KiCad with a simulator - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: nsrmagazin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2019, 10:01:41 am
content: Hi guys!I like KiCad, its very useful and very well made(not for commercial purposes). But its a pain to draw my circuits twice, is there any way to export my circuits from KiCad and add them to a simulator or add a simulator to KiCad?

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2019, 10:17:22 am
content: There is an ongoing effort to integrate Spice into KiCad, which started probably more than 2 years ago.But it is still not finished enough to be released in the official version.If you install a development version (nigtly builds) of KiCad then it is probably compiled with Spice support enabled.One of the problems with Spice though are encrypted models for components. That does not fit well with an open source project.But it should at least be possible to export a Spice netlist from KiCad that can be used for simulation in another program.You will also get better response from more knowledgeable people if you ask questions about KiCad on the KiCad forum:https://forum.kicad.info/search?q=spiceMay I ask why you think that KiCad is "not for commercial purposes"?In the "made with KiCad" section on:http://kicad-pcb.org/made-with-kicad/You can see examples of pretty complex commercial projects such as the Olimexino boards which are designed in KiCad.KiCad is also gaining traction with companies which only occasionaly design a PCB and this makes it hard to justify 4 digit figures or montly subsriptions for a PCB package. There is also a mighty amount of annoyance because of the cloud based folly where your own proprieatary designs are hosted on the website of some un trusted 3-rd party.There are also no limitations to the designs you make with KiCad. You can keep the design all to yourself.A possible exception to the library symbols in KiCad, but the consensus seems to be that there is no imitation there either:https://forum.kicad.info/t/default-libraries-gpl-licencing-vs-proprietary-designs/140/27/This link is more clear:https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-library-licensing/7856/Quote

author: nsrmagazin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2019, 11:40:55 am
content: By not commercial product I meant KiCad is good, unlike the other products that are only made to sell.I will check if its possible to export the circuits to Orcad. I am looking for a better option than OrCad because its getting worst with every next release, but I want something that will have enough components inside for simulation and be supported by snapeda.com.

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 04:46:53 pm
content: Quote from: nsrmagazin on January 26, 2019, 10:01:41 amWork to integrate ngspice into Kicad is ongoing. Nightly builds should already have that support enabled. Some of the official libraries have links to Spice models.That said, most engineers just say "screw it" and draw the schematic twice, once for the simulator (like many people, I use LTSpice, it's free and it works well) and once for the layout. There are a lot of reasons for this, but primarily it's because things that you need for the layout aren't needed/aren't supported by the simulator. The schematic being simulated is generally a subset of the entire product design.

author: pointhi
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2019, 12:27:13 pm
content: What are you talking about?* KiCad 5 includes ngspice by default (Tools -> Simulator)* the official libraries does NOT contain any spice models. There is the pspice lib which gives some basic stuff, but all other libraries do not have any spice stuff at the moment.