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New Member and Updated Help File


Joe Walsh
 

Hi all,

Just joined this group a few days ago and I'm quite surprised at the level of traffic on this list.

I've been a VLSI design engineer for 21 years and am currently using Cadence tools (Virtuoso, etc), but have used Mentor Graphics in times past as well as Daisy systems in the very beginning. I now need to get a lot of BSIM3V3 models brought in so I can "play" on LTSpice.

I have used the Field Update Tool recently to make sure my LTSpice has the latest and greatest, but, the help seems very outdated. Case in point: Special Functions. The help says that the standard logic gates are available plus a VARISTOR and a MODULATE. However, when I go to place a symbol in the schematic, it shows that there are SRFLOP, PHIDET, BUF, and BUF1 available too.

Does anybody know (or can check their version of the tool) to see if the help has been updated to at least mention these newer components? I'm imagining that they have been there for awhile now and didn't recently appear after I ran the FUT.

Regards,
Joe


 

--- In LTspice@..., "Joe Walsh" <smknjoe@...> wrote:

Hi all,

Just joined this group a few days ago and I'm quite surprised at the level of traffic on this list.

I've been a VLSI design engineer for 21 years and am currently using Cadence tools (Virtuoso, etc), but have used Mentor Graphics in times past as well as Daisy systems in the very beginning. I now need to get a lot of BSIM3V3 models brought in so I can "play" on LTSpice.

I have used the Field Update Tool recently to make sure my LTSpice has the latest and greatest, but, the help seems very outdated. Case in point: Special Functions. The help says that the standard logic gates are available plus a VARISTOR and a MODULATE. However, when I go to place a symbol in the schematic, it shows that there are SRFLOP, PHIDET, BUF, and BUF1 available too.

Does anybody know (or can check their version of the tool) to see if the help has been updated to at least mention these newer components? I'm imagining that they have been there for awhile now and didn't recently appear after I ran the FUT.

Regards,
Joe

Hello Joe,

You always have the latest Help-file when you update LTspice
or when you install the latest version, but simply not
everything is in the help pages.

analogspiceman has started a wiki with info especially about
these non-documented features.



Best regards,
Helmut


Lewis
 

Here's an update on using the provided help from LTspice as a basis for
an expanded and annotated help in LTwiki <> :

- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
not the scad3.pdf.
- In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
annotated.
- I've succeeded in converting the Help to an HTML series of files.
This conversion can be seen at:
LTspice Help <>
-I'm now working on my test server LTwiki to (more or less) seamlessly
incorporate this help as a stub for a section titled 'Annotated and
Expanded LTspice Help'. The approach I'm trying is Iframe Widgets into
the MediaWiki engine that you know of as LTwiki.org
- The end result is to have this Help on the wiki, but the annotating
authors would then further explain, illustrate and annotate a given stub
as they see fit.

best regards,
Lewis
--- In LTspice@..., "Helmut" <helmutsennewald@...> wrote:



--- In LTspice@..., "Joe Walsh" smknjoe@ wrote:

Hi all,

Just joined this group a few days ago and I'm quite surprised at the
level of traffic on this list.

I've been a VLSI design engineer for 21 years and am currently using
Cadence tools (Virtuoso, etc), but have used Mentor Graphics in times
past as well as Daisy systems in the very beginning. I now need to get a
lot of BSIM3V3 models brought in so I can "play" on LTSpice.

I have used the Field Update Tool recently to make sure my LTSpice
has the latest and greatest, but, the help seems very outdated. Case in
point: Special Functions. The help says that the standard logic gates
are available plus a VARISTOR and a MODULATE. However, when I go to
place a symbol in the schematic, it shows that there are SRFLOP, PHIDET,
BUF, and BUF1 available too.

Does anybody know (or can check their version of the tool) to see if
the help has been updated to at least mention these newer components?
I'm imagining that they have been there for awhile now and didn't
recently appear after I ran the FUT.

Regards,
Joe

Hello Joe,

You always have the latest Help-file when you update LTspice
or when you install the latest version, but simply not
everything is in the help pages.

analogspiceman has started a wiki with info especially about
these non-documented features.



Best regards,
Helmut


Tony Casey
 

<snip>
--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis" <lineblp@...> wrote:

Here's an update on using the provided help from LTspice as a basis for
an expanded and annotated help in LTwiki <> :

- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
not the scad3.pdf.
- In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
annotated.
- I've succeeded in converting the Help to an HTML series of files.
This conversion can be seen at:
LTspice Help <>
-I'm now working on my test server LTwiki to (more or less) seamlessly
incorporate this help as a stub for a section titled 'Annotated and
Expanded LTspice Help'. The approach I'm trying is Iframe Widgets into
the MediaWiki engine that you know of as LTwiki.org
- The end result is to have this Help on the wiki, but the annotating
authors would then further explain, illustrate and annotate a given stub
as they see fit.

best regards,
Lewis
</snip>
Hello Lewis,

Sounds like you're making good progress.

I seem to remember that Iframes used to be viewed suspiciously by web security products and experts, and were sometimes blocked. I presume that's not an issue now, or may be it never was?

Would you envisage the expanded help to be able to form a stand alone document that can be browsed without being online? It's possible it would be most useful if it could be used, at least initially, as an alternative to the standard help, for those people that don't or can't get on with the regular one; although I realise this would be much more problematic regarding rights, permission and good will, particularly since you have already obtained permission for it to be used on the Wiki.

Getting people - and I suppose I mean new users, generally - to use the help at all is hard enough, but the more "helps" there are, the less likely they will be to use any of them, I fear.

Do you have any statistics on how many people actually visit the Wiki?

Regards,
Tony


 

Maybe it would "help the Help" if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki page in the LTspice Help tab. So there would be three items in the that tab, "Help", "Wiki" and "About". That would remind everyone, new and old, that there is more Help than they think --

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., "Tony Casey" <tony@...> wrote:

<snip>
--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis" <lineblp@> wrote:

Here's an update on using the provided help from LTspice as a basis for
an expanded and annotated help in LTwiki <> :

- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
not the scad3.pdf.
- In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
annotated.
- I've succeeded in converting the Help to an HTML series of files.
This conversion can be seen at:
LTspice Help <>
-I'm now working on my test server LTwiki to (more or less) seamlessly
incorporate this help as a stub for a section titled 'Annotated and
Expanded LTspice Help'. The approach I'm trying is Iframe Widgets into
the MediaWiki engine that you know of as LTwiki.org
- The end result is to have this Help on the wiki, but the annotating
authors would then further explain, illustrate and annotate a given stub
as they see fit.

best regards,
Lewis
</snip>
Hello Lewis,

Sounds like you're making good progress.

I seem to remember that Iframes used to be viewed suspiciously by web security products and experts, and were sometimes blocked. I presume that's not an issue now, or may be it never was?

Would you envisage the expanded help to be able to form a stand alone document that can be browsed without being online? It's possible it would be most useful if it could be used, at least initially, as an alternative to the standard help, for those people that don't or can't get on with the regular one; although I realise this would be much more problematic regarding rights, permission and good will, particularly since you have already obtained permission for it to be used on the Wiki.

Getting people - and I suppose I mean new users, generally - to use the help at all is hard enough, but the more "helps" there are, the less likely they will be to use any of them, I fear.

Do you have any statistics on how many people actually visit the Wiki?

Regards,
Tony


 

Maybe it would "help the Help" if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki
page in the LTspice Help tab. So there would be three items in the that
tab, "Help", "Wiki" and "About". That would remind everyone, new and old,
that there is more Help than they think --

Tim
I second that. Its much more than a reminder. The whole idea of help is to
be able to find answers to questions when you need answers. If you have to
fumble around for a link to a wiki, then you have lost time and increased
frustration levels. Further, if you don't use the wiki very often, it is
easy to forget where you have stashed the link.

Having a link in that spot would be a great service to users.

Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics


 

With that encouragement, I sent the idea on to Mike.

So we'll see...

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., wagnerj@... wrote:

Maybe it would "help the Help" if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki
page in the LTspice Help tab. So there would be three items in the that
tab, "Help", "Wiki" and "About". That would remind everyone, new and old,
that there is more Help than they think --

Tim
I second that. Its much more than a reminder. The whole idea of help is to
be able to find answers to questions when you need answers. If you have to
fumble around for a link to a wiki, then you have lost time and increased
frustration levels. Further, if you don't use the wiki very often, it is
easy to forget where you have stashed the link.

Having a link in that spot would be a great service to users.

Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics


 

This just in from Mike:

"I'd rather not.? I don't supply the information
for the Wiki site, so it's really better if I don't
endorse it. "

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., "Tim" <thutches@...> wrote:

With that encouragement, I sent the idea on to Mike.

So we'll see...

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., wagnerj@ wrote:

Maybe it would "help the Help" if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki
page in the LTspice Help tab. So there would be three items in the that
tab, "Help", "Wiki" and "About". That would remind everyone, new and old,
that there is more Help than they think --

Tim
I second that. Its much more than a reminder. The whole idea of help is to
be able to find answers to questions when you need answers. If you have to
fumble around for a link to a wiki, then you have lost time and increased
frustration levels. Further, if you don't use the wiki very often, it is
easy to forget where you have stashed the link.

Having a link in that spot would be a great service to users.

Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics


Jim Wagner
 

On Sep 20, 2011, at 4:40 PM, Tim wrote:

This just in from Mike:

"I'd rather not. I don't supply the information
for the Wiki site, so it's really better if I don't
endorse it. "

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., "Tim" <thutches@...> wrote:

With that encouragement, I sent the idea on to Mike.

So we'll see...

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., wagnerj@ wrote:

Maybe it would "help the Help" if Mike would put a direct link
to the Wiki
page in the LTspice Help tab. So there would be three items in
the that
tab, "Help", "Wiki" and "About". That would remind everyone,
new and old,
that there is more Help than they think --

Tim
I second that. Its much more than a reminder. The whole idea of
help is to
be able to find answers to questions when you need answers. If
you have to
fumble around for a link to a wiki, then you have lost time and
increased
frustration levels. Further, if you don't use the wiki very
often, it is
easy to forget where you have stashed the link.

Having a link in that spot would be a great service to users.

Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics
Then it ought to go in the Help FAQ were the Yahoo group is listed.

Jim Wagner

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


 

Even Linear Technology provides a direct link to Twitter on the LTspice download page. That's pretty much the wild west of exposure.

With a suitable disclaimer in the menu popup, it shouldn't be an obstacle to kicking the door open on an entire branch of documentation. That Wicki provides the missing elements that will jump start all the new user's eventually.

Mike should reconsider.

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., Jim Wagner <wagnerj@...> wrote:


On Sep 20, 2011, at 4:40 PM, Tim wrote:

This just in from Mike:

"I'd rather not. I don't supply the information
for the Wiki site, so it's really better if I don't
endorse it. "

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., "Tim" <thutches@> wrote:

With that encouragement, I sent the idea on to Mike.

So we'll see...

Tim

--- In LTspice@..., wagnerj@ wrote:

Maybe it would "help the Help" if Mike would put a direct link
to the Wiki
page in the LTspice Help tab. So there would be three items in
the that
tab, "Help", "Wiki" and "About". That would remind everyone,
new and old,
that there is more Help than they think --

Tim
I second that. Its much more than a reminder. The whole idea of
help is to
be able to find answers to questions when you need answers. If
you have to
fumble around for a link to a wiki, then you have lost time and
increased
frustration levels. Further, if you don't use the wiki very
often, it is
easy to forget where you have stashed the link.

Having a link in that spot would be a great service to users.

Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics
Then it ought to go in the Help FAQ were the Yahoo group is listed.

Jim Wagner

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


Lewis
 

Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file for use in
LTwiki <> . It's all ready for folks to comment and
extend at will... You'll see it under "LTspice Annotated and Expanded
Help"

Iframes are generally a risk, but the Iframe Widget parses any
suspicious activity, or so I'm told. The Widget succeeded in breaking
about 80 characters in the original help, so I'm having to go make them
'&' type characters.

The wiki is free to export, so that may be a stand-alone method one
day... still swimming in the on-line version details. btw... I'm not
sure on the traffic, but I think it's about 100-200 visitors a day.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement and support of this wiki.
best regards, Lewis

--- In LTspice@..., "Tony Casey" <tony@...> wrote:


I seem to remember that Iframes used to be viewed suspiciously by web
security products and experts, and were sometimes blocked. I presume
that's not an issue now, or may be it never was?

Would you envisage the expanded help to be able to form a stand alone
document that can be browsed without being online? It's possible it
would be most useful if it could be used, at least initially, as an
alternative to the standard help, for those people that don't or can't
get on with the regular one; although I realise this would be much more
problematic regarding rights, permission and good will, particularly
since you have already obtained permission for it to be used on the
Wiki.

Getting people - and I suppose I mean new users, generally - to use
the help at all is hard enough, but the more "helps" there are, the less
likely they will be to use any of them, I fear.

Do you have any statistics on how many people actually visit the Wiki?

Regards,
Tony


 

The wiki looks pretty good!? I think the major helpers in this group may start having a lot a time on their hands.? Between the program's Help and Educational Examples, the Wiki, and the Files sections at this Group - few people will have a question that's not already throughly covered.? Of course there will always be those busy professionals who just want to save time with a quick answer from a veteran user. Anyway, I plan to have the wiki nearby when using this great program!!


From: Lewis <lineblp@...>
To: LTspice@...
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 7:41 PM
Subject: [LTspice] Re: New Member and Updated Help File


?
Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file for use in
LTwiki <> . It's all ready for folks to comment and
extend at will... You'll see it under "LTspice Annotated and Expanded
Help"

Iframes are generally a risk, but the Iframe Widget parses any
suspicious activity, or so I'm told. The Widget succeeded in breaking
about 80 characters in the original help, so I'm having to go make them
'&' type characters.

The wiki is free to export, so that may be a stand-alone method one
day... still swimming in the on-line version details. btw... I'm not
sure on the traffic, but I think it's about 100-200 visitors a day.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement and support of this wiki.
best regards, Lewis

--- In LTspice@..., "Tony Casey" <tony@...> wrote:


I seem to remember that Iframes used to be viewed suspiciously by web
security products and experts, and were sometimes blocked. I presume
that's not an issue now, or may be it never was?

Would you envisage the expanded help to be able to form a stand alone
document that can be browsed without being online? It's possible it
would be most useful if it could be used, at least initially, as an
alternative to the standard help, for those people that don't or can't
get on with the regular one; although I realise this would be much more
problematic regarding rights, permission and good will, particularly
since you have already obtained permission for it to be used on the
Wiki.

Getting people - and I suppose I mean new users, generally - to use
the help at all is hard enough, but the more "helps" there are, the less
likely they will be to use any of them, I fear.

Do you have any statistics on how many people actually visit the Wiki?

Regards,
Tony
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


 

--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis" <lineblp@...> wrote:

Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file
for use in LTwiki <> .

Hello Lewis,

This action has been a bad idea and it is a copyright
infringement. Haven't you read the answer from Mike?
He hasn't allowed to put his help text into the Wiki.
Why have you ignored his statement?
I highly recommend you to remove it from this Wiki.

Best regards,
Helmut
Moderator of the LTspice Yahoo group


 

On 9/22/2011 3:22 PM, Helmut wrote:

--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis"<lineblp@...> wrote:
Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file
for use in LTwiki<> .
Hello Lewis,

This action has been a bad idea and it is a copyright
infringement. Haven't you read the answer from Mike?
He hasn't allowed to put his help text into the Wiki.
Why have you ignored his statement?
I highly recommend you to remove it from this Wiki.

Best regards,
Helmut
Moderator of the LTspice Yahoo group
Hello Helmut,

I am confused as Lewis reported the following in message 49950.

"- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
not the scad3.pdf.
- In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
annotated."

To me this implies Lewis can use the existing help file in his Wiki

Howard


Lewis
 

I think there may be a small misunderstanding here.
The question posed on the Yahoo group was:
"...if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki page in the LTspice Help tab?" That answer was:
"I'd rather not. I don't supply the information
for the Wiki site, so it's really better if I don't
endorse it. "

I personally wrote Mike about the use of the LTspice help file on . His reply is below (of which I earlier referred.)

"Please use the file LTspiceHelp.chm. I'm trying
to phase out the .pdf. The only reason the .pdf
ever existed was because of a short-coming in
WINE for which there is now a workaround. Also,
please make it clear what part is from LTC and
what part is others. I see users trying to
"improve" help documentation only to obscure
the software operation.

--Mike "

It is not my intent to have any copyright violation on the wiki, and would gladly remove any entry that was not allowed. By using the Iframes (i.e. not allowing contributors to edit the original LTspice help file, only to comment and extend it below each page), I've lived up to his request to make it clear which part is from LTC. If Mike or LTC wants a stronger reference to the original work, I'd gladly oblige.

best regards,
Lewis

--- In LTspice@..., Howard Hansen <hrhan@...> wrote:

On 9/22/2011 3:22 PM, Helmut wrote:

--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis"<lineblp@> wrote:
Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file
for use in LTwiki<> .
Hello Lewis,

This action has been a bad idea and it is a copyright
infringement. Haven't you read the answer from Mike?
He hasn't allowed to put his help text into the Wiki.
Why have you ignored his statement?
I highly recommend you to remove it from this Wiki.

Best regards,
Helmut
Moderator of the LTspice Yahoo group
Hello Helmut,

I am confused as Lewis reported the following in message 49950.

"- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
not the scad3.pdf.
- In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
annotated."

To me this implies Lewis can use the existing help file in his Wiki

Howard


 

Hello, Lewis
You have made a lot of work !
But for why ?
It is not easier than help in line ?
Or : explain me, please.
Bests regards,
Philippe
I still think that scad3.pdf was easier to read.
Do you know one software man going to documentation ?

----- Original Message -----
From: Lewis
To: LTspice@...
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 12:50 AM
Subject: [LTspice] Re: New Member and Updated Help File





I think there may be a small misunderstanding here.
The question posed on the Yahoo group was:
"...if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki page in the LTspice Help tab?" That answer was:
"I'd rather not. I don't supply the information
for the Wiki site, so it's really better if I don't
endorse it. "

I personally wrote Mike about the use of the LTspice help file on . His reply is below (of which I earlier referred.)

"Please use the file LTspiceHelp.chm. I'm trying
to phase out the .pdf. The only reason the .pdf
ever existed was because of a short-coming in
WINE for which there is now a workaround. Also,
please make it clear what part is from LTC and
what part is others. I see users trying to
"improve" help documentation only to obscure
the software operation.

--Mike "

It is not my intent to have any copyright violation on the wiki, and would gladly remove any entry that was not allowed. By using the Iframes (i.e. not allowing contributors to edit the original LTspice help file, only to comment and extend it below each page), I've lived up to his request to make it clear which part is from LTC. If Mike or LTC wants a stronger reference to the original work, I'd gladly oblige.

best regards,
Lewis
--- In LTspice@..., Howard Hansen <hrhan@...> wrote:
>
> On 9/22/2011 3:22 PM, Helmut wrote:
> >
> > --- In LTspice@..., "Lewis"<lineblp@> wrote:
> >> Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file
> >> for use in LTwiki<> .
> >
> > Hello Lewis,
> >
> > This action has been a bad idea and it is a copyright
> > infringement. Haven't you read the answer from Mike?
> > He hasn't allowed to put his help text into the Wiki.
> > Why have you ignored his statement?
> > I highly recommend you to remove it from this Wiki.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Helmut
> > Moderator of the LTspice Yahoo group
> >
> Hello Helmut,
>
> I am confused as Lewis reported the following in message 49950.
>
> "- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
> expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
> not the scad3.pdf.
> - In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
> annotated."
>
> To me this implies Lewis can use the existing help file in his Wiki
>
> Howard
>


 

--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis" <lineblp@...> wrote:




I think there may be a small misunderstanding here.
The question posed on the Yahoo group was:
"...if Mike would put a direct link to the Wiki page in
the LTspice Help tab?" That answer was:
"I'd rather not. I don't supply the information
for the Wiki site, so it's really better if I don't
endorse it. "

I personally wrote Mike about the use of the LTspice help
file on .
His reply is below (of which I earlier referred.)

"Please use the file LTspiceHelp.chm. I'm trying
to phase out the .pdf. The only reason the .pdf
ever existed was because of a short-coming in
WINE for which there is now a workaround. Also,
please make it clear what part is from LTC and
what part is others. I see users trying to
"improve" help documentation only to obscure
the software operation.

--Mike "

It is not my intent to have any copyright violation on
the wiki, and would gladly remove any entry that was not
allowed. By using the Iframes (i.e. not allowing
contributors to edit the original LTspice help file, only
to comment and extend it below each page), I've lived up
to his request to make it clear which part is from LTC.
If Mike or LTC wants a stronger reference to the original
work, I'd gladly oblige.

best regards,
Lewis

Hello Lewis,

Please take my pardon, I have misunderstood the message
where Mike was cited with he will not endorse it.

Mike wrote me today in a private message the following statement.

--- from Mike
I'm okay if the LTspice help is duplicated there, I just would
like it clarified what is from LTC and what is user-supplied.
--- end

Best regards,
Helmut


--- In LTspice@..., Howard Hansen <hrhan@> wrote:

On 9/22/2011 3:22 PM, Helmut wrote:

--- In LTspice@..., "Lewis"<lineblp@> wrote:
Good news! I've finished converting the LTspice help file
for use in LTwiki<> .
Hello Lewis,

This action has been a bad idea and it is a copyright
infringement. Haven't you read the answer from Mike?
He hasn't allowed to put his help text into the Wiki.
Why have you ignored his statement?
I highly recommend you to remove it from this Wiki.

Best regards,
Helmut
Moderator of the LTspice Yahoo group
Hello Helmut,

I am confused as Lewis reported the following in message 49950.

"- Mike graciously allowed use of the existing help as a basis for an
expanded and annotated help in LTwiki, specifically the LTspiceHelp.chm
not the scad3.pdf.
- In doing so, we must make it clear what is the original versus the
annotated."

To me this implies Lewis can use the existing help file in his Wiki

Howard