Mask layout viewer and editor for the chip design engineer.

KLayout Highlights

General

• Fast and accurate: fast loading and drawing
• Support of GDS and OASIS file formats with automatic uncompression of zlib compatible formats
• Full support of properties
• Full 64 bit support on Linux
• Extensible and configurable to a large degree by custom Ruby or Python scripts
• Integrated development environment for Ruby and Python scripts

Viewer

• Overlay capabilities: multiple layouts can be loaded into one window
• Very flexible layer configuration: many display options including choice of fill pattern and different frame and fill colors. Animation, transparency, dimming/highlighting...
• Layer grouping: the display properties of a group of layers can be changed at once
• Advanced layer display attributes: layers can be named, they can carry additional transformations, select certain hierarchy levels or select shapes by their properties
• Copy and paste of layers attributes to other panels
• Drawing order: select the layer that is show on top
• Descend into hierarchy: show a cell embedded into it's context
• Flexible rulers: unlimited count, flexible display styles. Multiple templates can be configured, rules can be edited (move, delete, copy & paste)
• Shape and instance browsers
• Bookmarks, various zoom modes, mouse wheel support, screenshot function...
• Undo/redo on layer properties, for rulers...
• Save: save layout or parts (cells, layers) of it to a different format, with scaling or different database unit.
• Image overlay capabilities: image files (i.e. jpg, png, gif) can be loaded and placed at an arbitrary position in the layout.
• Marker browser: certain error report files can be loaded and a browser tool is provided.
• Global transformation to flip/rotate image

Editor

• Smart drawing functions with many options: angle constraints, grid...
• True, in-place editing in subcells, variant building function
• Unlimited undo/redo
• Smart partial editing function to stretch shapes, move edges or vertices
• Copy and paste of shapes and whole cells, even to other layouts
• Many advanced editing functions: hierarchical operations, booleans, clip, corner rounding, sizing, alignment, layer operations...
• Support for external libraries dynamically bound to a layout
• Parametrizable cells (PCells)

Other Features

• A variety of useful utility functions: a XOR tool, a layout diff tool, a fill tool...
• A DRC feature with a basic set of verification and layer manipulation functions
• A LVS feature
• A powerful search and replace feature with a special query language
• A technology package manager
• An add-on package manager ("Salt")