BOXIFY(LOCAL)

NAME
Boxify - General CIF to boxified CIF converter

SYNOPSIS
boxify [-s scalemultiplier scaledevider] [-n] [-N] cellname [-b] [-d] usercommand [-o] [-h] [-z]

DESCRIPTION
Boxify is a filter taking any CIF-file as standard input and generates a CIF-file containing only boxes as basic geometric figure on standard output. Non-manhatten (Bostonian) geometry is estimated with boxes. The quality of the estimation is determined by the resolution in the input geometry. To improve box-estimation the layout may be scaled with the -s switch. Remember boxes are specified by length, width and center-point while polygons are specified by edge-points. Additional features are: 1) ordering of symbols making definitions appear before calls, 2) separating hierarchy {symbols contains only calls or boxes, never both). These requirements should make any CIF-file loadable for simple box-shufflers like WoL. Both overlapping geometry and zero-area boxes are removed.

WARNING: This program should be used with care and understanding since quite serious changes are done to the CIF-code.

Boxify options are :

-s  scalemultiplier scaledevider
    is a scaling-factor applied to all points in the layout when writing the CIF-file. Does not affect scaling in DS.

-c  scalemultiplier scaledevider
    This is the scalefactor written in the DS-command. WOL likes -c 100 2.

-p  scalemultiplier scaledevider
    is a prescaling-factor applied to all points when reading. In this way box-approximation may be improved. For MOSIS design-rules at least -s 4 1 should be used.

-n  Cells are named with user-command: 9. Some editors (like WoL) requires named cells. The name will be generated as "Cell<number>" where <number> is generated by the program.

-N cellname
    Cells are named with user-command: 9. Some editors (like WoL) requires named cells. The name will be "cellname<number>".

-b  Multiplies all symbol-scaling to coordinates.

-d usercommand
    is used to remove special usercommands causing problems for your favorite layouteditor. This switch may be applied more than once.

-o  Normally coordinate-systems for cells are transformed to (0,0) in lower left corner. This switch preserves the original coordinate-system.

-z  With this switch zero-area boxes are dropped. Otherwise a warning is issued.

-h  Turns off separation of hierarcy including geometry in cells with calls to other cells.

examples:
For MOSIS design-rules the following command may be used.

boxify -p 4 1 -b -n -c 100 2 < scrules12.cif > scr12.cif

SEE ALSO
WoL-manuals, CIF-definition

AUTHO
Tor Sverre Lande, Dept. of Informatics,
University of Oslo, Norway
bassen@ifi.uio.no

BUGS

Sure, but let me know....