How to convert GDS file in to a readable file.

Ganesh,

The File->Export->Stream interface does allow the stream (GDS) file to be compressed - if you're talking about IC5141, then there's an option on the form:

In IC617 (for example) you just put .gz on the end of the filename. However, I suspect you're not using compression at all - because if  you pick "none" (or in IC617 don't use the .gz suffix) it won't be compressed. The stream file however is binary. It's not compressed - but you won't be able to read it as plain text. There's no such thing as ASCII (text) stream format. The closest you have in IC5141 is the "ASCII Dump" option on the form (this doesn't exist in IC617) but that won't be readable in any other tool.

So, to summarize, there's no such format as "readable GDS" - it's inherently a binary format.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Ganesh

You can convert a binary gds file back to ascii format using either of the following methods:

a. If you are using IC5141, I think there is already an option in the stream-out form to export the layout as an ascii file

b. Use a perl script together with gds2 module

c. Open the gds file using Cadence's gds viewer Quickview and export it as an ascii file


Best regards
Quek

haha, Andrew is still faster than me. : )

This time ;-)

However, those were good additional suggestions too, Quek!

Andrew.

Hi Andrew & Quek ,

Thanks for the suggestions.

As Andrew suspected it is a binary file for sure.So, I converted this in to ASCII file by using command base64.

It is converted as ASCII file. I checked it by using command file.

But after that I felt that it is also encrypted too.Because the text is still not readable.

So, can anyone tell me the wrong I did.

FYI I am using ICADV12.2.

Thanks,

Ganesh Doddipatla.

Ganesh,

I didn't suspect it was a binary file. It absolutely is a binary file. The precise format is described in Appendix A of the Design Data Translator's Reference (i.e. <ICinstDir>/doc/transrefOA/transrefOA.pdf if you want the PDF rather than using cdnshelp).

I have no idea why you think that using base64 would magically make a binary file readable. All it does is encode the input file to use an ASCII character set. It cannot make a structured binary file somehow readable. The data is not encrypted - it's just a binary representation that stores records for shapes, coordinates, structures and so on. 

As Quek suggested, the Quickview tool (k2_viewer) can read a stream (a.k.a. GDS) file and then you can use Tools->ASCII Export/Import to write it out to a readable text file. This produces a readable representation of the data that's in the file - for example (a partial dump):

// Dump of adc_interpolator.gds (262144 bytes)
// Width, extension and XY coordinates are divided by DBU Scale.
// DBU Scale: 2.000e+03
HEADER: 5 
BGNLIB: // At 6
    July 8 113 11:22:24, July 8 113 12:01:12
LIBNAME: opamp090
UNITS: 5.0000000000000001e-04, 5.0000000000000003e-10
BGNSTR: // At 66
    July 8 113 12:01:12, Jan 1 70 1:00:00
STRNAME: M2_M1_CDNS_373281272760
BOUNDARY: // At 122
LAYER: 8 
DATATYPE: 0 
XY:
     -0.0700, -0.0700
     0.0700, -0.0700
     0.0700, 0.0700
     -0.0700, 0.0700
     -0.0700, -0.0700
ENDEL
BOUNDARY: // At 186
LAYER: 7 
DATATYPE: 0 
XY:
     -0.1300, -0.1300
     0.1300, -0.1300
     0.1300, 0.1300
     -0.1300, 0.1300
     -0.1300, -0.1300
ENDEL
BOUNDARY: // At 250
LAYER: 9 
DATATYPE: 0 
XY:
     -0.1300, -0.1300
     0.1300, -0.1300
     0.1300, 0.1300
     -0.1300, 0.1300
     -0.1300, -0.1300
ENDEL
ENDSTR
BGNSTR: // At 318
    July 8 113 12:01:12, Jan 1 70 1:00:00
STRNAME: M2_M1_CDNS_373281272761
BOUNDARY: // At 374
LAYER: 8 
DATATYPE: 0 
XY:
     0.1000, 0.2700
     0.2400, 0.2700
     0.2400, 0.4100
     0.1000, 0.4100
     0.1000, 0.2700
ENDEL
...

As I said before, this is not a standardised format, and other tools will not read it. However, if you compare the record names in the append you'll see they match the contents of this ASCII dump.

Regards,

Andrew.