25d View !new! - Klayout

Ensure you have selected a specific region of your layout. Rendering an entire multi-gigabyte GDS file in 3D can crash your system or fail to load. Use the "Crop" or "Visible Region Only" option.

Check your Z-scale modifier. Increase the value to amplify the heights. Also, verify that your layer thickness values are not set to zero.

Objects flicker or have gaps between them. Solution: This is "Z-fighting" (two layers at exactly the same height). Set a micro offset (e.g., Metal1 height 30, Via height 30.001). Alternatively, lower your screen's anti-aliasing settings. klayout 25d view

In MEMS design, use the 25D view to check if etched release channels will accidentally breach neighboring structural walls.

Unlike a true 3D viewer that might model complex process effects like etch tapers or doping profiles, KLayout's 2.5D view is strictly . It takes flat polygon layers and "pulls" them into the Z-dimension. Ensure you have selected a specific region of your layout

KLayout, the industry-standard open-source layout viewer and editor, bridges this gap through its powerful plugin. Often referred to as a "pseudo-3D" viewer, this feature extrudes 2D mask layers into 3D space based on user-defined height and thickness profiles.

Ensure your calculation of Z-start values accounts for previous layer thicknesses. For example, if Metal 1 is at with a thickness of , Via 1 should start at Conclusion Check your Z-scale modifier

For extremely large layouts (>10 GB GDSII), create a quick 25D view by first using Hierarchy > Flatten on selected cells, then reduce detail with Edit > Selection > Convert to polygons with a tolerance of 0.01 µm.