Cream of the Crop 1

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Commands The commands that are found on the menus do many things. The commands all have help topics. Read the topic for information on each. Some types of commands deserve special mention: RESIDENT commands are commands that stay in place until you change to another resident command. There is always a default resident command when working on a drawing. The resident commands are: ADD, AGET, CGET, CPUT, CPY, FGET, FPUT, GET, MOV, PBEG, PEND, PTXT, PUT, QMOV, WGET and WMOV. WINDOW commands are commands that change the window display. These commands are nestable within a resident command. For example, you can reposition the window display an unlimited number of times while you still have the second point of a MOV pending. The window commands are: ARROWS, CNTR, DGRD, DRAW, FIT, GRID, OPEN, RDRW, VIEW, WGRD, RSTR, SAVE, XPND and ZOOM. DOS commands are commands that run other programs with LASI as the shell. These commands can cause "out of memory" errors if you don't have enough RAM available. The DOS commands are: DOS, HCPY, PLOT, TLC IN, TLC OUT and help <F1>. Other commands are either self-executing or may request additional information before executing. In System Mode information is requested at the left of the screen. In Cell Mode information is usually requested on the last line. Any default values, shown in parentheses, will be retained by pressing <enter>. Important: Any command that is expecting a cursor input point can be aborted by selecting the same command or a new command. Window commands can be aborted within a resident command without aborting the resident command. Cursor Except for numerical inputs, you do almost everything with the mouse when you use LASI. Positioning the cursor and clicking the mouse buttons inputs most all the necessary information. The cursor is a small cross that may have other figures added to it. When on a menu, a box will appear that indicates which command will be chosen. When using drawing commands dotted lines or a dotted rectangular window will appear. 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 a definite grid. 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 hitting the <esc> key on the keyboard. Form The information on how to configure LASI is contained in a file named FORM.DBD. This file must be in each drawing directory. You write it using a text editor in standard DOS text format. The FORM parameters are keywords followed by "=" and then the FORM variable. These may be in any order, or be omitted. If the file FORM.DBD is missing or a parameter is omitted a default minimum parameter is used. The present FORM parameters are: hdisk=C:,D:,etc. (\LASI directory hard disk letter name) rdisk=D:,etc. or blank (RAM disk letter name) fdisk=A: or B: (floppy disk letter name) rank=2-15 (maximum rank available) box=4000 max. (maximum number of boxes per cell) path=4000 max. (maximum number of paths per cell) vtx=32000 max. (maximum number of vertices per cell) cell=500 to 8000 max. (maximum number of cells per cell) hcopy=XXXX (name of bitmap program to be used) plot=XXXX (name of plotter support program) The "hdisk=" parameter is the letter name of the hard disk where the \LASI directory is located and is used to find certain files. The "rdisk=" parameter is the letter name of a RAM disk that was setup in memory. See the RAMDISK topic for more information. The "fdisk=" parameter is the letter name of the default floppy drive where certain files are routinely imported and exported. See the TLC IN and TLC OUT topics. The parameters "box=", "path=", "vtx=", "cell=" and "rank=" allocate memory space. These are limited automatically individually, but you can run out of total memory because of the DOS 640KB limit. You may get a "out of memory" error. If so, downsize your allocations. Note: The automatic limit on the "cell=" allocation is dependent on the "rank=" parameter. If you have too little space allocated to properly load a cell file, or while drawing a cell exceeds the FORM allocation, you will get an "Insufficient FORM Space" message. The parameter of "hcopy=" is the name of the screen bitmap hardcopy program. See the HCPY help 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 possibly hanging if HCPY is pushed. The parameter of "plot=" is the name of the plotter program. At the present there is only one plotter program LASI2HP.EXE. FORM is a command on the menus. It lists the FORM parameters of the drawing directory where you are working. The FORM command also lists the approximate amount of memory that you have left in conventional memory. Use this as a guide when allocating your FORM parameters. Hardware The LASI CAD System will run in some configuration on almost any IBM compatible computer with the right hardware options. The faster the PC, the better LASI will run. Required Hardware: 1. The FULL 640KB of CONVENTIONAL MEMORY The main program LASI.EXE takes a mimimum of about 180KB. Since drawing data is kept in conventional RAM also, you will usually get an "out of memory" error when allocating data space or calling external programs if you don't have enough memory. For this reason you should minimize loading of drivers and other TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs when running LASI. Using extended memory and DOS 5 (or newer) from either Microsoft or Digital Research will improve this situation because these operating systems move drivers to high memory. 2. A 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 384KB, the other 64KB. 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. 3. An EGA or VGA ADAPTOR and COLOR MONITOR LASI.EXE uses some direct hardware access so the EGA or VGA board must be register compatible to the IBM standard. If you have VGA graphics, the VGA will default to EGA 640x350 16 color graphics mode, since LASI uses that mode for its graphics. Because LASI.EXE writes directly to the hardware, you will get faster graphics if you use a 16-bit graphics board, instead of an 8-bit board. In ISA (AT) type computers of any CPU speed, the bus speed is usually still 8MHz. A computer with built-in VGA may be faster, since graphics data transfer may not be bus speed dependent. 4. A MOUSE Pretty much everything is done graphically by mouse. All mouse function calls conform to Microsoft Mouse Protocol. LASI.EXE does little more than look for button pushes and return screen location. The cursors are drawn directly, so LASI is very mouse tolerant. Any mouse that has at least two buttons, has driver software that works with EGA or VGA, and understands some basic Microsoft mouse driver function calls should work with any of the LASI System programs. To use the mouse, first be sure that the mouse driver software that came with your mouse is installed according to your mouse's instructions, or you are using a driver that you know works with most other programs. Optional but Desirable: 1. EXTENDED MEMORY above the 640KB conventional 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. See the RAMDISK topic. 2. PRINTER (Dot Matrix or Laser) Hard copies of the screen can be made directly from LASI.EXE. Making hardcopies is very handy to examine and keep track of your drawings. Not Needed: A MATH COPROCESSOR (80287, 80387, etc) In fact, LASI.EXE will not use it. Most of the math is done in integer form, which is handled by the CPU directly. A certain amount of floating point arithmetic is done, but seems to have only a slight effect on speed. Keys <enter> redraws the screen completely. <arrows> move the drawing window in that direction. <esc> toggles the cursor grid, aborts drawing and changes pages. <tab> does an APUT. <c> toggles the path center line on an off. <x> or <y> opens a PKE entry. <z> sets the measurement reference point. <space> gives a measurement from the reference point. <F1> calls HELP. <F2> calls a onetime GET. <F3> calls a onetime PUT. <F4> calls a onetime FGET. <F5> calls a onetime FPUT. <F6> calls a onetime CGET. <F7> calls a onetime CPUT. <F8> calls a onetime MOV. <F9> calls a onetime CPY. <F10> calls a onetime ADD. Measuring The position of the cursor in the work area is continuously read out at the top of the screen. The coordinates are either in working grid units or in the smallest possible grid unit, the unit grid. You may toggle between these by hitting the <esc> key. There is no ruler but distances can be measured graphically. The <z> key zeroes the measurement system to the current cursor grid point. The current cursor grid may be the working grid or it may be the unit grid, depending on the resident command and if the cursor grid has been toggled by the <esc> key. If the space bar is then pressed, a measurement from the zero point will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. The second point will be gridded to the present cursor grid. Menus Most operations are done by selecting a command from a menu on the side of the screen. The mouse cursor will turn into a box around the command that will be chosen. Clicking the right mouse button activates the command. In Cell Mode there are two menus that contain the Cell Mode commands. To flip between them, simply tap the right mouse button in the drawing area, not in the menu area. In Cell Mode the current resident command is shown at the top center of the screen. The colors usually mean something. Generally the cyan commands affect boxes and paths, the yellow affect cells, an the green both, with many exceptions. Commands intended to stand out are generally red. Some commands are colored just to give good contrast. Modes There are two modes, System Mode and Cell Mode. System Mode is a housekeeping mode which has commands for overall manipulation of cells and the control of certain drawing parameters. Cell Mode is the mode where actual drawing is done. Cell Mode has up to 15 ranks. The rank of Cell Mode is obtained from the cell being drawn. Each Cell Mode rank keeps separate parameters, such as window size and position, in order to simplify moving between different ranks of cells while working on a drawing. The maximum number of ranks is set in the FORM.DBD file. All Cell Modes are identical except for the ranking. Both modes have a menu of commands on the side of the screen. The commands are explained under their own help topics. When LASI is started it goes to System Mode. Using the SYS command that appears in the Cell Mode menu is the normal way to reenter System Mode from Cell Mode. Using the CELL and LIST commands which appear in both mode menus is normal way to enter Cell Mode. Cell Mode also may be entered directly by adding the name of a cell to the command line when starting LASI. Example: "lasi flipflop" when typed in DOS runs LASI and enters into the cell named "FLIPFLOP". See the commands: CELL, LIST and SYS. MS-Windows LASI will run under Microsoft's Windows 3.0 as a Non-Windows Application. Each drawing can be setup as an application by creating a PIF file for it. When creating the PIF file with the PIF editor you should enter the "Program Filename" as disk:\LASI\LASI.EXE, where "disk" is the disk where LASI is installed. (same as the "hdisk=" parameter) You should enter the drawing directory as the PIF's "Start-up Directory". An appropriate "Window Title" should also be added to the PIF. Otherwise, the defaults in the PIF editor can be generally be kept, but some experimenting might be necessary, particularly for "Memory Requirements". Since LASI is a DOS program and is rather computationally intensive, it will run best in Real or Standard Mode, where it will run as a single activity. It probably will not run well in 386 Enhanced Mode, where it will have to share time with other programs. It must always be run as a Full Screen program. It will also be memory limited to DOS's 640KB. You may have to downsize your allocations in the FORM file, or you may run out of memory when running programs like TLC.EXE from LASI. It helps to install HIMEM.SYS and use only part of any extended RAM for your RAM disk (use RAMDISK.SYS), leaving room for Windows to use part of extended memory for its own use. Installing the disk cache SMARTDRV.SYS can also improve disk speed so that a RAM disk may be unnecessary. See the RAMDISK topic. To those who are happily running LASI under DOS, running it under Windows seems to have little advantage. You might like to experiment however to see if there are any benefits in your particular case. Objects A drawing is built of things called OBJECTS. A LASI drawing has a hierarchy, and objects are given a RANK in this hierarchy. The lowest rank (0) objects are the basic constructions, BOXES, PATHS and POLYGONS. The higher rank (1-15) objects are the CELLS, which are the basic structures of a drawing. Any cell can contain one or more objects of lesser rank. All the cells in a drawing are called the CELL COLLECTION. Boxes Boxes are objects that have the properties of four sides, each orthogonal to the adjacent, and a layer. Only the position of the sides and the layer may be changed. Paths Paths are a set of vertices in some order which display as a set of endwise merged rectangles, all with the same width, but usually different lengths. A path with a zero width is called a polygon (poly). A polygon is special case of a path, and the term "path" can be used to refer to either, except in the case where a zero width path is explicitly indicated. A polygon need not be closed. A line of zero width however usually does not reproduce anything useful in an integrated circuit, so polys 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. There are 32 layers available for boxes and paths numbered 1-32. Cells All drawing is done on cells. A cell has a NAME by which it is called for drawing or for insertion into other cells. The name must be acceptable as a DOS filename, since cell files will be made using that name. A cell is named when it is created, but it may be renamed. A rank is also assigned when a cell is created and cannot be changed. 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 feature that they may be drawn fully or may shown as only a rectangular outline. Cells that are not currently being worked may then be outlined to speed up redrawing. See the OUTL topic. PKE Parallel Keyboard Entry can be done anytime a command is requesting a coordinate point normally inputted by the mouse. To activate PKE hit either the <x> or <y> keys. The coordinates that will be inputted will appear in the lower left corner of the screen. The <x> or <y> key clears that particular coordinate to zero. The new value may then be typed into that coordinate. Corrections may be made using the <backspace> key, or the value may be cleared to zero by rehitting the <x> or <y> keys. To enter the coordinate hit <enter>. This also clears the pending PKE entry. If there is a pending PKE entry the coordinates will always appear in the corner of the screen. To remove a pending PKE entry, click on any menu button using the mouse, except any of the nestable window commands. Hitting a non-numerical key will also clear any pending entry. Some commands that require a incremental input (MOV for example) accept only one PKE entry instead of two mouse cursor inputs. Problems If you crash when starting LASI, or entering Cell Mode in particular, your CONSTS.DBD file may be incorrect. Simply erase it from your drawing directory. LASI will make a new one. Older CONSTS.DBD files made with older versions of LASI are not guaranteed to work with newer versions of LASI. If you crash or you get an "out of memory" message, particularly when running a "child" program from LASI such as TLC.EXE or LASI2HP.EXE, you probably have run out of conventional memory. Downsize the allocated space for boxes etc. to reduce your memory requirements by changing the numbers in the FORM.DBD file. 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. RAMdisk Drawing speed can be greatly improved if a RAM disk is used. Cell files that normally would be kept on a hard disk can be placed on a RAM disk by using the MS-DOS VDISK.SYS or RAMDRIVE.SYS drivers, or similar software. LASI will automatically swap cell files to a RAM disk when it draws, and then restore them to the hard disk when it is finished. To use a RAM disk you must first create the RAM disk during DOS bootup time by adding the driver to your CONFIG.SYS file. The RAM disk should be located in extended memory. To have LASI recognize a RAM disk, the "rdisk=" parameter of the FORM.DBD file must be the letter name of the RAM disk. For example, if the RAM disk installs as disk E:, then "rdisk=E:" would be the parameter. If you have no RAM disk installed, set the "rdisk=" parameter to the letter name of your drawing directory disk, or simply leave the "rdisk=" parameter blank, since the drawing directory is on the default disk drive. The RAM disk must be large enough to hold all the cell files in a drawing. Computers with a megabyte or more of additional memory above 640KB 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 and paths) 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, this condition will be held until you exit Cell Mode. You should exit LASI, increase your RAM disk space, if possible, and rerun LASI. Using a disk caching driver can also speed up the redrawing of cells just as using a RAM disk. The disadvantages are that you will occasionally go to the hard disk if you lose a file from the RAM cache, and you will use more RAM in the DOS program area below 640KB unless you cache uses higher memory for its manager. The advantage is that you will not have to worry about running out of RAM disk space. Any disk cache driver, such as SMARTDRV.SYS from Microsoft, should work. Installing the disk cache in extended memory just as with a RAM disk is preferred, and the cache size should be as large as is needed to get a good hit ratio. To use a cache set the "rdisk=" parameter in FORM.DBD to the same drive letter name as your drawing directory or leave it blank. Starting The LASI System files are distributed in compressed form. The distribution should consist of a self-extracting executable file LS.EXE, and an installation batch file LSINSTAL.BAT. To install the LASI System on a hard disk: 1. Run the installation batch file. This will create a subdirectory named "\LASI" on your hard disk, if it has not yet been created, and will extract and copy the system files to that subdirectory. 2. Add the path "disk:\LASI" to DOS using the "PATH" DOS Command, where "disk" is the hard disk's drive letter name. Putting the path in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file is easiest. To start a drawing: 1. Create a "drawing directory" as an independent directory. The drawing directory should be named for the drawing to be made. Each different drawing is kept on the hard disk by isolating it in its own directory. DO NOT make drawings in the \LASI directory. 2. Copy the FORM.DBD and TXT.DBD files to the drawing directory. The FORM.DBD file custom configures LASI to the specific hardware and allocates memory. The TXT.DBD file provides the particular text font to be used in the drawing. The FORM.DBD and TXT.DBD files are always kept in a drawing directory so they can be different for each drawing. 3. Edit the FORM.DBD file. 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. Read the FORM help topic. Make the drawing directory your current directory, and run the program LASI.EXE. The program will start in System Mode. When you first start a drawing you should check the scale using the SCALE command to see if the parameters are correct. Hint: If you have a similar drawing in another directory and you have already defined the hardware and drawing parameters, you can copy the CONSTS.DBD, the FORM.DBD and the TXT.DBD files into the new directory. This will save you the trouble of redefining things over again. Universe The drawing area is 65536 units in each direction since positions are determined by a 16 bit integer. 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, QMOV, ROT, STEP, WMOV Abrt ABRT aborts the current Cell Mode cell. This command will restore either the original cell that existed when the mode was entered or the cell as it was when the last SORT command was done. Answering anything other than "o" or "s" to the "Aborting ..." question aborts the ABRT command. Using the ABRT command along with the SORT command provides and "undo" feature. See the SORT topic. Add ADD adds an object to the drawing. The object to be added is set initially by OBJ and is indicated at the bottom of the screen. A box requires two points at diagonally opposite corners. A path takes a vertex from each cursor input. A path adds a new vertex after the first active vertex found in the order in which the path is drawn. A cell is added with its origin at a single cursor input point. The cursor will indicate the adding action that will take place. On boxes, the box outline will be shown in dots. On paths, segments will be previewed as dotted lines. Cells are added as a single point. ADD may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F10> key. Aget AGET (all get) is a combination of FGET and CGET. It acts on cells, boxes and paths in the same way as those commands. It is useful if you want to activate a number of objects of different types to do some operation on all of them simultaneously. AGET is useful if you are MOVing, CPYing or FLPing large sections of a drawing because you can see just which object are active before the operation. Aput APUT (all put) makes all boxes, paths and cells inactive. This command is for making sure that all objects are inactive. The active object count is cleared directly by this command. APUT may be called by hitting <tab>. Arc ARC calls the arc generator. An arc is generated starting at the first active vertex found on a path and is swung around an arc center point to an end point. The center and end points are single cursor input points. The number of segments and the direction of generation (cw or ccw) must be entered as requested. To start an arc from nothing you must first add a single active vertex and then call the generator. The arc takes its width and layer from the original path object or "arc seed". Arc internal points are made to the nearest unit grid. Arc end points are snapped to the nearest working grid. Hint: You can speed up generation by hitting <esc> or clicking the right mouse button, bypassing drawing. Arrows Up, down, left and right arrows pan the drawing window. The window is moved by a certain fraction of its width in the indicated direction. The display is redrawn. The arrow keys on the keyboard perform this same function to be consistent with other drawing systems. See DRAW. Bexp BEXP expands the sides of boxes by a given distance. A negative distance shrinks the box sides. This command operates only on active box sides. See PSIZ. Cap CAP calls the capacitance calculator. You will be asked for the capacitance per physical unit^2. Capacitance MAY NOT be entered in exponential form. At the command prompt "[/]", you must fit the rectangular cursor area to the area to be measured by clicking the left mouse button at diagonally opposite corners. The area's capacitance and the sum of previous capacitances will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. To end measuring, click the mouse on any menu button except the window commands or hit any key except <z> and <sp>. 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. Abort CCEL by hitting <enter> only. Cell CELL exits Cell or System Mode and reenters Cell Mode. A cellname must be provided. If you execute CELL in Cell Mode, the first active cell that is found in the drawing becomes the default cellname. If there is a default cellname, you will be transferred to that cell directly. If no cellname is found, you will be asked for one. If a cell is a new one, the rank will also be requested. To create a new cell you must use this command. If a mistake is made, or you want to go to System Mode enter a blank cellname or give a blank rank. Cget CGET (cell get) makes cells active. The active cell turns bright white on all layers. There is no dependence on VIEW or OPEN. If a cell's outline overlaps the rectangular cursor window the cell will become active. CGET may be called on a onetime basis by hitting <F6>. Clrs CLRS enters into the Layer Attribute Display and allows the color of a layer to be set. The number of the layer is shown in the layer color. To exit, press <enter> only to the "Color Layer" question. Clyr CLYR changes the layer of active boxes or paths. If the value entered is not 1 through 32, the command will abort. The default layer is the layer cerrently set by the LAYR command. Boxes must have ALL sides active to change layer. Paths with ANY active vertex change layer. See LAYR. Cntr CNTR centers the drawing window. The new center is a single cursor input point. The display is redrawn. See DRAW. Copy COPY allows cells to be copied or appended to other cells. The source cell must be in the drawing cell collection. If a destination cell doesn't exist, it will be created. If the destination cell exists the source cell will be appended. Inter-rank copying is permitted. If the source cell contains cells that have rank equal to or greater than the destination cell, then those cells will not be copied. Boxes and paths are always copied. Appended objects appear as active objects in the destination cell. This allows you to move the appended parts if they overlay any previous objects. When you first enter Cell Mode when doing this procedure, the status at the bottom will not indicate any active objects. Ignore it. If the source or destination cells are incorrect, or if copying will overflow the allocation in FORM of any objects, the copy will be aborted and a message will be shown. Cput CPUT (cell put) makes cells inactive. This the inverse of CGET, and works the same way. CPUT may be called on a onetime basis by hitting <F7>. Cpy CPY copies active objects. The displacement is determined by a 2-point cursor input. The original objects are made inactive and the copies are made active. Boxes are copied if ALL sides are active. Cells are copied if they are active. Vertices of paths are copied only if they are active. To copy a path completely it must be fully active. This feature allows you to copy sections of paths. CPY accepts a single PKE entry. CPY may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F9> key. Cut CUT breaks a path into two separate paths at an active vertex. This command works if there is ONLY ONE active vertex. The last vertex at the cut point of the newly created path is made active. Use this command to break paths into segments to create new constructions, and to make shorter paths and poly that will be more manageable in your drawing or to other drawing systems. Cwth CWTH changes the width of paths. The default width is the width currently set by the WDTH command. Paths with ANY active vertex change width. See WDTH. Dash DASH sets the layers that will have lines dashed. Setting to layer 0 turns off all dashes. VIEW, OPEN and DASH accept layer inputs that can be single layers in any order, or a dash (-) can be used to indicate all inclusive layers between the end layers. A dash alone will give all layers from 1 to 32. Del DEL deletes objects or parts of objects. An object's layer must be VIEWed and OPENed to be deleted. Boxes are deleted if ALL sides are active. Active vertices of paths are deleted. If only one vertex remains then an entire path is deleted. Cells that are active are deleted without regard to the layers that they contain and the status of the VIEW and OPEN commands. When deleting a large number of vertices expect a short delay because the computer has to do a lot of sorting. Dgrd DGRD sets the dot grid. The dot grid is in physical units. The dot grid may be any acceptable size and can be toggled on and off with the GRID command. If the grid is smaller than the resolution set by the SET command it will not be drawn. The present dot grid will be shown at the bottom of the screen. See SET. DOS DOS temporally exits to the operating system. Certain DOS command line operations may be done. Certain small programs may be run. DO NOT run LASI utility programs from this command. Return to LASI with the word "EXIT" If you use too much memory you may get an "out of memory" message. Draw DRAW redraws the drawing area on the screen. Drawing of boxes and paths takes place in ascending layer order. Lesser cells are drawn starting at the lowest rank and are overlayed upward. The boxes and paths of the current cell always overlay all layers of any lesser cells. Hitting the <esc> key or clicking the right mouse button causes the redraw to abort in two stages. The first abort stops cells being drawn. The second stops the present cell's boxes and paths from being drawn. If during redraw a cell to be drawn exceeds the space allocation set with the FORM file, a message will be printed and redrawing will abort. Paths with widths near the unit grid limit may appear distorted. This is because all drawing points are set in the unit grid. Note: If you try to draw a path or poly with a vertex count exceeding the the limits of 250 and 500 respectivly, the object may not draw or fill correctly, but drawing will fail gracefully. Fget FGET (full get) makes a box or path fully active. A box is made fully active if ANY side is made active as would be done using GET. A path is made fully active if ANY vertex is made active as would be done using GET. 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. FGET may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F4> key. Fill FILL enters into the Layer Attribute Display and allows the type of fill to be set for a layer. The pattern of the fill number is shown by the sample boxes. The fill number of the layer is shown above the corresponding colored layer number. Boxes, paths and closed polygons will be filled with the chosen fill pattern. The fill of all layers may be temporally turned off by answering "off" to the "Fill Layer" question. Calling FILL again will turn fill back on. To exit, press <enter> only to the "Fill Layer" question. Fit FIT sets the size of the drawing window so that it will show all of the objects in a cell. There is no dependence in VIEW or OPEN. The display is redrawn. If there are no objects present, fit will expand the window to the maximum size permitted or the whole "universe". See DRAW and UNIVERSE. Flp FLP flips objects. Flipping in either X or Y determined by a 2-point cursor input. The larger dimension of the cursor input determines the flip axis. The cursor will show the approximate flip axis. Boxes flip if ALL sides are active. ALL vertices of a path flip if ANY vertex is active. 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. See ROT. Fput FPUT (full put) makes boxes and paths fully inactive. This is the inverse of FGET. A box is made fully inactive if ANY side is made inactive. A path is made fully inactive if ANY single vertex is made inactive. Use this command to make fully inactive an object when only a part of the object is accessible. FPUT may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F5> key. Full FULL removes cells from being drawn as an outline. Only active cells are changed. Cells are redrawn fully as inactive. See 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. When made active: Box sides turn bright white. Vertices are marked and segments of paths that will move as a unit turn bright white. GET may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F2> key. Grid GRID toggles the dot grid on and off. The menu button intensifies to indicate that the grid is on. See SET and DGRD. Hcpy HCPY expands the screen and calls a bitmap program that runs as a child process and makes a bitmap of the screen. Any bitmap program is installed by including its name as the FORM "hcopy=" parameter in the FORM.DBD file. Presently there are 10 hardcopy programs in the \LASI directory: BWEGA.COM makes a black and white copy of the screen in a 60 dot per inch standard IBM (or Epson FX) format, using "standard" control codes. HBWEGA.COM makes a heavy copy of the screen in black an white. It duplicates the pixels both horizontally and vertically to give a more solid line. This takes about 4 times more time as BWEGA.COM. BWEGALQ.COM which is the same as BWEGA.COM but is to be used with Epson LQ type printers that have a 1/180 inch line step. HBWEGALQ.COM which is the same as HBWEGA.COM but is to be used with Epson LQ type printers that have a 1/180 inch line step. COEGA.COM makes a color copy of the screen on an Epson JX-80, EX-800 or other printer that uses the same codes. HCOEGA.COM makes a heavy copy of the screen in color. It duplicates the pixels both horizontally and vertically to give a more solid line. This takes about 4 times more time as COEGA.COM. LJEGA.COM makes a black and white copy on a LaserJet or DeskJet Printer. The bitmap is produced at 75 dots/in. In order to preserve the aspect ratio with EGA, periodically dots are duplicated horizontally. LJFILE.COM is similar to LJEGA.COM but produces a file in LaserJet printer format. This is useful if you want to send hardcopies in a batch to a LaserJet printer. FXFAX.COM is similar to BWEGA.COM but dumps to LPT3 which is usually used by an Intel SatisFAXion board for pop-up faxing. With this program and a SatisFAXion board you can send faxes of your screen directly. FXFILE.COM is similar to BWEGA.COM but produces a file in the Epson FX printer format. You can dump the bitmap to a file and build single or multiple sheet fax files for transmission using a SatisFAXion board. The program will ask for the name of the bitmap file to be generated. When HCPY is called the screen will redraw to full size. The system will wait for a key to be hit: ∙ Hit <enter> if you want to add the name, date and time to the screen and start a hardcopy. ∙ Hit <ctrl><enter> if you want to make a hardcopy of the screen without the name, date and time. ∙ Hit <esc> anytime if you want to abort hardcopying. Iden IDEN identifies an active object. Objects are taken in the order: box/path/cell. Only the first active object found is reported. For a box, the layer is shown. For a path, the layer and the width are shown. For a cell, the name, position and orientation are shown. No active object gives a parts count of the current cell. See SHOW. Join JOIN connects two paths head to tail to form a new single path. This command works only if there are exactly two active vertices which are the end and beginning of two different paths. It will not work on the same path to close its ends. If the active vertices are beginning and end but are not at the same location, a segment will be added. If a segment is added then both vertices will remain active. If the vertices are at the same point, one of the vertices will be deleted and the remaining vertex will remain active. Use this command to condense paths to reduce data, and to make closed poly constructions out of poly segments. Kill KILL removes a cell from the drawing Cells are removed from the drawing cell collection. KILLed cells are removed from any other cells. The cell internal files at the DOS system level are erased. Important: If you expect to KILL cells often, it is recommended that you keep an archive of your cells using the TLC Utility Program. This is the only way that you can recover a cell KILLed accidentally. Layr LAYR sets the layer of boxes or paths to be ADDed. If the value entered is not 1 through 32, the command will abort. See 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. Hitting <esc> or clicking the right mouse button will step to the next page or will exit to the present mode. Hint: LIST is the fastest way to change from cell to cell because you don't have to type or even precisely remember a cellname. Make MAKE makes a cell from the active cells, boxes and paths. Boxes and paths are copied if ANY part is active. The rank will be one higher than the highest rank of any cells. The name must not already be in the cell collection. If it is, the prompt will be reasked. No name at all will abort MAKE. When MAKE makes a new cell it first determines the outline of the current cell on which you are working. It then uses this outline as the outline of the new cell. It also uses the current origin as the origin of the new cell. Normally, you will enter into Cell Mode with the new cell and reposition the origin with the ORIG command. When Cell Mode is then exited the correct outline will be recalculated. Hint: When MAKE is used to create a new cell, its name is at the end of the cell list. Use LIST to go to the new cell to make any changes. Mov MOV moves the active sides of boxes, active vertices, and active cells. The distance is determined from a 2-point cursor input. The cursor will show the approximate move. MOVs are always done in multiples of the working grid, unless you hit the <esc> key to switch to the unit grid. MOV accepts a single PKE entry. MOV may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F8> key. 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 and paths are "basic" objects while cells are compound objects. Generally, there are different commands for these different types of objects. Octo OCTO is a toggle that changes to octagonal mode on certain commands. The menu button intensifies to indicate that octagonal mode is on. When on, the commands ADD (for paths), MOV, WMOV, QMOV and CPY perform their functions to the nearest 45 deg. of any cursor displacement inputs. The larger component of the displacement is always taken as the dominant component and the other component is taken as equal or zero depending on the displacement angle. This command is used to restrict drawing so that only 45 and 90 degree angles are present to preserve drawing neatness and to conform to physical artwork generation requirements. Open OPEN sets the layers that can have their boxes and paths made active. Boxes and paths that are not OPENed are blocked from the GET, FGET, WMOV, QMOV, PBEG and PEND commands. VIEW, OPEN and DASH accept layer inputs that can be single layers in any order, or a dash (-) can be used to indicate all inclusive layers between the end layers. A dash alone will give all layers from 1 to 32. Orig ORIG relocates the coordinates of all objects in a drawing so that the single cursor input point is the 0,0 position. This allows objects to be constructed almost anywhere on the drawing area and then be repositioned as desired. The working grid is the default grid, but may be changed to the unit grid with the <esc> key. PKE coordinate entry can also be used with this command. Outl OUTL sets cells to draw as an outline. Only active cells are changed. Cells are redrawn as inactive outlines. An inactive cell in the outline state will be drawn as a white rectangle the size of the cell's outline. An active cell in the outline state will be drawn in bright white and filled with dots. If you are not working on a certain area of a drawing you can greatly speed up the overall redraw by setting the cells in that area to outline. When a cell is set to outline, retrieval of the cell's files from a disk is unnecessary. See FULL. Pbeg PBEG makes the first vertex of a path active. This command works if ANY vertex of a path falls within the rectangular cursor window. This command is useful when the JOIN command is being used. See 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. See PBEG. Plot PLOT calls the plotting program. A plot will be made of the last cell as it was shown in the drawing window. The drawing window center and width and the cellname are passed to the plotting program. The plotting program is named in the FORM table. See the FORM topic. The only present plotting program is LASI2HP.EXE. It is possible that you will not have enough contiguous memory available to run a plot program. This is because DOS does not condense memory when called for a child process, which is how a plot program is run from LASI. If this happens, either buy more memory, rearrange your memory usage or reduce the amount of memory used by LASI in the "box=", "path=", "vtx=" and "cell=" FORM parameters. If this fails, run the plotting program by itself. Read LASI2HP.HLP for how to do this. Prev PREV reverses the order of the vertices in a path. A path must have at least one active vertex. Reversing the order allows vertices to be added to either the beginning or end of a path. It also allows paths to be JOINed properly. Psiz PSIZ changes the size of a path while still preserving its shape. The multiplier is 1 for no change, and can be any number that will not cause the path to overflow the drawing area. The geometric center of the path is kept constant. If a small path is resized or if it is made too small, it may change shape due to the limited resolution of the unit grid. PSIZ acts on paths that have ANY vertex active. Use PSIZ to make different sizes of complex polygon figures such as symbols or lettering. Ptxt PTXT causes the text generator to be called. You will be asked for the following: The reference point, a single cursor input point, which is the lower left corner of the character field where the first text character is to be placed. The text size, which is the physical size to which you want the character field to be scaled. The spacing, which is the physical size of the step between character fields. The text string terminated by <enter>. The string of text should appear in the drawing made from path objects. The layer and width of the path objects will be taken from the current LAYR and WDTH settings. See the MAKETXT.HLP file for more information. Put PUT makes single parts of boxes and paths inactive. This is the inverse of GET. PUT may be called on a onetime basis by hitting the <F3> key. Qmov QMOV (quick move) functions like the sequence GET, MOV, PUT. The command works on box sides that pass through the cursor window, and on vertices that are enclosed by the cursor window. Box and path layers must be VIEWed and OPENed. The move part of this command accepts a single PKE entry. QMOV is useful for making small vertex movements and small box side movements when the path or box is only partly accessable. Quit QUIT exits from the LASI drawing system to DOS. All current information about the drawing is saved on the hard disk in the drawing directory. The drawing may be reentered by running LASI.EXE again. However, the cells that may have been stored on a RAM disk will be unknown to LASI and will have to be relearned by drawing them once. Renam RENAM changes the name of a cell. Cellnames must conform to DOS filename rules. This command will not work if the new name is the name of a cell file that already exists in the directory or is a reserved name such as "b" or "p". This is useful when you KILL a cell and want to replace it with another cell that is to have the original cell's name. Res RES calls the resistance calculator. You will be prompted for the sheet resistance first. Resistance MAY NOT be entered in exponental form. At the "<-->" command prompt the width of the resistor must be measured by a 2-point cursor input or a PKE distance entry. At the command prompt "R-->", You can then calculate resistance by making cursor distance measurements along the length of the resistor. The incremental resistance will be readout along with the sum of the previous amounts of resistance. A resistor can be measured by summing each of its segments, measuring a corner as half its length. To end measuring, click the mouse on any menu button except the window commands or hit any key except <z> and <sp>. This command can be used as a ratio parameter calculator. For example, to measure a MOS gate size, set the sheet resistance to 1. Measure the gate width as the resistor width and the gate length as the resistor length. Rdrw RDRW is the same as DRAW except that layers are drawn in reverse decending order. The drawing order rules for lesser cells of DRAW apply to RDRW. This command is useful if you want to overlay fills so that objects that would normally be covered by objects on higher layers remain visible. See DRAW. Rot ROT rotates objects. Rotation is around a single cursor input point. Boxes 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. 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. See FLP. Rstr RSTR restores drawing window. The windows are numbered 1-9. The window should have been previously saved using the SAVE command. The saved window is immediately redrawn. Only the keys 1-9 will execute the command, otherwise the window number will be reasked. Note: RSTR has a last window feature. Reclicking the right mouse button or hitting <esc> will cause the previous window to be restored. Save SAVE saves a drawing window. The window is numbered 1-9. Only the keys 1-9 are acceptable window numbers, otherwise, the window number will be reasked. No <enter> is necessary. The windows saved are global, that is they are independent of the Cell Mode rank that you are in. The windows are stored when you leave LASI and are restored when you reenter the drawing. Scale SCALE is used to set the name of the physical scale units of the drawing and the number of basic units per physical unit. The physical units can be anything, but for integrated circuits "um" and "mil" are preferred because some utility programs use these units. The number of basic units per physical unit will usually be an integer greater than 1, but fractional scales are permitted. The scale that is set by this command really only relates the basic units in which a drawing is internally done to the inputs that you give to certain questions and to dimensions that you see externally. All inputs and outputs are converted by the scale to and from basic units. When setting up a scale, you should determine the maximum size that your drawing could be and then set your scale so that the maximum number of basic units (65536) is slightly larger than that size. For example, a typical integrated circuit will fit in 16 mm, which would result from using a scale of 4 basic units/micron, or .25um drawing resolution. Set SET allows you to change certain parameters and the actions of certain commands. Presently 3 parameters can be set: 1. SET sets the resolution of the drawing in (screen width/size of figure) units. ∙ Boxes are not drawn if both dimensions are less than the resolution. ∙ Paths or poly are not drawn if the distance from the minimum vertex to the maximum vertex in both dimensions is less than the resolution. ∙ Paths are drawn without width if their width is less than the resolution. ∙ The dot grid is not draw if it is less than the resolution. ∙ Normally, resolution of 100 is about right. 2. 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. 3. The size of the working grids in physical units can be set. You must enter all the grids, but hitting <enter> keeps the default value in the parentheses. Show SHOW gives information about an object. In System Mode, SHOW gives a listing of the named cell's lesser cells and the number of boxes and paths 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 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. Hit <esc> or click the right mouse button to continue or exit from SHOW. Smsh SMSH smashes any active cells into their component objects (boxes, paths and lesser cells) and adds them to the cell being worked. The original active cells are deleted. Cells are smashed down one rank at a time. You may have to do multiple smashes if you want to reduce higher rank cells to boxes and paths only. If you try to SMSH a cell that will cause any of your cell object limits set under FORM to be exceeded, the cell will not be smashed but will remain as an intact active cell. You will get a message for each cell that cannot be smashed and the smashing will pause. Hit <esc> or click the right mouse button to continue smashing at the next cell. This can be a dangerous command. Sort SORT sorts the drawing. Boxes and paths are sorted in ascending order of their layers and their Y-position. Cells are sorted according to their Y-position and their order in the master CELLS.DBD file. Sequential vertices with the same coordinates are deleted. Boxes which have two or more sides superimposed are deleted. Files of the cell being worked are updated on the hard disk. The backup files SORTBKUP.BPV and SORTBKUP.CEL are updated on the hard disk. These may be used to restore the cell if the ABRT command is used. This allows you to "undo" what was done after the last SORT. Sorting should be done periodically while working on a drawing. Step STEP steps active objects into an Nx by Ny two dimensional array. Spacing is determined by a 2-point cursor input displacement Dx,Dy. 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. The Dx,Dy part of this command accepts a single PKE entry. Important: 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. Sys SYS exits directly from Cell Mode to System Mode. All active objects are made inactive. The current cell is saved on the hard disk in the drawing directory. Any cells that may have been put on a RAM disk remain known to LASI when you go to System Mode. You lose these only when you QUIT. TLC In TLC Out TLC IN and TLC OUT are commands that call the TLC.EXE program which converts internal cell data TO and FROM transportable (TLC) format. "In" means convert TLC files FROM some source TO internal form in your present drawing. "Out" means dump FROM internal form in your present drawing TO some destination in TLC format. Normally TLC files are put on a floppy disk. This lets you keep your drawing on floppy disk, and then load and save that drawing or individual cells as needed. It is also recommended that you keep drawing backups this way. With either command, the default source or destination disk drive is the floppy drive that is in the "fdisk=" parameter in the FORM.DBD file. Any acceptable drive or path may be entered in place of that drive. If you want to refer to TLC files in the current drawing directory enter a period "." to the drive question. You may specify up to 10 Cell Names separated by spaces. TLC OUT without any Cell Name(s) dumps to the destination disk ALL drawing cells as TLC files along with the CELLS.REF file. TLC IN without any Cell Name(s) retrieves ALL cells by reading the CELLS.REF file on the Source disk and translating TLC files into internal file form (.BPV & .CEL files). These commands have considerable power since you can also specify the name of any system disk device as the source or destination. You can also give a path as part the disk specification, so that cell files can be TAKEN FROM or SENT TO other directories other than your drawing directory. Unless you are familiar with the use of DOS paths and remember just where you put things, you can also get into trouble this way. TLC must be used if you add a cell to your drawing that was not created within the drawing. Cells from other drawings that need to be imported must be installed using TLC. The reason for this is that LASI uses pointers in its internal files to save space. The cell references for cells within other cells may be incorrect, unless correctly installed by TLC. As an example of how TLC would be used, suppose that someone sends you cell files made using TLC on a floppy disk. A certain cell is to be added to the drawing that you have. The floppy disk should have the TLC file of that cell and the TLC files of any cells that the cell might contain, if they are not already in your drawing. By using TLC IN and specifying the cell name, that cell will be automatically installed from the floppy disk along with any lesser cells that don't already exist. Similarly, if you want to send cells to someone else, you would use TLC OUT to a floppy disk destination, naming the cells that you want to export. TLC will make all lesser cells if you want it to. This cell interchange is very useful if you keep cell archives in TLC form on a local area network. Note: These commands really only call TLC.EXE as a child process from LASI.EXE. It is possible that you might run out of memory when using these commands. If that happens, you must run TLC.EXE alone in memory. See the file TLC.HLP for instructions on running TLC.EXE. View VIEW sets the layers that will be drawn on the display. Boxes and paths that are not VIEWed are blocked from the GET, FGET, WMOV, QMOV, PBEG and PEND commands. VIEW, OPEN and DASH accept layer inputs that can be single layers in any order, or a dash (-) can be used to indicate all inclusive layers between the end layers. A dash alone will give all layers from 1 to 32. See 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. See CWTH. Wget WGET (window get) is a combination of GET and CGET. Cells, boxes and paths are affected the same way as those commands. It is useful if you want to activate a number of objects of different types to do some operation on all of them simultaneously. WGET is useful if you are MOVing large sections of a drawing because you can see just which object are active before the operation. WGET makes active single sides of boxes and single vertices of paths, which are then pulled with active cells when MOVing is done. 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. See SET. Wmov WMOV (window move) moves the sides of boxes or vertices of paths enclosed within a rectangular cursor window. The first two cursor points form the cursor window. The next two cursor points determine the distance to be moved. A box side must be completely enclosed by the cursor window. Box and path layers must be VIEWed and OPENed. Cells are also moved, but only if the cursor window completely encloses the cell's outline. The move part of this command accepts a single PKE entry. WMOV is useful for stretching 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". See DRAW and UNIVERSE. Zoom ZOOM reduces the drawing window size. The new size will be the best fit of the rectangular cursor window formed by a 2-point cursor input. The display is redrawn. ZOOM works over a 1000:1 range. Hint: To ZOOM to a minimum window at a certain position, click the mouse on that same position twice. This will zoom to the default minimum window size centered at the cursor position. See DRAW.