Hi there,
?
Maybe this question has already been asked, but I couldn't find it. Sorry for that.
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I am looking for multiple tabs/pages in the Waveform (results) window. One can easily add a plot pane above or below but it would be handy if one can add a tab en keep the number of panes limited to a small number. Is such thing possible?
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Regards,
Jacco
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Re: Directory for custom symbols
Yes, it is recursive. This was changed precisely to address your use case. Simply update to LTspice 24.1.8. You'll find the help also improved accordingly.
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Best Regards,
Mathias
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On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 10:10 PM, Jeff Kayzerman wrote:
My team wants to have a shared directory where all Electrical Engineers can place their symbols and libraries so others can re-use them instead of re-creating it.
?
This is what the help doc says
Search Paths
This panel allows you to enter additional paths than the default to find symbols and libraries. When entering symbol and library search paths, list each directory on it's own line.
This panel also allows you to edit the directory where user-defined discrete component libraries are located, in the field labeled "Location of user.* component library files."
?
Questions:
1. Is the search recursive? I would imagine since the text says "list each directory on its own line" that it is not recursive. However one of my engineers says he has used a nested directory structure for his symbols for years
2. There is one top level to browse a location called "User libraries directory". Is this what I should be using to point to our shared location? If so, why would I need the "Symbol Search Path" and "Library Search Path" boxes that require one directory per line.
3. If someone edited a standard component will it take precedence if it is defined in one of these paths (presumably the "User libraries directory"?
?
Thank you
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Re: Performance comparison: Win 11 vs Linux/Wine
Found the reason for the Windows slowness. The .asc file was on the flash drive I am using to move the projects between computers. The run leaves a 130MB .raw file in the directory where the .asc file is. I can see the drive becoming 100% busy in the Task Manager during the run.
Once I copied the file to the local SSD and ran from it, it is way faster, about 16s. Haven't tried this on Linux laptops yet, but it is obviously an issue of Windows file access being very slow to the USB flash drive compared to Linux. The stick is USB 3.0 Lexar 64GB, fairly old. I am happy with its speed otherwise. Big file writes are 20-30MB/s, reads 80-100MB/s under both systems.
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Mike
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Re: Performance comparison: Win 11 vs Linux/Wine
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 10:46 PM, vbifyz wrote:
I had an impression already that Linux/Wine is a faster platform for LTspice than Windows. Now I have a data point to demonstrate it.
I'll point out the obvious, which is that it is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
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For it to be a fair comparison, it should have been made on the same exact hardware, and with the same LTspice*.ini file.? Neither of those is true.? How that skews the results, I can't say but it might be very significantly.
Windows : 1min 39s
Linux 1 : 0min 21s
Linux 2 : 0min 30s
For kicks, I tried this on an old Windows laptop here, with much less memory and a different CPU.? So it is difficult to compare expectations, except? that I would have expected mine to be slower than yours.??But somehow mine was about 6 to 9 times faster than yours!? And two to three times faster than your Linux tests.? And I had marching waveforms enabled and even plotting a waveform, which made mine run slower than it could have done.
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That has me wondering.? What were your LTspice settings that made it so slow?? What else might have been running on your computers?
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I tried to add a security exception for LTspice in Windows, so that the real-time antivirus is not in the way. It is known to slow down many applications. There was no noticeable difference.
Maybe it was still in the way and holding things up.? That significantly?? Perhaps.
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I am not currently set up with Linux.
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Andy
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Re: Performance comparison: Win 11 vs Linux/Wine
Try running windows 11 & wine on the same system and running the sim for each os.
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Performance comparison: Win 11 vs Linux/Wine
I had an impression already that Linux/Wine is a faster platform for LTspice than Windows. Now I have a data point to demonstrate it.
The file is uploaded, belka.asc .? It is a simple RF mixer with a BJT audio amplifier. It runs 5ms of transient analysis. The simulated RF frequency is 4MHz.
The LTSpice version is 24.0.12 on all 3 computers I compared.
Windows computer is Asus Vero laptop, i5-1235U, 16GB RAM, Windows 11 with all latest updates.
Linux computer 1 is Dell Precision 5530 laptop, Xeon E-2176M CPU (8th gen core),? 32GB RAM
Linux computer 2 is Asus ZenBook 14, i7-8565U, 16GB RAM
The Linux OS on both is Mint 22.1, recently updated. Wine is the latest from the repository, no tweaks.
Now to the numbers. I pushed the start button and timed it to the button turning green again. No traces displayed, no previous runs (fresh window).
Windows : 1min 39s
Linux 1 : 0min 21s
Linux 2 : 0min 30s
I tried to add a security exception for LTspice in Windows, so that the real-time antivirus is not in the way. It is known to slow down many applications. There was no noticeable difference.
If you look at the single thread benchmarks for these CPUs, i5-1235U is expected to be about 50% faster than both of the 8th gen CPUs, although Xeon has similar multithreaded score.
?
I invite other people to reproduce and to try different files.
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Mike
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Tony,
?
I believe that your UniversalComp has a bug.? The subcircuit's code includes this fragment:
if(V(out)>0,-Hys,Hys)/2
But that compares V(out) against global Ground.? That's not OK.
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It sort of works (the end result is OK) as long as the two supply voltages straddle 0V = Ground.? But for example, if one were to use V+ = +25V and V- = +20V, then V(out) is always >0 and the if() statement above always chooses -Hys on both rising and falling edges.? And then there is no hysteresis.
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It even fails in your test schematic just by changing V2 to -1mV (V- = +1mV).
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Andy
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?
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Re: Syntax error on .MEAS in 24.1.x
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 01:02 PM, Richard Andrews wrote:
As a c programmer and LTspice user, I would never label my variables "A+A". Just saying.
But might you use a parameter name of "Tpd+"?
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Andy
?
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Re: Directory for custom symbols
You do not state whether this "shared directory" is on a network
drive or not.
You are correct that the "Shared paths" are not recursive. This
should not not be an issue as far as the "Library Search Path" is
concerned. The LTspice installation has no problem with dumping all
of its model files into one directory, so neither should you,
because you never have to navigate to this directory in use, other
than to place model files into it.
You have two obvious choices how you do this, assuming you have a
network drive for this location. You can either map the network
drive to a drive letter, and simply set up this drive letter on
everyone's machine, or use an environmental variable. The latter has
the disadvantage that although LTspice will always find models from
it because path retrieval is delegated to Windows, LTspice does not
navigate to this location using the the "Open" button in LTspice's
.lib/.inc Editor when right-clicking on a .lib directive in a
schematic. The former may be less convenient when using a platform
other than Windows.
The "Symbol Search Path" provided by Control Panel > Search Paths
is much less convenient. Because it it not recursive, you may have
to manually enter many directories if you have organised your shared
symbols in the the same manner as LTspice does, with multiple
categories.
My solution to this is neither of the above approaches. I use a
symbolic link for the top directory of the symbol library into the
LTspice ..\lib\sym tree. Since this is recursive in the LTspice
Component chooser (F2), this will work seamlessly the same way it
does for the LTspice installation symbol directories.
The operations to set up the above arrangements may require
familiarity with administrator command line working, and although
drive letter mapping can be carried out in Windows Explorer,
(directly) setting up environmental variables or symbolic links
can't, unless you have installed custom utilities that can do this.
--
Regards,
Tony
On 20/05/2025 22:10, Jeff Kayzerman via
groups.io wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
My team wants to have a shared directory where all Electrical
Engineers can place their symbols and libraries so others can
re-use them instead of re-creating it.
?
This is what the help doc says
Search
Paths
This panel allows you to
enter additional paths
than the default to find symbols and libraries. When
entering symbol and library search
paths,
list each directory on it's own line.
This panel also allows you
to edit the directory where user-defined discrete component
libraries are located, in the field labeled "Location of
user.* component library files."
?
Questions:
1. Is the search
recursive? I would imagine since the text says "list each
directory on its own line" that it is not recursive. However
one of my engineers says he has used a nested directory
structure for his symbols for years
2. There is one top level
to browse a location called "User libraries directory". Is
this what I should be using to point to our shared location?
If so, why would I need the
"Symbol Search Path" and "Library Search Path" boxes that
require one directory per line.
3. If someone edited a
standard component will it take precedence if it is defined
in one of these paths (presumably the "User libraries
directory"?
|
Re: Directory for custom symbols
I also want to throw this out there:
?
3. If someone edited a standard component will it take precedence if it is defined in one of these paths (presumably the "User libraries directory"?
In my opinion, it is a rather bad idea to edit a standard component and save it with the same name, unless it is saved in LTspice's own components library.? And even then, it is a bad idea (because it likely gets over-written later).
?
Of course this depends on what was edited.? If it is a symbol and if the only edit is to change its appearance on-screen, then do anything you want.? If it is anything else, it risks various problems, one of which is the fact that is risky to share your schematic with anyone else who has a different setup.? Will they get your edited file, or the standard library's copy?? Better to use a different filename.
?
Andy
?
?
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Re: Directory for custom symbols
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 04:10 PM, Jeff Kayzerman wrote:
1. Is the search recursive?
That depends on exactly which version of LTspice everyone uses.
?
Until recently, user-defined directories were not followed recursively into their subdirectories, forcing you to list each directory.? But Analog Devices has been working to make them followed recursively.? I do not know the current status of the latest LTspice versions, and be aware that the "rules" differ between the four (or five) places where they are used:
- Symbol directories
- Model files in .lib commands
- Model files in .inc(lude) commands
- Models in symbol ModelFile attributes
- Models in symbol SpiceModel attributes
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For maximum compatibility, it is safest to assume searches are not recursive.? But since this is a corporate setting where IT probably controls everyone's version of LTspice, you might do otherwise.
?
I would imagine since the text says "list each directory on its own line" that it is not recursive. However one of my engineers says he has used a nested directory structure for his symbols for years
Note that LTspice does recursively search for symbols in its OWN symbol directory tree.? That is probably what your fellow engineer was talking about.? ?But the user-defined symbol library was different, for years.? If someone used a nested structure, they would have needed to list each subdirectory too.? (Until recently.)
?
Also, LTspice does not - or did not - recursively search its own model file directory.? But you asked about symbols.
?
3. If someone edited a standard component will it take precedence if it is defined in one of these paths (presumably the "User libraries directory"?
If you are talking about symbols (not model files), and if I remember this correctly, you need to have selected either the standard (LTspice-owned) symbol library or the User-defined library.? If the standard library is selected, then it won't see the edited symbol which is located elsewhere.
?
But there are some mysteries about symbol selection that may not be fully understood.? Schematic (.ASC) files usually list the path where a symbol was located when it was added to the schematic, but that path seems to be ignored when the schematic is loaded.
?
The other library (model file) search rules seem to favor LTspice's directories over other locations, so LTspice seems to have a bias in favor of its own library when a model file happens to exist in both places.
?
And as I noted above, some of these things are "moving targets", meaning that Analog Devices might be making changes to clean them up and make them more consistent.? I have somewhat mixed feelings about that, but they are probably steps in the right direction.
?
Andy
?
?
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These WCAs I’m working on ..
I have seen "WC" often enough and am familiar with that acronym, but "WCA" is more foreign to me.? I did not know what you meant until the next reply where you used "WC".
?
Andy
?
?
|
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 01:44 PM, Bell, Dave wrote:
With Compression normal, Window=1024, the raw file was >206MB.
With Window=0, the raw file is >710MB.
Both cases took almost exactly the same time, to my surprise, 340 seconds.
That should not surprise you.
?
The two simulations are identical.? The only time difference is the time needed to write the data to a file, 710MB versus 206MB, which is not that different.? There is a slight computational difference when LTspice decides whether or not to save a point, but that is usually small.
?
So it mostly boils down to the overhead caused by your computer's file system and the (now unlikely) possibility that it has rotating parts.
?
Of course this depends on the complexity of the circuit and things like nonlinearities.? If the simulation itself is trivial, then most of the time would be spent saving data instead of calculating data (simulating), and you would see that difference.
?
Andy
?
|
Directory for custom symbols
My team wants to have a shared directory where all Electrical Engineers can place their symbols and libraries so others can re-use them instead of re-creating it.
?
This is what the help doc says
Search Paths
This panel allows you to enter additional paths than the default to find symbols and libraries. When entering symbol and library search paths, list each directory on it's own line.
This panel also allows you to edit the directory where user-defined discrete component libraries are located, in the field labeled "Location of user.* component library files."
?
Questions:
1. Is the search recursive? I would imagine since the text says "list each directory on its own line" that it is not recursive. However one of my engineers says he has used a nested directory structure for his symbols for years
2. There is one top level to browse a location called "User libraries directory". Is this what I should be using to point to our shared location? If so, why would I need the "Symbol Search Path" and "Library Search Path" boxes that require one directory per line.
3. If someone edited a standard component will it take precedence if it is defined in one of these paths (presumably the "User libraries directory"?
?
Thank you
|
Indeed! There are checks for stress related to many other components…
?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
On Behalf Of John Woodgate
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2025 11:55 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [LTspice] Execute .meas file
?
I suspected something like that, maybe a medical product. But it's still not realistic; other sources of malfunction are more probable.
On 2025-05-20 19:40, Bell, Dave via groups.io wrote:
IF this were a commercial product analysis, I’d tend to agree with that.
In this case, it’s a matter of a deep dive into a space-qualified design, to satisfy Specification requirements.
An application of What-If determination, with tight tolerances on, for example, a circuit’s output to *another* circuit, accounting for component tolerances, powr supply variation,
etc.
?
Dave
?
?
Thank you. Unless you plan to make millions of the product, that universe will remain largely unexplored.
On 2025-05-20 19:16, Bell, Dave via groups.io wrote:
Worst Case (Analysis)
Iterating over a number of components whose values are individually set to minimum tolerance and maximum tolerance in a binary sequence, resulting in 2^n sets of data rolled into a single
.raw file.
Later analyses can run .meas scripts on the saved data to extract query results.
?
Dave
?
?
I have to phrase my question carefully: what? does the two-letter abbreviation mean in the context of electronics?? I am totally baffled by the rest of the sentence, but that is not unusual.
On 2025-05-20 18:43, Bell, Dave via groups.io wrote:
?
This is for one particular WC simulation, a smallish circuit with 9 variables (2**9,+1, 513, executions.)
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
|
I suspected something like that, maybe a
medical product. But it's still not realistic; other sources of
malfunction are more probable.
On 2025-05-20 19:40, Bell, Dave via
groups.io wrote:
IF this were a
commercial product analysis, I’d tend to agree with that.
In this case, it’s
a matter of a deep dive into a space-qualified design, to
satisfy Specification requirements.
An application of
What-If determination, with tight tolerances on, for
example, a circuit’s output to *another* circuit,
accounting for component tolerances, powr supply variation,
etc.
?
Dave
?
?
Thank
you. Unless you plan to make millions of the product, that
universe will remain largely unexplored.
On 2025-05-20 19:16, Bell, Dave via
groups.io wrote:
Worst Case
(Analysis)
Iterating over a
number of components whose values are individually set to
minimum tolerance and maximum tolerance in a binary
sequence, resulting in 2^n sets of data rolled into a
single .raw file.
Later analyses
can run .meas scripts on the saved data to extract query
results.
?
Dave
?
?
I
have to phrase my question carefully: what? does the
two-letter abbreviation mean in the context of
electronics?? I am totally baffled by the rest of the
sentence, but that is not unusual.
On 2025-05-20 18:43, Bell, Dave via
groups.io wrote:
?
This is for one particular WC
simulation, a smallish circuit with 9 variables
(2**9,+1, 513, executions.)
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions
Only If something is true: * as far as we
know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics
*unquestionably - it's religion
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions
Only If something is true: * as far as we
know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics
*unquestionably - it's religion
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only
If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for
certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
|
IF this were a commercial product analysis, I’d tend to agree with that.
In this case, it’s a matter of a deep dive into a space-qualified design, to satisfy Specification requirements.
An application of What-If determination, with tight tolerances on, for example, a circuit’s output to *another* circuit, accounting for component tolerances, powr supply variation,
etc.
?
Dave
?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
On Behalf Of John Woodgate
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2025 11:33 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [LTspice] Execute .meas file
?
Thank you. Unless you plan to make millions of the product, that universe will remain largely unexplored.
On 2025-05-20 19:16, Bell, Dave via groups.io wrote:
Worst Case (Analysis)
Iterating over a number of components whose values are individually set to minimum tolerance and maximum tolerance in a binary sequence, resulting in 2^n sets of data rolled into a single
.raw file.
Later analyses can run .meas scripts on the saved data to extract query results.
?
Dave
?
?
I have to phrase my question carefully: what? does the two-letter abbreviation mean in the context of electronics?? I am totally baffled by the rest of the sentence, but that is not unusual.
On 2025-05-20 18:43, Bell, Dave via groups.io wrote:
?
This is for one particular WC simulation, a smallish circuit with 9 variables (2**9,+1, 513, executions.)
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
|
Thank you. Unless you plan to make millions of
the product, that universe will remain largely unexplored.
On 2025-05-20 19:16, Bell, Dave via
groups.io wrote:
Worst Case
(Analysis)
Iterating over a
number of components whose values are individually set to
minimum tolerance and maximum tolerance in a binary
sequence, resulting in 2^n sets of data rolled into a single
.raw file.
Later analyses can
run .meas scripts on the saved data to extract query
results.
?
Dave
?
?
I have
to phrase my question carefully: what? does the two-letter
abbreviation mean in the context of electronics?? I am
totally baffled by the rest of the sentence, but that is not
unusual.
On 2025-05-20 18:43, Bell, Dave via
groups.io wrote:
?
This is for one particular WC
simulation, a smallish circuit with 9 variables (2**9,+1,
513, executions.)
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions
Only If something is true: * as far as we
know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics
*unquestionably - it's religion
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only
If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for
certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
|
Worst Case (Analysis)
Iterating over a number of components whose values are individually set to minimum tolerance and maximum tolerance in a binary sequence, resulting in 2^n sets of data rolled into a single
.raw file.
Later analyses can run .meas scripts on the saved data to extract query results.
?
Dave
?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
On Behalf Of John Woodgate
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2025 11:08 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [LTspice] Execute .meas file
?
I have to phrase my question carefully: what? does the two-letter abbreviation mean in the context of electronics?? I am totally baffled by the rest of the sentence, but that is not unusual.
On 2025-05-20 18:43, Bell, Dave via groups.io wrote:
?
This is for one particular WC simulation, a smallish circuit with 9 variables (2**9,+1, 513, executions.)
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
|
I have to phrase my question carefully: what?
does the two-letter abbreviation mean in the context of
electronics?? I am totally baffled by the rest of the sentence,
but that is not unusual.
On 2025-05-20 18:43, Bell, Dave via
groups.io wrote:
?
This is for
one particular WC simulation, a smallish circuit with 9
variables (2**9,+1, 513, executions.)
--
Best wishes John Woodgate RAYLEIGH Essex OOO-Own Opinions Only
If something is true: * as far as we know - it's science *for
certain - it's mathematics *unquestionably - it's religion
|
Tony Casey
Bell, Dave
John Woodgate