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User guide

Running

  • Native application: cargo run -p reticle-app --release.
  • Browser demo: just web-serve, then open the printed local URL in a WebGPU-capable browser (current Chrome or Edge). Where WebGPU is unavailable the demo falls back to WebGL2 with a notice.
  • Collaboration relay: cargo run -p reticle-server --release, then point two application instances at it to edit together.
  • Headless pipeline: cargo run -p reticle-cli --release -- --help lists the import, DRC, route, extract, export, and render-to-image commands.
  • Generate a layout: just gen-layout 1000000 8 3 scratch/gen.rgds writes a deterministic chip-like layout with the given shape count, layer count, and hierarchy depth to browse or benchmark.

Editing

The application is a CAD-style editor: pan and zoom the canvas, select and measure, and draw shapes on the active layer. A command palette exposes every action and its rebindable shortcut. The layer manager toggles visibility and style, selection filters and a query bar narrow what you are working on, and rulers, a grid, snap, and guides keep edits on-grid. Multiple viewports show different parts of the design at once.

Sessions are saved and restored, autosave and crash recovery protect in-progress work, and an undo-history panel lets you step through and jump within the edit history.

On a touch device (a phone that opened a shared link, or a tablet), the canvas navigates by touch: a two-finger pinch zooms, anchored at the point between your fingers so what you are pinching stays put, and a two-finger drag pans. A single-finger drag pans when the Pan tool is active. The gesture math is a pure camera helper with the zoom-anchoring invariant unit-tested, so the world point under the pinch centroid stays fixed as the zoom changes.

Checking and routing

Run the design-rule checker to populate the violation overlay, and use the error browser to zoom to each violation in turn. Route selected nets, and inspect the congestion and length report. Highlight a net to trace its connectivity across the layout.