klayoutclaw:visual

KLayout Visual Capture

Save the current KLayout layout to a temporary GDS file, convert it to PNG, and return both file paths for visual inspection.

Prerequisites

• KLayout running with KlayoutClaw plugin (v0.3+)
• A layout with geometry must be open
• Python packages: gdstk, matplotlib, numpy (available in the instrMCPdev conda env)

Script

capture.py — Capture layout as PNG

python scripts/capture.py [--output path.png] [--gds path.gds] [--dpi 200]

• --output — PNG output path. If the user has a working directory or stack path, save there instead of /tmp.
• --gds — GDS output path. Same rule: prefer the user's working directory over /tmp.
• --dpi — Image resolution (default: 200)

Returns the paths to both the GDS and PNG files, printed to stdout.

Example:

python scripts/capture.py
# Output:
# GDS saved: /tmp/klayoutclaw_capture.gds
# PNG saved: /tmp/klayoutclaw_capture.png

How It Works

1. Calls save_layout via MCP to write the current layout to a temp GDS file
2. Runs tools/gds_to_image.py from the KlayoutClaw repo to convert GDS to PNG
3. Prints both file paths

The GDS-to-PNG conversion uses gdstk to parse the GDS and matplotlib to render all layers with distinct colors and a legend.

After Capture

Use the Read tool on the PNG path to view the image directly in the conversation. This gives immediate visual feedback on layout geometry.