bindkey to plot.il

Get the current time using: tm = timeToTm(stringToTime(getCurrentTime()))

Use tm ->?? to see what info is now available. From there is it easy to concatenate a time string using sprintf although you will need to add 1900 to the year and do some string manipulation to prefix your numbers with "0". Here's one example:

minutesString = substring(sprintf(nil, "%d", tm ->tm_min + 100), -2)

This works great. Thank you.  Now I just need to generate jpeg images from my .ps files.  I was going to create a script that would loop through all files in the folder and use ghostscript to convert the .ps files.  I would have to execute this script manually!  Is there a way (I imagine there is...) to get this done using SKILL immediately after each .ps file is plotted?  I have been playing with the system() command and will keep experimenting to get its correct syntax!! ...maybe that is the command I need?  ...is there somewhere that I can get a good SKILL command reference manual?  

The Skill language reference manual is what you need:

<install dir>\doc\sklangref\sklangref.pdf

Yes, you can use the system command. Here's a line from an old file that I have used in the past to convert ps to pdf using ghostscript:

system(strcat("\"C:/gs/gs8.14/bin/gswin32c.exe\" -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=", fileName, ".pdf -c save pop -f ", fileName, ".ps"))

 The postscript file gets generated correctly now and my ghostscript command can convert this file, but the system("gs...") command is executing before the file is completely saved and ghostscript reports a file error. So now I need to be able to detect that the postscript file has been completed before I continue with my ghostscript command...  any ideas?

Bit hard to know where your problem lays without seeing the code. If you can't post it here, I'd suggest contacting customer support (http://support.cadence.com)

Regards,

Andrew.

Dear thecalman.

I think I have something for you. To convert your picture you have the linux command 'convert' (imagemagick). Very usefull! I recommand to change the postscript option setlinwidth to 5 instead of 1. It gives a netter black line. You do not necessaryneed the full code underneath. May be just sprintf(nil "Your linux command %s" "ls ps pwd whatever") followed by (system cmd) will be enough for your need. You may have notice in the code that the line : while( isFile( filename=sprintf(nil "%s-%s-%s_%d.ps" cvId~>libName cvId~>cellName cvId~>viewName i)) i++)  prevent overwriting existing pics. 

Hope it help,

Regards.

 (procedure prettyPrint(@optional (imprimante "lprdcrv"))
let( (cmd cvId i pt filename eko)
cmd=sprintf(nil "if grep \"%s|\" ~/.cdsplotinit; then echo yes; else echo \"%s|default: :type=postscript2: :resolution#600: :maximumPages#30: :paperSize=\\\"A4\\\" 4810 6330 172 132:\n\" >> ~/.cdsplotinit; fi" imprimante imprimante)
(system cmd)
;; eko=sprintf(nil "%s" cmd)
eko=sprintf(nil "echo \"%s\"" imprimante)
(system eko)

cvId=geGetWindowCellView()
;schematic or symbol plot
if( member(cvId~>viewName list("schematic" "symbol")) then pt="sch" else pt="le" ) i=0;
while( isFile( filename=sprintf(nil "%s-%s-%s_%d.ps" cvId~>libName cvId~>cellName cvId~>viewName i)) i++)

;; set(concat(pt "PlotOptions") '(nil area "whole" plot "cellview" header nil plotToFile t plotterType "postscript2" papersize "A4"  display "display" tmpdir "/tmp" fit t center t orientation "automatic") )
set(concat(pt "PlotOptions") '(nil area "whole" plot "Viewing Area" header nil plotToFile t plotterType "postscript2" papersize "A4"  display "display" tmpdir "/tmp" center t orientation "automatic") )
eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->view=eval(cvId~>viewName)
eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->cell=eval(cvId~>cellName)
eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->library=eval(cvId~>libName)
; eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->bBox=cvId~>bBox
eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->viewlist=eval(cvId~>viewName)
eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->outputfile=filename
eval(concat(pt "PlotOptions"))->plotter=imprimante

; plot schematic or layout
;; schPlot() || lePlot()
; eval(concat(pt "Plot()"));<== ... does not work
evalstring(strcat(pt "Plot()"));<== yeah Works

cmd=sprintf(nil "convert -trim -rotate 90 %s %s.png" filename filename filename )
cmd=sprintf(nil "%s; cat %s |sed \"s/1 setlinewidth/5 setlinewidth/\">%s.sed.ps" cmd  filename filename )
cmd=sprintf(nil "%s; convert -trim -rotate 90 %s.sed.ps %s.png" cmd  filename filename )
cmd=sprintf(nil "%s; cat %s.sed.ps |sed \"s/lineBlue *exch def/lineBlue def/;s/lineRed *exch def/lineRed def/;s/lineGreen exch def/lineGreen def/;\"  > %s.sed_bw.ps" cmd  filename filename )
cmd=sprintf(nil "%s; convert -trim -rotate 90 %s.sed_bw.ps %s_bw.png" cmd  filename filename )
cmd=sprintf(nil "%s; rm %s.sed.ps" cmd  filename )
(system cmd)
eko=sprintf(nil "Following files had been created in %s :\n%s\n%s.sed_bw.ps\n%s.png\n%s_bw.png\n" pwd() filename filename filename filename)
printf("%s" eko)
eko=sprintf(nil "echo \"%s\"" eko)
(system eko)
);let
);proc

You can setup a spool entry in your .cdsplotinit to do everything in one step:

        :spool=ps2pdf13 - > /tmp/plot_${LOGNAME}.pdf ; (acroread /tmp/plot_${LOGNAME}.pdf &):

We use the above line to send the stdin as output by the plot command to ps2pdf13 (the dash tells this command to read stdin). This is redirected to a file using the environment variable called $LOGNAME in the filename. When finished, acroread is invoked to open the pdf file.

I tested this out and found that you can use setShellEnvVar("MYFILENAME=abc") before plotting. You can then use the MYFILENAME variable instead of LOGNAME in the spool line. This way you can dynamically change your file name in Cadence, plot to the printer with the spool line that automatically converts to jpg and wrap everything in a foreach loop to get it done.

I hope that helps.

Derek