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I am very unfamiliar with these low level setup instructions for open source circuit simulators. Basically, I want to be able to simulate a not too terribly complex circuit in Xyce. I am running Windows 10 and the instructions to download Windows 10 Xyce (cygwin, other dependencies, etc) are quite daunting. I came upon PySpice, and I know I am much more familiar with Python and how to install certain Python dependencies on Windows. Helping a total amateur out, if I have PySpice, do I still need to do a lot of Xyce/Ngspice installations? Or is basic simulation (netlist creation, AC sweeps) ready to go once I've installed PySpice?

I started by running a Linux VM to run Xyce more efficiently but ran into some issues and I just want to make sure there are no much better options before I jump full speed ahead into one option.

user P520
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  • looking at the complexity of Xyce I doubt that PySpice includes it. Anyway PySpice can also use Ngspice that is available as cygwin package. – matzeri Jan 24 '19 at 16:32

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  1. PySpice is the interface in Python to asset Ngspice commands. All these commands support for AC, DC, transient basic operation. It also supports the adjust the parameters in run time. The good part is to dynamic read back simulated node vectors and send to Python for backward process (connect to IoTs, SQL, Webhook, GPU acceleration..so on). It is the strength beyond current solution.
  2. In my Ubuntu system, Ngspice is required to recompile and installed its library files. The user manual file had mentioned it. Xyce is not installed in my case.
  3. below is my personal comments in using PySpice+Ngspice. This simulation engine is good for sure. The most difficult part is the GUI display coding(by QT4/QT5). Besides, need to spend time to make sure the schematic model (.cir) file is correct in some commercial package first. Otherwise, you hardly see any debug message under the multi-thread environment.
  4. Summary: Using Ngspice+PySpice is still in my preference.
Jasper Chih
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  • Can you please tell me if there is a way for me to use the PySpice `python` package just to read a `NgSpice` raw file? I am struggling to script a `python` code that will read different already existing `NgSpice` raw files. If PySpice is not the one to use, do you have any idea how can I go about it, please? – Wallflower Mar 03 '21 at 10:11