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--- kicad:using_arbitrary_spice_engines_in_kicad_5 [2018/09/09 07:34] – mithat
+++ kicad:using_arbitrary_spice_engines_in_kicad_5 [2018/10/17 15:30] – mithat
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Using Arbitrary SPICE Engines in KiCad 5 ======
-SPICE support in KiCad 5 has been significantly reworked to make it a better simulation platform. One casualty of this is that the OldWays no longer to work((At least not on my Debian sid system)), and I have a lot of simulations I set up under KiCad 4. In particular, when KiCad generates ''*cir'' files, it no longer prepends ''-PSPICE''/''-GNUCAP'' or appends ''+PSPICE''/''+GNUCAP'' text blocks found on your schematic to the file. But it does add a ''.title'' directive to the file that my simulator doesn't understand and chokes on.
+Simulation support in KiCad 5 has been significantly reworked to make it a better simulation platform. However, you might have a lot of SPICE projects that you created in KiCad 4, and reworking them to fit the way things work in KiCad 5 might be more work than you want to undertake. Also, you might be running KiCad on a Debian system, which (as of this writing) [[http://kicad-pcb.org/download/debian/#_build_from_source| doesn't have]] the new simulation support.
-So I hacked together a script that makes it relatively easy to convert KiCad 4 simulation setups to something that works in KiCad 5. I'm dumping the source code here for now but will probably be moving it to Git[lab|hub] soon.
+The UI bits for the OldWays((Open the //Generate netlist// dialog, click the //Spice// tab and then the //Run Simulator// button)) are still there in KiCad 5, but they no longer work the same way --- at least not on my Debian sid system. In particular, when KiCad generates ''*cir'' files, it no longer prepends ''-PSPICE''/''-GNUCAP'' nor appends ''+PSPICE''/''+GNUCAP'' text blocks found on the schematic to the file. But it does add a ''.title'' directive to the file that my simulator doesn't understand and chokes on.
-<code bash>
+So, I hacked together a bash script that makes it relatively easy to convert KiCad 4 simulations to something that works in KiCad 5. I'm dumping the source code here for now but may move it to Git[lab|hub] soon.
-#! /bin/bash
+<file bash simulate.sh>
+#!/bin/bash
 # (C) 2018 Mithat Konar https://mithatkonar.com
 # A scheme to use arbitrary SPICE simulators in Kicad 5.
 #
 # Usage:
 # * Put all the stuff to be prepended (e.g., -PSPICE stuff) in pre.cir.
-# * Put all the stuff to be appended  (e.g., +PSPICE stuff) in post.cir.
+# * Put all the stuff to be appended (e.g., +PSPICE stuff) in post.cir.
 # * In this script:
-#       * Set CIRCUITNAME to point to the .cir file Kicad 5 generates.
+#       * Set CIRCUITNAME to point to the .cir file KiCad 5 generates.
-#       * Set SPICE_ENGINE to your desired SPICE engine. (You'll need to
+#       * Set SPICE_ENGINE to your desired SPICE engine. (Hack the line
-#         hack the line where it's invoked to add command line
+#         where it's invoked to add any needed command line parameters.)
-#         parameters or if it's weird.)
+# * In the KiCad Netlist dialog's Spice tab, set the simulator to this
-# * Set the simulator in Kicad to this file using an absolute path.
+#   file using an absolute path.
-# * Run Simulator
+# * In the KiCad Netlist dialog's Spice tab, Run Simulator.
-### --- config ------------------------------------------------------- #
+# ----- config ---------------------------------------------------------
-# The name of the cir file to simulate with (w/o extension).
+# The name of the cir file to simulate with (w/o extension):
 CIRCUITNAME=opa-x5-spice
-# The SPICE engine you want to use.
+# The command for the SPICE engine you want to use:
 SPICE_ENGINE=spiceopus
-# -------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 ### constants
 CIRCUITFILE=${CIRCUITNAME}.cir
 CIRCUITFILE_CLEANED=${CIRCUITNAME}-cleaned.cir
 GENERATED_CIR=${CIRCUITNAME}-complete.cir
-### Go!
+### go!
 # set the script's directory as the working directory
 cd $( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )
 # remove all lines starting with .title from CIRCUITFILE
 sed '/^.title/d' $CIRCUITFILE > $CIRCUITFILE_CLEANED
 # concatenate the final file
 cat pre.cir > $GENERATED_CIR
 cat $CIRCUITFILE_CLEANED >> $GENERATED_CIR
 cat post.cir >> $GENERATED_CIR
 # run it
 $SPICE_ENGINE $GENERATED_CIR
 # cleanup
 #~ rm $GENERATED_CIR
 rm $CIRCUITFILE_CLEANED
-</code>
+</file>