Two PhD students from the ICD group, Michiel Soer and Jasper Velner, have developed a 3D GDSII viewer. With this viewer it is possible to fly through the layout of an integrated circuit in 3D. This gives an excellent overview of the 3D structure of an IC, much better than the standard 2D that layout programs offer. It's a great help in visualizing the often very complex topology of integrated circuits that can contain up to 7 metal layers. The software is open-source; executables and source can be downloaded from Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gds3d/. The project was forked and will be continued on GitHub: https://github.com/icdut24/GDS3D
To see the viewer in action, watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EArOqNNSU