Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- kicad:using_arbitrary_spice_engines_in_kicad_5 [2018/09/09 14:33] – mithat
+++ kicad:using_arbitrary_spice_engines_in_kicad_5 [2019/01/04 21:41] (current) – mithat
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Using Arbitrary SPICE Engines in KiCad 5 ======
-Simulation 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 work((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 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.
-I have a lot of simulations I built under KiCad 4 that I still want to use. 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 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.
+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.
 <file bash simulate.sh>
@@ Line 17: / Line 19: @@
 # * In this script:
 #       * 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
-# * In the KiCad Netlist dialog SPICE tab, set the simulator to this file using
+#   file using an absolute path.
-#   an absolute path.
+# * In the KiCad Netlist dialog's Spice tab, Run Simulator.
-# * In KiCad, Run Simulator.
 # ----- config ---------------------------------------------------------
@@ Line 29: / Line 30: @@
 # The command for the SPICE engine you want to use:
-SPICE_ENGINE=spiceopus
+SPICE_ENGINE="xterm -e ngspice"
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------