
■ 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.
■ Text size will always be in integral multiples of 15 basic units. This
is to prevent distortion of the characters.
■ 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.
■ The T key toggles the reference point between visible (a small diamond,
same color as text) and invisible. A "T" displayed in the lower right
of the screen indicates that reference points are visible.
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 category for more information.
TLC-In
TLC-Out
TLC-IN and TLC-OUT are commands that call the TLCIN.EXE and TLCOUT.EXE
programs which convert 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.
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 cellnames separated by spaces.
TLC-OUT without any cellname(s) dumps to the destination disk ALL drawing
cells as TLC files along with the CELLS.REF file.
TLC-IN without any cellname(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 get into trouble this way by mixing up the cells
in different drawings.
Note: These commands really only run TLCIN.EXE or TLCOUT.EXE as a child
process from LASI. It is possible that you might run out of memory, and
the program will return a "Not Available" or other error message. If this
happens, you must run TLCIN.EXE or TLCOUT.EXE alone in memory. Read the
TLC Conversion help category for instructions on running the TLC
converters.
tLyr
TLYR sets the layer of text to be ADDed.
■ If the value entered is not 1 through 64, the layer will be reasked.
Read LAYR and CLYR.
tWth
TWTH sets the width (size) of text to be ADDed.
■ If a pathwidth is entered that is unacceptable, then the prompt will be
repeated with the value in the default parentheses.
■ The width will be snapped to multiples of 15 basic units, the allowed
text sizes.
Read WDTH and CWTH.
Undo
UNDO 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, DEL or
SMSH command was done.
■ Answering anything other than "o", "s" or "d" to the "Restore ..."
question cancels the UNDO command.
Read the SORT, DEL and SMSH topics.
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.
■ Any active boxes or vertices will be drawn as bright white line
segments or as bright white vertex marks regardless of the VIEW
setting. This allows you to see where any active object are located,
which still will be affected by MOV, CPY, ROT, FLP or DEL 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 64.
Read OPEN.
Wdth
WDTH sets the width of paths 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).
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.
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.
Note: WGRD when assigned to a function key accepts a numerical argument.
For example, a 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. However, if "fkey=wgrd" is the parameter, you will
be prompted for a working grid to be set.
Read SET and the FORM File General 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 area. The cell may be drawn fully or be in outline.
■ The first two coordinate points form the cursor window.
■ The next two coordinate 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 distance 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 topic.
Zoom
ZOOM reduces the drawing window size.
■ The new drawing window will be the best fit of the rectangular cursor
window.
■ The display is redrawn with the new drawing window.
■ 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. (CIF2TLC.EXE, TLC2CIF.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.
The program TLCIN.EXE converts external TLC files to internal BP4 and CL4
files. The program TLCOUT.EXE converts internal files to external TLC
files.
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 programs TLCIN.EXE and
TLCOUT.EXE take referencing into account and adjust 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 using TLCIN.EXE. When converting to external
form, the TLCOUT.EXE converter 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. TLCIN.EXE and TLCOUT.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 enclosed in double
angle brackets in text on layer 64. 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 TLCIN or TLCOUT 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.
Pooled Cells
When converting internal files to TLC files, TLCOUT.EXE will look for an
ATTACHED cell that may be used in a drawing in the POOL directory as
listed in the FORM.DBD file. If it doesn't find it, it will produce a
token TLC file consisting of the name of the cell in text. It will not
look for an attached cell in the drawing directory.
When converting from TLC form, TLCIN.EXE will put ALL cells in the
DRAWING directory since it has no knowledge (nor should it) of any cells
that may have come from a pool. Keep this in mind if you are converting
into a drawing.
Conversion Options
The TLCOUT.EXE program has 2 Conversion Options:
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.
The TLCIN.EXE program has 2 Conversion Options:
1. 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 2 below. If the CELLS.REF file is missing at
the source then Option 2 only may be used.
2. 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 TLCIN program knows if a cell is
in the destination by reading the CELLS4.DBD file. TLCIN 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 will
be created.
To convert a complete layout drawing from TLC using TLCIN, you start with
a blank directory, and name the main drawing cell to be converted, or use
the CELLS.REF file as above. The TLCIN 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 TLCIN.EXE or TLCOUT.EXE
When running either TLC program you pass parameters as arguments on the
DOS command line. Arguments are separated by one or more spaces.
The FIRST is the SOURCE path, the disk name or "." for the current
directory.
The SECOND is the DESTINATION path, the disk name or "." for the current
directory.
The NEXT parameters are needed only if the NAMED cell option is used, and
is a list of up to 10 cellnames to be converted.
Hint: Run the TLCIN or TLCOUT without any arguments to get HELP.
Important: If you use POOLED cells and run TLCOUT, the FORM.DBD file
must be present in the source directory. TLCOUT.EXE needs this
information to find the cells.
Things to remember when converting:
The first TWO parameters MUST be present on the command line or you
will get the help message.
For either option 1 above, the file CELLS4.DBD or CELLS.REF must be in
the source directory.
If there are no NAME parameters, option 1 is assumed.
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<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<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<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<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<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 GDSII 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 given to a cell. In
LASI there are no CALMA boundary figures, 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 easily become
structures, partly due to their ranked orderly 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 (such as 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 (in DOS format) for reading by 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, texttypes, arrays or layer 0.
CSF2TLC produces TLC files for good reason. There can be essentially an
infinite number of TLC files, so that a CSF file with almost any number
of structures can be converted to TLC files. The TLC files can then be
selectively converted into LASI drawings if necessary due to any LASI
object allocation limitations.
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. This may be defaulted by just
pressing ENTER.
3. LASI2CSF reads the CELLS4.DBD file, the CONSTS4.DBD file and the
FORM.DBD file in the current directory. CONSTS4.DBD sets the scales
that appear in the starting dialog as default values. The FORM.DBD
file tells LASI2CSF where to find any "pooled" cells.
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 6-10 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, and perhaps other CAD systems.
Important: If you have a problem with exact representation report it to
the author.
7. Since LASI has layers 1-64 but CALMA has layers 0-63, you will be
asked if you want to relocate LASI layer 64 to any CALMA layer. You
can then relocate that layer back to LASI layer 64 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. If the LASI drawing contains an open polygon, it may be an
intentional zero width path, or it may be a mistake where a polygon
has not been closed. You can optionally close any open polygons or you
can have them translated as a path with zero width.
11. 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 magtape, it might contain
two extra characters at beginning of a VAX file record. 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 be asked if you want to relocate CALMA layer 0 to any LASI
layer (1-64). Any CALMA layer 0 will default to LASI layer 64.
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 are 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 cellnames, 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
LASI2PGL.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 LASI2PGL on anything you must make a configuration data
file. Run LASI2PGL.EXE 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. LASI2PGL 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 areas. If this mode is used paths will be
expanded into a closed polygon area.
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. LASI2PGL 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 64 to the "Layer?"
question. Pressing ENTER only will end the assignment process. Note
also that the layer number is displayed in the color you used in the
drawing.
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
areas.
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 perimeter
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 LASI2PGL.EXE
LASI2PGL.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 LASI2PGL:
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 "lasi2hp cellname", where "cellname" 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 cellname x-center y-center width", where "x-
center" and "y-center" are the coordinates of where you want the plot
to be centered, and "width" is the horizontal width of the plot window
(all in physical units). This is how LASI passes the drawing window to
be plotted when the PLOT button is pushed in the LASI 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.
Hint: If LASI2PGL asks for a new scale. You might want to give a scale
slightly smaller than the maximum scale indicated. This may eliminate
some part of a drawing being cut off due to aspect ratio differences
between your paper and the area to be drawn.
Other Uses
Since the plot file that LASI2PGL 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. A string of text can be thought of as a single path
segment, where the character field height is equal to the path width and
the length is determined by the number of characters.
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 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 width and layer are
taken from the current text width (TWTH) and text layer (TLYR) 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 (0-15) 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 (Letter A Shown)
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. Text can be considered as a
NODE 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 interconnection. This means that you can do schematic
capture, or do actual layout from wiring lists used by programs like
PSpice.
Inversely, you can also write programs that locate NODES by position in
LASI layouts or schematic drawings and associate TEXT with the NODE. You
can therefore produce wiring lists for PSpice directly from drawings that
contain node names and device names written ON the drawing.
Since the internal form of LASI data is generally proprietary, you would
write programs in C or BASIC that operate on TLC files.
System Contents
LASI System Files
LASI.EXE LASI boot program
LASI87.EXE Main drawing program for coprocessor
LASIA.EXE Main drawing program without coprocessor
LASI2CSF.EXE LASI to CALMA Stream converter
LASIDRC.EXE The LASI Layer Logic design rule checker
CSF2TLC.EXE CALMA Stream to TLC converter
LHI.EXE LASI help and information reader
LASI2PGL.EXE Hewlett-Packard plotter utility
MAKETXT.EXE Text Font File maker
MANUAL.EXE Manual printer
TLCIN.EXE Transportable cell file "in" converter
TLCOUT.EXE Transprorable cell file "out" converter
CELLSORT.EXE Cell sorting utility
CMDLAYER.EXE Drawing global layer copy/move/delete 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
TLC2CIF.EXE LASI TLC format to CIF format converter
CIF2TLC.EXE CIF format to LASI TLC format converter
3TO4.COM LASI vers 3 to vers 4 converter
40TO41.COM LASI 4.0 to 4.1 CONSTS file converter
41TO42.COM LASI 4.1 to 4.2 CONSTS file converter
DMHCPY.COM Screen hardcopy for dot matrix FX or LQ type printers
LJHCPY.COM Screen hardcopy for LaserJet type printers
FORM.DBD Generic configuration file
TXT.DBD Generic Text Font File
LHI.HLP LASI help and information text file
LASIDRC.HLP LASI Layer Logic help text file
INSTALL.EXE Install program for self-extracting ZIP LASI42.EXE
DEMO.EXE Self-extracting ZIP layout demonstration file
README.TXT Instructions for ZIP file installation
DEMO.CHK Sample check file for LASIDRC program
LASIDSS.TXT Internal file data structure standard
Optional: (May be included or available on request)
CHARS.EXE Self-extracting text character cell collection
System Log
System Update Log for Version 4
Changes in Version 4.0:
The LASI drawing programs have been completely rewritten in a combination
of C and Assembly Language. Many new features have been added:
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 arguments.
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 A
key or the ALT key.
21. The effect of the cursor window on certain cell commands can be
changed by double clicking the mouse.
22. The CALMA conversion programs LASI2CSF.EXE and CSF2TLC.EXE now have
more elaborate text conversion facilities.
23. The SMSH command now works on text and boxes.
24. The CALMA Stream converter now allows open polygons to be converted
optionally to closed boundaries or zero width paths.
Changes in Version 4.1:
1. Rank 1 cells can now be taken from a common "pool" directory and be
used in any drawing. Using this feature several PCs can be NETWORKED
together with common access to basic cells.
2. The ATTACH and IMPORT commands have been added to be used with cells
from the "pool".
3. Missing cell files (BP4 and CL4) now cause a dotted outline to be
drawn.
4. VESA compatible VGA 800x600 16 color graphics mode is now supported.
5. A monochrome gray scale mode has been added for VGA monochrome
monitors and laptop computers with VGA displays.
6. There are now 64 layers (1-64) available.
7. The design rule checking program LASIDRC.EXE is now included.
8. The help program LHI.EXE can now do searches for individual topics.
9. The mouse now uses direct movement information so that the cursor
should work properly in all display modes regardless of the mouse
driver you use.
10. Most commands now abort if ESC is pressed.
11. A sort and backup of a drawing is done after a certain amount of time
if LASI is left unattended.
12. A backup of a cell drawing is made if any deleting or smashing is
done.
13. The OCTO command nolonger cancels any command in progress.
14. Help on a command may now called directly by putting the mouse cursor
on a command button and pressing F1.
15. The program MANUAL.EXE has been added that prints a manual.
16. The T key now toggles the text reference point on and off.
17. The CPYLAYER.EXE, MOVLAYER.EXE and DELLAYER.EXE utility programs have
been condensed into a single CMDLAYER.EXE utility program.
18. There are now indicators on the display for the N,C and T toggle
keys.
19. The TILT.EXE utility program now replaces paths with a polygon
boundary so that it can correctly tilt the image.
20. The LASIDRC.EXE program has had its inter-layer and coverage tests
enhanced so that they can check for intersections and incomplete
coverage.
21. The two versions of the drawing program (now called LASI87.EXE and
LASIA.EXE) are now run through the boot program LASI.EXE which
determines if a coprocessor is present.
22. All line printer outputs from any utility prograns are now always
directed to LPT1 and produce CR-LF character sequences for new lines.
23. The number of active paths is now listed on the display.
24. The "vmode=" parameter in the FORM.DBD file now accepts multiple
arguments for more versatile display configurations.
Changes in Version 4.2
1. All object data memory is controlled by a "object manager" which is
used by LASI itself and many of the utility programs.
2. The parameters in the FORM file to allocate memory for objects are no
longer needed.
3. The connection between the number of cells and the rank depth has been
eliminated.
4. Certain cell editing commands now operate on cells by NAME.
5. The TLC.EXE program has been replace by two new programs TLCIN.EXE and
TLCOUT.EXE which work faster and are object managed.
6. The design rule checker LASIDRC.EXE has been replaced by a new version
that that is a generalized programmable version of the old design rule
checker.
7. The ABRT command is now called UNDO.
8. The TLYR and TWTH commands have been added to set text and path layers
and widths independently.
9. The CTRL-END key combination now saves all files and causes an exit to
DOS from Cell or System Modes.
10. Typed inputs now have a field box that limits the number of
characters that can be entered.
Suggestion Box
Suggestions from Users of LASI
Unlike commercial software, that may be designed by committee, LASI
receives feedback from its users. Since LASI is rather democratic (within
limits), people are encouraged to contribute ideas of their own, or, even
better, to write programs for themselves that do useful things. Contact
the author with your ideas or requests.
These are some of the ideas for LASI improvements or for special programs
that operate in the LASI drawing environment, listed somewhat in order of
priority. Some are fairly ambitious. These changes and new programs are
more or less in progress. Expect to see these in future releases of LASI.
1. Schematic/Layout Network Generation - a utility program that takes
schematics or layouts drawn using LASI and produces a circuit network
definition list for PSpice, HSpice or other Spice circuit analysis
programs. This should have good use in determining if there are any
errors in a layout, since the derived Spice model will not function
correctly. This may also have a good use in education, because it will
allow "heuristic processing" of ICs without the mask and processing
costs. This is not a "schematic capture" but a true "layout capture".
It however should produce similar net lists from layout or schematic.
2. Arrays of Cells - In many situations such as MOS power devices or
imaging arrays, a large number of repetitions of a cell may be used.
This would be better handled by using an extended cell object which
consists of a 2-dimensional array of a single cell.
3. Use of XMS or EMS Memory - the memory management in LASI 4.2 can be
modified to swap blocks of data to extended (XMS) or expanded (EMS)
memory to increase its data capacity. Experience tends to indicate
that large amounts of "flat" data are not really necessary, since a
hierarchical drawing structure is a more efficient way to handle large
numbers of objects. Using EMS or XMS can cause certain complications
like "lost" memory areas if correct procedures are not followed, and
slower drawing operations. EMS or XMS will be added only if there is a
strong need for it.
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 cause more memory usage and slightly
slower operation. The additional memory required for the object
position data may make EMS or XMS necessary. A better way may be to
develop the next major version of LASI, running in protected mode
under OS/2 or Windows NT, if one or both of these operating systems
become popular and enough people have the hardware to run them.
5. Automatic Placement and Interconnect - a utility program that takes
connection information from lists used by simulation programs (Spice)
and uses the node property of LASI text to place and interconnect
cells. This will probably only work well on standardized ICs such as
ASICs and some simpler analog and digital circuits. The program would
however produce a starting point from which "human layout techniques"
would be used to complete an IC.