@User Does Openlane generate Magic GDS first, then KLayout GDS is a conversion from Magic?

Openlane generates DEF, and then uses magic to read the DEF and generate GDS.

So when is KLayout GDS generated? The GDS for KLayout is trash whereas for Magic it is as expected. KLayout properly views Magic GDS. I'm running v0.12 with the spm design.

I have no idea when/where/why openlane generates GDS from klayout. There is something about OASIS and an attempt to keep output file sizes down that might be implicated here, but I'm not familiar with what the method is or how it's implemented.

So KLayout it seems is an independent process associated directly with OpenRoad.

Klayout is an independent layout editor and has no association with OpenROAD. Openlane uses whatever open source tools are available to get the job done. So this is more likely an issue for the openlane developers.

I'm actually seeing this issue with SRAM macros when I recreate the storage macro from caravel. The SRAMs are huge, but appear right in the magic files.