Python GUI for gds2palace

Install

pip install setupEM

Full documentation, installation guide, and usage walkthrough: https://github.com/VolkerMuehlhaus/setupEM

Recent changes

What's New - October 21, 2026

Tools > Simplify GDS: the simplification code moved to gds_prepare_for_EM (module gds_simplify_for_em), where the gds2palace MCP server uses it too. setupEM now requires gds_prepare_for_EM 1.6.0 or later; pip install --upgrade setupEM updates it.

Fix: with Merge via arrays (and no fill removal or merging per layer), the simplified file still contained the original subcells as extra top-level cells. Without a cell name, gds2palace reads the first top-level cell, which could be one of them, e.g. a pad cell instead of the design. These left-over cells are now removed.

What's New - October 19, 2026

Stackup Editor, ADS Momentum (*.ltd) import: metals with an EXPAND thickness operation now make the dielectric next to them thicker, as in ADS, instead of reaching into the dielectric below. Before, a thick EXPAND DOWN metal (e.g. MET1/MET2 in a GaAs stackup) overlapped the layers underneath it, and a via could end up with zero height. Files where long lines are wrapped or END_... markers follow the last entry on the same line now import too; before, they failed with "No usable dielectric slabs".

What's New - October 18, 2026

Touchstone files with different port impedances: the option line of the combined .sNp file now has one Z0 per port, in port order. Before, ports with the same Z0 as port 1 were left out.

Full history: CHANGES.md

Note: the setupEM PyPI package itself requires:

• gds2palace>=0.9.0
• gds_prepare_for_EM>=1.6.0
• PySide6
• shiboken6
• scipy
• requests
• scikit-rf
• matplotlib
• numpy
• gdspy
• meshio
• pyvista
• pyvistaqt

(Other Python modules mentioned above are only needed to run standalone helper scripts in this repository, not to use the installed package.)