kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/7/2014 4:54 AM, Oscad Team wrote:
> Dear Wayne,
>
> Thank you for the quick reply. We apologize for the delay in replying
> as we had some name clash issues to be resolved in between and hence
> we have changed from Oscad to freeEDA.
>
> We shall answer your queries as inline text.
>
>     Dear Oscad Developers,
>
>     Your work sounds interesting.  I have a few questions about the
>     current
>     state of your code:
>
>     1) I've been working under the assumption that you were interested in
>     merging your work into KiCad to provide an integrated simulator
>     solution
>     but it almost sounds like you are developing a stand alone project so
>     some clarification on that would be helpful.
>
> Although we have used a forked version of KiCad for FreeEDA, we are
> ready to merge it back. This can give KiCad an added feature, namely
> simulation using ngspice.

Have you been keeping up with the recent changes to the schematic
editor?  Within the last few month, there have been significant changes
in the way Eeschema is built.  Namely the kiway work which allows
Eeschema , CvPcb, and Pcbnew to run in the same process.  If you
haven't, then merging will likely prove difficult.  If you have, then
that should not be an issue.

>  
>
>     2)  Is there a source repo that we can download and build to get and
>     idea of how well the software works, what kind of effort it takes to
>     build on all of the platforms KiCad supports, and how difficult it
>     will
>     be to merge into the KiCad project?
>
>
> You can download the latest version of FreeEDA from
> https://github.com/FOSSEE/FreeEDA

It make take some time for me to get around to testing this.  If anyone
on the KiCad developers list has time to check this out, please let me
know how it works out.  If you could, please test that it merges cleanly
with the product branch and that any changes to the Eeschema code
follows the coding guidelines along with the build and functional testing.

>  
>
>     3) Have you bee keeping up with the latest changes in KiCad to
>     ease any
>     code merges?
>
>  
>
>     We are sure that there will be no issue as all FreeEDA
>     functionalities like eeschema, netlist creation for simulation,
>     PCB design, all uses KiCad components by default. Once our code is
>     merged with KiCad, then we shall use the main trunk of KiCad for
>     further developments.
>

We are planning a stable release in the not too distant future.  Merging
your simulation code into the product branch may have to wait until
after the stable release depending on the robustness of the simulation
code.  If that is an issue, we can create a separate branch for the
merged simulator code and then merge it into the product branch after
the stable release.

>  
>
>     4) If you do plan to merge your simulator code into KiCad, are you
>     going
>     to supply developer resources to maintain and support your code?
>
> In case our simulator code is merged into KiCad, we will be most happy
> to provide the necessary support for this code.

Thank you for the offer.  I'm sure we will need your help with the
simulation code.  I don't know if we have anyone with experience in that
area.

Best Regards,

Wayne

>
> Regards,
> freeEDA team
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 5:01 AM, Wayne Stambaugh
> <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     Dear Oscad Developers,
>
>     Your work sounds interesting.  I have a few questions about the
>     current
>     state of your code:
>
>     1) I've been working under the assumption that you were interested in
>     merging your work into KiCad to provide an integrated simulator
>     solution
>     but it almost sounds like you are developing a stand alone project so
>     some clarification on that would be helpful.
>
>     2)  Is there a source repo that we can download and build to get and
>     idea of how well the software works, what kind of effort it takes to
>     build on all of the platforms KiCad supports, and how difficult it
>     will
>     be to merge into the KiCad project?
>
>     3) Have you bee keeping up with the latest changes in KiCad to
>     ease any
>     code merges?
>
>     4) If you do plan to merge your simulator code into KiCad, are you
>     going
>     to supply developer resources to maintain and support your code?
>
>     Thank you for you interest in contributing to KiCad.
>
>     Regards,
>
>     Wayne
>
>     On 8/18/2014 6:10 AM, Oscad Team wrote:
>     > *
>     >
>     > Dear KiCad Developers,
>     >
>     >
>     > Greetings from Oscad Team, IIT Bombay!
>     >
>     >
>     > In continuation to the earlier discussions, we would like to
>     propose the
>     > following roadmap:
>     >
>     >
>     > Integration of ngspice to KiCad
>     >
>     > Currently, Oscad uses KiCad for schematic creation and uses
>     ngspice for
>     > simulation. Ngspice has its inbuilt plotting mechanism but it is not
>     > interactive. Therefore we come up with interactive plotting
>     using python
>     > matplot library.
>     >
>     >
>     > How the Python plotting works?
>     >
>     > Ngspice can print all the plotting data using “print allv” and
>     “print
>     > alli” command which can be easily stored in a text file. The file is
>     > then parsed in such a way that it contains only time information and
>     > value of voltage or current at a particular node. After parsing text
>     > file, it is send to the plotting function which plot the data.
>     We can
>     > also plot any arithmetic function on this data. Note: The
>     plotting is
>     > available only for analog node as there is no command to print all
>     > digital voltage in ngspice.
>     >
>     >
>     > Below are the questions your team had asked in the earlier
>     communication:
>     >
>     >
>     >> - What type of simulations should be possible? Spice, digital,
>     S-parameter, IBIS for signal integrity, other?
>     >
>     >   *
>     >
>     >     Spice, digital,S-parameter are supported
>     >
>     >> - How a user would set up and run a simulation.
>     >
>     > There are two ways to do it set up the simulation:
>     >
>     >   *
>     >
>     >     Directly generating KiCad netlist from the schematic that is
>     >     compatible with ngspice.
>     >
>     >   *
>     >
>     >     The generated KiCad netlist is modified to be compatible
>     with ngspice.
>     >
>     > A button can be provided in the KiCad interface to run the
>     simulation.
>     >
>     >> - What type of UI would be offered to the user? Would e.g.
>     plots be automatically re-calculated and displayed if a parameter
>     is changed in the schematics? How would stimuli be entered? How
>     would you probe signals and select them for plotting?
>     >
>     > The simulation opens up a python based UI.
>     >
>     > When the parameters are changed in the schematic, the simulation
>     can be
>     > done only after generating the modified netlist. So the
>     simulations will
>     > not change automatically.
>     >
>     > A dialog box based entry is provided to enter the parameters for
>     > simulation,
>     >
>     > To probe the signals we can use global label and save the
>     netlist with
>     > name. After that by using python plot we can take the outputs by
>     > selecting the name which is given as a global label.
>     >
>     >
>     >> - Formats of any output files the user would get.
>     >
>     >   *
>     >
>     >     You have the options to print or just view the simulations. In
>     >     python plotting the user can save the simulation in png and jpg
>     >     formats.
>     >
>     >
>     > As KiCad is looking at integrating QUCS for simulation, ngspice
>     > simulation and python plotting can serve as added capability to
>     KiCad.
>     >
>     >
>     > We are open to your inputs and suggestions.

>     >
>     >
>     > Regards,
>     >
>     >
>     > Oscad Team,
>     >
>     > IIT Bombay.
>     >
>     >
>     > *
>     >
>     >
>     > On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 8:43 PM, Javier Serrano
>     > <javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>
>     > <mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:
>     >
>     >     On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 9:26 AM, Javier Serrano
>     >     <javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>
>     >     <mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:
>     >     >  Functional specifications can be discussed
>     >     > before even writing the technical specs, and would include
>     things
>     >     > like:
>     >     >
>     >     > - What type of simulations should be possible? Spice, digital,
>     >     > S-parameter, IBIS for signal integrity, other?
>     >     > - How a user would set up and run a simulation.
>     >     > - What type of UI would be offered to the user? Would e.g.
>     plots be
>     >     > automatically re-calculated and displayed if a parameter
>     is changed in
>     >     > the schematics? How would stimuli be entered? How would
>     you probe
>     >     > signals and select them for plotting?
>     >     > - Formats of any output files the user would get.
>     >
>     >     One more idea: Python scripting support for interacting with
>     >     simulation would surely be very popular with KiCad users.
>     >
>     >     Cheers,
>     >
>     >     Javier
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
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