gui

gui

cicpy gui opens a Qt viewer on a .cic file — the Python successor to ciccreator’s C++ cic-gui. Phase 1 ships a layout-only viewer; a side-by-side schematic pane is planned for Phase 2 (see gui_plan).

Install

PySide6 is an optional dependency, gated behind the gui extra:

pip install -e '.[gui]'

Run

cicpy gui path/to/CELL.cic

The tech file and dependency libraries are auto-discovered from the IP layout — no flags required for the common case.

Auto-discovery

• Tech file — walks up from CELL.cic looking for tech/cic/*.tech. Picks the first match.
• Dependency libraries — walks up to find the IP’s config.yaml, treats top-level keys with remote:/revision: entries as cicconf dependencies, and globs <workspace>/<dep>/design/*.cic for each. All discovered files are logged at INFO level on launch.
• Sibling cells — the selected .cic file’s directory is indexed for .cic/.cic.gz files. Sibling files are loaded only when the currently loaded design references a missing instance cell, so opening LELOTEMP_CCMP.cic can pull in LELOTEMP_CMP.cic without loading every sibling.

Overrides

cicpy gui CELL.cic --tech path/to/sky130A.tech \
                   --I extra_lib.cic \
                   --no-auto-libs

• --tech FILE — override auto-discovery.
• --I FILE (repeatable) — merge an extra .cic before opening (in addition to auto-discovered libs unless --no-auto-libs).
• --no-auto-libs — disable dependency-library auto-discovery.

Keybindings

Action	Binding
Fit cell to view	F
Zoom in	Z
Zoom out	Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on macOS)
Zoom to area	right-click drag
Pan	wheel, arrow keys
Toggle all layers	T
Toggle one layer	checkbox in layer list
Reload .cic	Shift+R (auto-reload also fires when the file changes on disk)
Descend hierarchy	click a schematic component, then E
Ascend hierarchy	Ctrl+E (Cmd+E on macOS)
Rerun spi2mag	Ctrl+R (Cmd+R on macOS) — runs make in the IP root by default

Ctrl/Cmd + wheel also zooms; Shift + wheel pans horizontally.

What’s in the window

• Cell list (top-left) — every cell in the loaded design + dependency libraries. Row change loads that cell into the layout pane.
• Layer list (middle-left) — every layer from the tech file. Pin layers and TXT are visible by default; non-pin implant layers default off. Each row has a color swatch icon and a checkbox for visibility. State persists across sessions per tech via QSettings.
• Route list (bottom-left) — routes in the selected cell. Each row is checkable, and entries prefixed with * touch or overlap another differently named route on the same layer. Same-name route contacts are not marked.
• Layout pane (middle) — the cell rendered into a QGraphicsScene. Y-flipped to match conventional layout view (Y grows up).
• Schematic pane (right) — the matching XSchem .sch for the selected cell, if one is found next to the .cic or in the IP / dependency design directories. Hidden when no schematic exists.
• Status bar — cursor coordinates (Ångström + µm for layout, raw grid units for schematic).

Rerunning spi2mag

Ctrl+R (or Run → Rerun spi2mag) shells out to make in the IP root (the directory containing config.yaml). Override either with --rerun-cmd and --rerun-cwd on the command line, or via Run → Set rerun command…. The CICPY_GUI_RERUN_CMD env var is also honoured.

Run → Auto-rerun on .py change (persistent in QSettings) watches the active cell’s pycell <CellName>.py and triggers a debounced rerun whenever it changes on disk. The new .cic is then auto-reloaded by the existing QFileSystemWatcher. The intended loop is:

1. Edit <CellName>.py (or the sidecar <CellName>.groups.yaml)
2. Save
3. GUI reruns spi2mag
4. GUI reloads the freshly-written .cic

Planning groups (Phase 4a)

Each cell can have a sidecar <CellName>.groups.yaml next to its .py describing planning groups — named subsets of instances. Membership can be enumerated explicitly (members:), pattern-matched (member_regex:), or net-driven (member_nets:); the resolver unions all three.

When any group is checked visible, both panes filter:

• Layout pane hides non-member top-level instances
• Schematic pane dims non-members to ~18% opacity (still legible context)

The bottom-left Groups panel manages them: New to create, right-click to rename / edit description / regex / members, Add selection to push the last-clicked schematic component (and its naming-convention peers) into the active group. The YAML is rewritten on every change.

cell: LELOTEMP_OTAN
groups:
  - name: bias_chain
    description: Output stage bias mirror
    visible: true
    members: [xn_mirr_bias1, xn_mirr_bias2]
    member_regex: ['^xn_mirr_bias\d+']

Phases 4b–4f layer route/placement intent into the same YAML, where it’ll be consumed by a cicpy.groups.apply() helper inside the pycell.

Pycell consumption (Phase 4d)

The pycell opts into the YAML-driven flow with one call:

import cicpy.groups as gp

def beforePlace(layout):
    # honours <CellName>.groups.yaml next to this .py file
    gp.apply(layout)

Each visible group with a placement.stack: true entry becomes a makeCellGroup(parent).addStack(name, ...) call. Members are taken from placement.instances_regex if set, otherwise from member_regex, otherwise from members (joined as an exact-match regex). Returns {group_name: stack_object} so the pycell can plug the result into addRouteConnection, etc.

cell: LELOTEMP_CMP
groups:
  - name: n_mirr_load
    visible: true
    members: [xn_mirr_load1, xn_mirr_load2, xn_mirr_load3]
    placement:
      stack: true
      parent: nmos        # CellGroup name; created on first reference

Cross-probing

Click a component in the schematic pane. The GUI parses the instance name (e.g. xn_mirr_load2 → group xn_mirr_load) and outlines every peer in both panes. The naming convention is x<kind>[_<gid>]_<role> — the cIcSpice::Component.group() regex captures the longest non-digit prefix.

E descends into the clicked component’s underlying cell (<symbol-basename> looked up in Design.cells). Ctrl+E pops the history stack to ascend.

Route labels and top-cell port labels are rendered as TXT text. Sub-circuit port labels are suppressed to avoid clutter; use the route list and top-level port labels for the first-level view.

Window geometry, splitter sizes, last-opened cell, and per-layer visibility are all persisted.