Python-Skill Bridge

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher[^1]
• pip
• IC 6.1.7 or ICADV/M or higher

[^1]: For Python 3.6 and Python 3.7 please install version 1.5.1 (pip install skillbridge==1.5.1)

Features

• Run Virtuoso's Skill functions from Python
• Automatically translate all Skill objects to Python
• Automatically translate Python numbers, booleans, strings, lists and dictionaries to Skill
• Retrieve Skill function documentation in Python
• Convenient tab-completion (+ jupyter support)
  • object attributes
  • global function list
  • methods

Read more in the full documentation.

Installation

pip install skillbridge

Add the --user option if you don't want to install it systemwide.

Before you can use the Skill bridge you must generate the function definitions from Virtuoso via the Skill console.

1. Type skillbridge path into your shell to acquire the correct PATH-TO-IPC-SERVER
2. Open Virtuoso
3. Type these commands into the Skill console
   • load("PATH-TO-IPC-SERVER")

After that you can also generate the static completion stub files. This is useful for code completion in certain IDEs (e.g. PyCharm)

• Type skillbridge generate into your shell.

Updating

In order to update the python package type this

pip install skillbridge --upgrade

Examples

Note: All these examples assume that the Skill server is running. You can start it by typing the following command into the Skill console.

load("PATH-TO-IPC-SERVER")
pyStartServer

Connecting to the server

from skillbridge import Workspace

ws = Workspace.open()

Accessing the currently open edit cell view

cell_view = ws.ge.get_edit_cell_view()

Inspecting available properties

>>> dir(cell_view)
['DBUPerUU', 'any_inst_count', 'area_boundaries', 'assoc_text_displays', 'b_box', ...]

or type cell_view.<TAB> in jupyter/ipython

Reading properties

>>> print(cell_view.b_box)
[[0, 10], [2, 8]]

Call any SKILL function

>>> ws['plus'](3, 4)
7

equivalent to:

(plus 3 4)