GdsII.Cli 1.1.0

gds

A command-line tool for GDSII, OASIS and DXF layout files: look inside one, check it, convert between them, name its layers from a layermap, run booleans over them, and export an SVG or a 3D model.

dotnet tool install -g GdsII.Cli
gds info cell.gds

Cross-platform, no native dependency — the same command on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Commands

Every command reads all three formats, told apart by what the file starts with rather than by what it is called — so a .oas mailed as .gds still opens. convert is only needed to write a different one.

gds convert cell.gds -o cell.oas          # the name picks the format, or --to gds|oas|dxf
gds boolean cell.gds --op and --a 66/20 --b 65/20 --into 100/0 -o gate.gds
gds model cell.gds -o cell.glb --layers 67,68,69
gds dump cell.gds | gds build - -o roundtripped.gds

A path of - is standard input, so the record dump round-trips through a pipe. A layer is written the way gds layers prints it, and in --layers / --hide a bare number means every data type on it.

Naming the layers

Nothing in a layout file says that 65/20 is diffusion, so --layermap <file> takes a CSV that does — the same file the web viewer's Import button takes:

gds layers cell.gds --write-layermap starting-point.csv   # this file's layers, as a mapping to edit
gds layers cell.gds --layermap sky130.csv                 # named, not numbered
gds svg cell.gds --layermap sky130.csv -o cell.svg        # its real colors and fills
gds model cell.gds --layermap sky130.csv -o wafer.glb     # its real process stack

layer,datatype,name,color,height,thickness,role,fill,patterncolor,patternsize, everything past the third column optional. A layer the mapping placed keeps its own height, and --spacing opens a gap on top of wherever each layer already rests — nought by default, so the model comes out at the process stack the mapping describes. Raise it to pull the layers apart and see between them.

Two things worth knowing

gds model is unusual. A layout to STL, OBJ or GLTF from a console, with each layer at its own height and thickness. Nothing else on NuGet does it, and the geometry is merged per layer first so the result is a manifold solid rather than a pile of overlapping slabs a slicer refuses.

convert keeps the hierarchy. Cells stay cells and placements stay placements, which is the whole reason to write OASIS rather than GDSII. boolean and size flatten, because the operation needs it.

Exit codes: 0 fine, 1 the command line was wrong, 2 the file was. gds --help has the rest, and the full guide is docs/CLI.md.

License

Public domain — The Unlicense. The tool bundles a few components that keep their own permissive terms; see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md in the package.

Source, documentation and a browser-based viewer built on the same library: github.com/EECSB/GDSViewer