Electric VLSI Design System User's Manual

Chapter 9: Tools

9-11: Compaction

The compaction tool squeezes layout down to minimal design-rule spacing. It does this by doing single-axis compaction, alternating horizontal and vertical directions until no further space can be found. Each pass of compaction squeezes either to the left or to the bottom of the circuit.

To compact, use the Do Compaction command (in menu Tool / Compaction).

The Compaction Preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "Tools" section, "Compaction" tab) can tell the compactor to expand the circuit if it is too close for the design rules.
For an example of compaction, open the Samples library and edit the cell "tool-Compaction" (you can read the library with the Sample Cells command, in menu Help / Load Built-in Libraries).
Be warned that the compaction tool is experimental and doesn't always achieve optimal results.
Figure 9.10

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