PySpice 1.4.3

Simulate electronic circuit using Python and the Ngspice / Xyce simulators

Quick Links

• Production Branch

• Devel Branch

• Travis CI

• pyspice@conda-forge

• ngspice@conda-forge

• Ngspice

• Ngspice Bug Tracker

• Xyce of Sandia National Laboratories

Brief Notes

Thanks to Discourse, PySpice now has a Forum hosted at https://pyspice.discourse.group

Disclaimer: PySpice is developed on my free time actually, so I could be busy with other tasks and less reactive.

An issue was found with NgSpice Shared, we must setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, “C”); see https://sourceforge.net/p/ngspice/bugs/490/

Overview

What is PySpice ?

PySpice is a Python module which interface Python to the Ngspice and Xyce circuit simulators.

Where is the Documentation ?

The documentation is available on the PySpice Home Page.

Note: This site is hosted on my own infrastructure, if the site seems done, please create an issue to notify me.

Where to get help or talk about PySpice ?

Thanks to Discourse, PySpice now has a Forum hosted at https://pyspice.discourse.group

What are the main features ?

• support Ngspice and Xyce circuit simulators

• support Linux, Windows and Mac OS X platforms

• licensed under GPLv3 therms

• implement an Ngspice shared library binding using CFFI which support external sources

• implement (partial) SPICE netlist parser

• implement an Oriented Object API to define circuit

• export simulation output to Numpy arrays

• plot using Matplotlib

• handle units

• work with Kicad schematic editor

• implement a documentation generator

• provides many examples

How to install it ?

Look at the installation section in the documentation.

Pull Request Recommendation

To make it easier to merge your pull request, you should divide your PR into smaller and easier-to-verify units.

Please do not make a pull requests with a lot of modifications which are difficult to check. If I merge pull requests blindly then there is a high risk this software will become a mess quickly for everybody.

Credits

Authors: Fabrice Salvaire and contributors

News

V1.5.0 (development release)

V1.4.? (production release) 2020-0?-??

A huge effort, thanks to @stuarteberg Stuart Berg, has been made to make Ngspice and PySpice available on Anaconda (conda-forge) for the Window, OSX and Linux platforms. Thanks to the conda-forge continuous integration platform, we can now run unit tests and the examples on theses platforms automatically. Hope this will make the software more robust and easier to run !

• PySpice is now available on Anaconda(conda-forge) as well as a wheel on PyPI

• Added a post installation tool to download the Ngspice DLL on Windows and to check the installation. It should now simplify considerably the PySpice installation on Windows.

• This tool can also download the examples and the Ngspice PDF manual.

• On Linux and OSX, a Ngspice package is now available on Anaconda(conda-forge). Note that theses two platforms do not download a binary from Ngspice since a compiler can easily be installed on theses platforms.

• Updated installation documentation for Linux, the main distributions now provide a ngspice shared package.

• Added a front-end web site so as to keep older releases documentation available on the web.

• fixed and rebuilt all examples (but mistakes could happen …)

• examples are now available as Python files and Jupyter notebooks (but some issues must be fixed, e.g. due to the way Jupyter handles Matplotlib plots)

• support NgSpice 32 API (no change)

• removed @substitution@ in PySpice/__init__.py, beacause it breaks pip install from git

• fixed some logging spams

• fixed NonLinearVoltageSource

• fixed Unicode issue with °C (° is Extended ASCII)

• fixed ffi_string_utf8 for UnicodeDecodeError

• fixed logging formater for OSX (removed ANSI codes)

• reworded “Invalid plot name” exception

• removed diacritics in example filenames

• cir2py has been converted to an entry point so as to work on all platforms

• updated Matplotlib subplots in examples

• added a unit example

• added a NMOS example (thanks to cyber-g) cf. #221

V1.4.0 2020-05-05

This release is yanked due to broken Windows support.

• fixed nasty issue with NgSpice shared for setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, “C”); cf. #172

• fixed AC AC_MAG AC_PASAE SIN for new NgSpice syntax

• fixed initial_state for VoltageControlledSwitch

• fixed LosslessTransmissionLine #169

• fixed docstrings for element shortcut methods (thanks to Kyle Dunn) #178

• fixed parser for leading whitespace (thanks to Matt Huszagh) #182

• fix for PyYAML newer API

• support NgSpice 31 API (no change)

• added check for CoupledInductor #157

• added check-installation tool to help to fix broken installation

• added pole-zero, noise, distorsion, transfer-function analyses (thanks to Peter Garrone) #191

• added .measure support (thanks to ceprio) #160

• added log_desk parameter to CircuitSimulator

• added listing command method to NgSpiceShared

• added Xyce Mosfet nfin #177

V1.3.2 2019-03-11

• support Ngspice 30 and Xyce 6.10

• fixed NgSpice and Xyce support on Windows 10

• bug fixes

V1.2.0 2018-06-07

• Initial support of the Xyce simulator. Xyce is an open source, SPICE-compatible, high-performance analog circuit simulator, capable of solving extremely large circuit problems developed at Sandia National Laboratories. Xyce will make PySpice suitable for industry and research use.

• Fixed OSX support

• Splitted G device

• Implemented partially A XSPICE device

• Implemented missing transmission line devices

• Implemented high level current sources Notice: Some classes were renamed !

• Implemented node kwarg e.g. circuit.Q(1, base=1, collector=2, emitter=3, model='npn')

• Implemented raw spice pass through (see User FAQ)

• Implemented access to internal parameters (cf. save @device[parameter])

• Implemented check for missing ground node

• Implemented a way to disable an element and clone netlist

• Improved SPICE parser

• Improved unit support:

  • Implemented unit prefix cast U_μV(U_mV(1)) to easily convert values

  • Added U_mV, … shortcuts

  • Added Numpy array support to unit, see UnitValues Notice: this new feature could be buggy !!!

  • Rebased WaveForm to UnitValues

• Fixed node order so as to not confuse users Now PySpice matches SPICE order for two ports elements !

• Fixed device shortcuts in Netlist class

• Fixed model kwarg for BJT Notice: it must be passed exclusively as kwarg !

• Fixed subcircuit nesting

• Outsourced documentation generator to Pyterate

• Updated setup.py for wheel

V1.1.0 2017-09-06

• Enhanced shared mode

• Shared mode is now set as default on Linux

V1.0.0 2017-09-06

• Bump version to v1.0.0 since it just works!

• Support Windows platform using Ngspice shared mode

• Fixed shared mode

• Fixed and completed Spice parser : tested on example’s libraries

V0.4.2

• Fixed Spice parser for lower case device prefix.

V0.4.0 2017-07-31

• Git repository cleanup: filtered generated doc and useless files so as to shrink the repository size.

• Improved documentation generator: Implemented format for RST content and Tikz figure.

• Improved unit support: It implements now the International System of Units. And we can now use unit helper like u_mV or compute the value of 1.2@u_kΩ / 2@u_mA. The relevant documentation is on this page.

• Added the Simulation instance to the Analysis class.

• Refactored simulation parameters as classes.

V0.3.2 2017-02-22

• fixed CCCS and CCVS

V0.3.1 2017-02-22

• fixed ngspice shared

V0.3.0 2015-12-08

• Added an example to show how to use the NgSpice Shared Simulation Mode.

• Completed the Spice netlist parser and added examples, we could now use a schematic editor to define the circuit. The program cir2py translates a circuit file to Python.

V0 2014-03-21

Started project