[Magic-dev] Re: Magic7.3.107: GDS2 importation.

[R. Timothy Edwards]

Dear Simon,

> Also this was further confused by that the fact that when I typed
> "load tut3d", instead of "load TUT3D", I was getting the original
> file located at ~/usr/local/lib/magic/tutorial/ not the one I
> thought I should get.  Changing the tutorial file to tut_3d sorted
> it all out!

It has always seemed strange to me that the tutorial directory is
always tacked on to the search path.  I think that it would make
more sense (particularly with the Tcl/Tk version) if the tutorial
directory were removed from the search path, and instead, the
wrapper window should have some option menu button for "enable
tutorials".  That would mean that the tutorials are only accessible
when you want them, not when you don't.

By the way, as far as I'm aware, GDS is always case-sensitive.

> Interestingly, once you have done a "gds read filename1" followed by
> "load filename1" for the first of the gds files from LASI, subsequent
> ones load with just "gds read filename2"; you don't need to do the
> "load filename2"  step.

This probably is caused by the fact that Magic creates a cell with the
same name as the library name declared in the GDS file, and its
behavior is different based on whether or not such a cell exists.  The
creation of a cell with the same name as the library is, I think, a
mistake.  When reading GDS, Magic should detect files that it wrote
itself from the "creator" field of the GDS file header.

						---Tim

P.S.---Hope you don't mind me CC'ing this to magic-dev, since it
involves issues that many users are likely to encounter when dealing
with 3rd-party GDS files.

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