For Linux Computer (plain-text version) --

After you extract the package, the content should look like this:

First, please open the "cmd.sh" file. The content should look like this:

"time ./columba Input/rule.txt Input/kinase_activity/DAC18_case1.txt 5 30 30" is a template command to correctly run Columba (with the file name "columba"). There are 5 parameters in the command:

1. Design rule file ("Input/rule.txt" in the example), describing the minimum spacing distance between channels, flow channel width, and control channel width. We provide two template rule files "Input/rule.txt" and "Input/rule_large.txt" in the package, and you can also configure your own rule. Note that neither the width of the flow channel nor the width of the control channel can be larger than this minimum spacing distance.
2. Chip design file ("Input/kinase_activity/DAC18_case1.txt" in the example).
3. Time threshold for the first synthesis phase.
4. Time threshold for the second synthesis phase.
5. Time threshold for the third synthesis phase.

The following is the explanation for the format of the input. Basically, there are three parts in the input:

1. Module declaration.
2. Netlist.
3. Special demands.

Module declaration starts with the command "component:", so that the computer knows that the follows are the module declarations. The command for terminating declaration is "fin" (fin is also the general termination command). The following is an example for module declaration:

The following command is to transform the output of Columba into an AutoCAD script file. The executable file "outputtransform" takes two parameters. The first parameter is the output file of Columba ("result/result_p3.txt" in the example, which is the default path to store the final output of Columba). The second parameter indicates the path and the file name of the AutoCAD script file ("auto.scr" in the example).

You can run the template inputs by the command "./cmd.sh i", where i is an integer ranging from 1 to 14 and is used to select one of the 14 template inputs.

If you have your own design rule file "your_rule.txt" and chip design file "your_design.txt", you can type the following commands directly without running "cmd.sh"

1. time ./columba your_rule.txt your_design.txt phase1_time phase2_time phase3_time
2. ./outputtransform result/result_p3.txt auto.scr

Now, you can open AutoCAD and

1. Enter command "osnap". Turn off "Object Snap".
2. Enter command "script". Select the .scr file generated by Columba. The automatically-synthesized design should be available now!!