PPLOT --- CAD program for printing integrated circuits in .cif format ______________________________________________________________________ "pplot" is a program which was originally written as a nice printer interface to the Berkeley tools "magic" (now in version 6.4). It appears to have grown out of the less-evolved "cifplot" (original program which came with the Berkeley tools) and "cif2ps" (a slight update on the original). "pplot" attempts to make a plot which is uncluttered and easy to interpret. It does this by using a search algorithm to find the edges of each CIF layer, and then renders the entire layer at once, drawing a border around it. The result is much more coherent than the usual plot method of drawing each CIF rectangle as it appears in the CIF output. I have made a number of updates on pplot in the past few years (1991-1994). These include: 1) A robust CIF parser routine which accepts much, much more than the limited CIF output of "magic" 2) Improved layer patterns which make viewing on a printer much easier 3) A color interface for printing on color printers (see below) 4) Debugged PostScript header 5) Encapsulated PostScript capability ______________________________________________________________________ INSTALLATION ------------ 1) Edit Imakefile and make sure that the directory names are set properly for your system (e.g., CAD_LIB_DIR = ~cad/lib/pplot/). Check that the printer spooler type ("lp" for SysV systems, "lpr" for BSD systems) is set correctly for your system. Check the other definitions; you probably won't need to change any of them. 2) Do, in the following order: xmkmf make export make depend make 3) Install the programs using make install This should install the binaries, scripts, and the library files. Use make clean to clean up the directories after everything is installed. 4) Find a CIF file and test it out. NON-POSTSCRIPT PRINTER OPTIONS ------------------------------ Since the advent of the cheap color inkjet printer, color printing has become an option for many people. Color PostScript is not an option on the cheaper models of these printers (yet). However, it is true that if you have Ghostscript on your system, you can set up a large number of color printers to take color PostScript. You will need the latest version of Ghostscript, and take care when editing the configuration file to include the device drivers for the color printer which you have. For example, I have an HP-560C color printer, so I edited "unix-gcc.mak" and set DEVICE_DEVS=x11.dev cdj550.dev this gives me access to GhostScript output in X11 (the default), plus the HP color deskjet 550 (same driver as for the 560). A number of other printer types are available, such as laserjet.dev, and so forth. Compile ghostscript with these device drivers installed. Option 1) look at the shell script "cifplot-color2". This can be set up to run ghostscript on the file and create a new output file in .hpl, which is a binary file that can be lpr'd directly to the printer. Option 2) set up your /etc/printcap file such that the entry for your printer uses an input file running a shell script which in turn runs ghostscript. For instance, I have my printer attached to prokofiev.ece.jhu.edu. The /etc/printcap file for that machine contains the following entry: cps|colorps:\ :lf=/var/spool/dj560c/log:\ :lp=/dev/lpt0:\ :mx#0:\ :sd=/var/spool/dj560c:\ :if=/var/spool/dj560c/ps2pcl:\ :sh: The shell script /var/spool/dj560c/ps2pcl looks like the following (don't forget to give it executable permission): #!/bin/csh -f /usr/bin/gs -q -sDEVICE=cdj550 -sOUTPUTFILE=- -sBitsPerPixel=32 \ -dDepletion=1 - Consequently, when I type "lpr -Pcolorps chip1.ps" to plot the color image of my chip, the lpr command runs it first through the filter, which executes ghostscript and creates the HP-compatible binary. Instant PostScript printer, no extra cost! ______________________________________________________________________