Rely on LinkCAD
Convert mask or PCB layouts between DXF, Gerber RS-274X, GDSII, CIF, PDF, PostScript, SVG, PNG and many other formats.
Thousands of VLSI, MEMS and PCB engineers rely on LinkCAD to convert, view and transform their designs, all with a single program !
LinkCAD is the most robust and powerful CAD translator available and supports a wide range of file formats. It features a very intuitive user interface, which guides you through each step of the conversion process.
Convert
Convert between any of the supported file formats.
File Formats
GDSII
GDSII is the de-facto industry standard for mask drawing and layout design. GDSII is a binary format that is platform independent, because it uses internally defined formats for its data types.
DXF
The Drawing Interchange Format (DXF) enables the interchange of drawings between AutoCAD® and other programs. DXF files can be either ASCII or binary formats.
LinkCAD is compatible with all versions of the DXF format and has full support for REGION entities.
Gerber RS-274X (Gerber Option)
Gerber RS-274X is the most commonly used format for photo-plotting applications.
LinkCAD has full support for aperture macros and layer polarity in Gerber RS-274X files.
PDF and PostScript®
PDF and PostScript®/EPS are the industry standard for sending documents to high-resolution printers.
LinkCAD's PostScript compatible export has been optimized for producing low-cost masks using high-resolution laser printers. The PostScript export can also be used to print your layout for documentation purposes.
LinkCAD relies on two external tools to import PostScript: pstoedit and Ghostscript. These tools are distributed under the GNU General Public License. We distribute a setup program that installs both tools, but you can use your own versions of these tools, as long as they exhibit the same command line interface.
CIF
CIF is mostly used at universities for mask drawing and layout design. LinkCAD is the only program to import and export all known variations of CIF.
LinkCAD supports an extension to the CIF format, called Cle CIF2.0+. These are special instructions that add donuts and symbol scaling to CIF. Cle CIF2.0+ is only used by the CLE layout editor on the DOS and Windows platforms (WieWeb Software, Borne, The Netherlands).
GDS-TXT (GDS-TXT option)
GDS-TXT is a human-readable version of the GDSII file format. It is not meant for exchanging CAD data with other programs, but it allows you to write the drawing data in text form. GDS-TXT files can be opened and edited with a text editor, and the result can be read back into LinkCAD.
Bitmap Image Files
When dealing with graphic images, there are two types: either bitmap, or more correctly raster, and vector. Vector images refer to images that are made up of lines that are described mathematically. Raster images, on the other hand, are made up of a grid of dots, or pixels, each containing color information.
CAD software uses vector based image formats, such as DXF, GDSII or CIF. LinkCAD can import raster image files, such as your company logo or a photograph, and convert it to vector format. Each pixel is translated into a square polygon, and adjacent polygons are merged.
LinkCAD supports both, import from and export to bitmap image formats PNG, JPEG, BMP or TIFF.
ACIS SAT (3D Modeler Option)
ACIS is a 3D solid and surface modeling library, published and marketed by Spatial Technology, Inc. It is used by a number of popular modeling programs as their primary modeling engine. The native file format of ACIS is called SAT and applications that incorporate ACIS can import and export it. ACIS data may also be embedded in DXF or DWG files. This is done by directly importing SAT files or by importing DXF or DWG files that contain ACIS entities.
LinkCAD extracts 2D planar geometries from 3D ACIS files.
Parasolid XT (3D Modeler Option)
Similar to ACIS SAT, Parasolid is a geometric modeling kernel originally developed by Shape Data Limited, now owned and developed by Siemens Digital Industries Software. It is used by a number of popular modeling programs as their primary modeling engine.
LinkCAD extracts 2D planar geometries from 3D X_T files.
STEP (3D Modeler Option)
STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Data) is a popular neutral 3D CAD file format that is interoperable among various CAD programs such as CATIA®, Creo®, SolidWorks®, NX®, Inventor®, and others.
LinkCAD extracts 2D planar geometries from 3D X_T files.
SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 1999.
SVG images are defined in a vector graphics format and stored in XML text files. SVG images can thus be scaled in size without loss of quality, and SVG files can be searched, indexed, scripted, and compressed. The XML text files can be created and edited with text editors or vector graphics editors, and are rendered by the most-used web browsers.
ASCII (Text) Data
LinkCAD supports a very simple text-based format for importing polygons. This allows you to quickly convert graphical data in tabular form into any of the supported file formats.
Zeland IE3D
The IE3D Format is a text file that defines the graphics for the IE3D 3D Electromagnetic Simulator by Zeland Software. The file structure does not support hierarchical levels and has a file extension of .GEO.
File Structure
Both two-dimensional and three dimensional polygons and interconnects (wires) are defined as X, Y & Z coordinates. Electrical attributes for the polygons and dielectric materials are defined in the file. Ports are also defined as well as grid structure, cell size and frequency range. When a file is transferred in or out of the IE3D format, all attributes are lost. This is not a problem, because they are easily added within the IE3D modeler or when exported, the attributes are not used.
Data Format
All geometries are defined as polygons with at least three vertices for each polygon. There are no limits to the number of vertices in a polygon. Layers are defined in the Z axis with an unlimited number of layers supported. Each vertex of a polygon has an X, Y & Z coordinate assigned and are on a separate line, which makes it quite easy to read with a text editor.
Compass Layout
Compass is a commercial VLSI design tool by Compass Design Automation. It uses .ly files as its native format to describe the design geometry in terms of symbols, symbol references and polygons.
Compass Layout uses one file per cell; a complex layout will therefore consist of several .ly files.
Sonnet Software
Sonnet Software provides commercial EDA software solutions for high-frequency RF/MW EM (Electromagnetic) analysis of:
LASI TLC
TLC is the file format used by the LASI layout editor, a free program distributed under the GNU General Public License. TLC uses one file per cell; a complex layout will therefore consist of several TLC files in one directory.
ANSYS ANF and ANSOFT ANF V4
Ansoft Neutral Format is used for finite element modelling. Ansoft was acquired by ANSYS™ and, therefore, the Ansoft Neutral file format is also known after that time as the ANSYS Neutral file format.
Modla
MODLA is a IBM internal CAD format.
Convert between any formats
LinkCAD supports a large number of CAD and image formats, and you can combine anyone of them!
View
Display the loaded drawings in the built-in CAD viewer, measure distances and highlight broken polylines.
LinkCAD View
At any time during the conversion process, you can switch to the optional CAD viewer with a single mouse click.
Use it to inspect the drawing, zoom, pan and measure distances.
Highlight and quickly identify broken polygons before having LinkCAD repair them automatically.
This universal CAD file viewer is extremely fast and even features hardware accelerated rendering.
Edit and Repair
Merge overlapping polygons, join adjacent wires, auto-detect holes, correct common design problems, fix self-intersecting polygons and more.
Automate
Convert multiple files in batch mode or integrate LinkCAD in your workflow using the command line.
Tools
Merge Overlapping Polygons
This tool merges overlapping polygons into one geometry. Merging overlapping areas prevents over-exposure when generating lithographic masks.
The tool optionally keeps the original polygon boundaries, only removing overlapping areas.
Convert wires, circles and donuts to polygon outlines
Use this tool to "explode" wires, circles and donuts into polygon outlines. This is a great tool to import complex drawings into software, which only supports polygon entities.
Convert Quasi-Circles to Circles
Quickly scan your drawings for circular polygons and turn them into "true" circles. This tool cleans up the file and even reduces its size.
Connect adjacent wire segments
If your software breaks wires into a series of adjacent line segments, use this tool to join them again. The extremely fast algorithm even allows you to specify the maximum distance between the endpoints of two neighboring line segments.
Auto-detect holes using polygon de-embedding
This tool detects and creates holes from overlapping areas. Whenever an even number of geometries overlap, a hole is punched in the surrounding area.
This is the perfect tool to draw ground planes on a PCB or to create negative text labels.
Merge, subtract or intersect layers
This standard tool performs boolean operations on any two drawing layers. The following operations are available: merge (OR), subtract, intersect (AND) and XOR.
FAQ
How to install the network license?
Introduction
The LinkCAD network license consists of two components:
When LinkCAD runs, and finds a network license file, it checks for the existence of the shared network folder. It then creates a runtime license in this folder, which will be removed when LinkCAD terminates.
Preparation
Installation
Can the floating network license be accessed by remote clients?
LinkCAD's floating network license allows up to 3 (network lite license) or 30 (full network license) users to run LinkCAD simultaneously.
All computers (clients) need to be on the same network. If a remote client is connected to the licensed network through a virtual private network (VPN) connection, and the shared network folder is reachable, it will be able to run LinkCAD.
How do I transfer the single user license to another computer?
Why is the converted file too large or too small?
If the converted file is too small or too large, and you are either converting from or to DXF, then the DXF units in the DXF Import/Export Options dialog are probably wrong.
DXF files, unlike Gerber or GDS-II, are unitless: a distance of e.g. 10 units may correspond to 10 microns, 10 inches, or even 10 meters. It is therefore very important that you specify the meaning of the DXF units in the DXF Import/Export Options dialogs in LinkCAD.
For instance, select microns if you want a distance of 1 to represent 1 micron in the DXF file.
This does not limit your drawing's resolution to one micron because DXF supports fractional units.
How LinkCAD locates fonts?
LinkCAD supports the SHX font format, which is also used by AutoCAD. TrueType fonts are not supported, because these are not optimized for CAD applications.
SHX fonts are located as follows:
If not found, it defaults to the font listed under Tools > Options... > Fonts, and as a last resort it uses the built-in TXT font.
LinkCAD also supports a font map file: this file must be named "lcad.fmp" and it must be in LinkCAD's Program Folder. The file has the following format:
fontname;mapped name
If, for instance, the map file contains the entry:
Helvetica;Arial.SHX
and LinkCAD encounters are request for the font "Arial", it will map it to "Arial.shx" and then look for this SHX font. The mapped font can also be scaled by appending a scaling factor, eg:
Helvetica;Arial.SHX;0.5
How to create filled areas?
Unlike AutoCAD, where you need to hatch areas to created filled surfaces, LinkCAD always fills all closed polygons.
If your areas are enclosed by a series of separate line segments, instead of a single polyline, you first need to connect these lines and close the polyline. LinkCAD can do that for you automatically: when you open such a file, a dialog "Repair Open Polygons" will appear. The first repair option joins such separate lines into a single closed polyline.
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