PySpice : Simulate Electronic Circuit using Python and the Ngspice / Xyce Simulators

Quick Links

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)

V1.4.3 (production release) 2020-07-04

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

jims/PySpice