LTSpice 24, significant update

[SiliconWizard]

For those who haven't updated yet, LTSpice 24 comes with some nice improvements.
And no, I'm not talking about the new icons, which are a bit... "much".

But the simulation speed has been greatly enhanced - for typical circuits with some switching supplies, LTSpice was previously using the equivalent of 100% of 2 threads, something in that order, whatever the number of threads you would configure in its settings. With LTSpice 24, the same circuits simulate with the equivalent of 100% of 7-8 threads. It's not perfectly efficient though, so you don't get a 4x speedup, more like 2x-3x on average, still nice.
(Though the downside for those using laptops with a small number of cores is that you may now want to turn down the number of threads in the settings to avoid having the fan blow at full speed. )

The waveform viewer also got some long-awaited additions.
All in all, nice update. I'd say a better update definitely than when it went from version IV to version 17.

[berke]

Won't launch under wine

[schmitt trigger]

Thanks for the tip. I have installed it and preliminary it does appear to simulate faster. 
The GUI is essentially the same. The icons have a more modern look, but like any update, takes a while to get used to.

[iMo]

MUCH faster, indeed.. 
But less diode models..none BZX zener below 6V2? 
Also the graphics is blurry on my display, the same with the v. 17.
The v. XVII is perfectly clear/sharp here..

PS: this helped..

[SiliconWizard]

Won't launch under wine

I use it under Wine and it works fine. What do you get when you try?

[berke]

I use it under Wine and it works fine. What do you get when you try?

Really?  What distro?  For me the installer works fine but then when it's time to launch LTSpice it just silently exits.  When I launch the installed executable by hand, nothing is displayed either.  (EDIT: Clarification)  I have tried Wine 8 from Debian bookworm, then trixie, then the binary Wine 9 from winehq (both staging and regular), activating the "Hide Wine version", selecting the "Pretend to be Win 10/8/7..." options, reinstalling multiple times in a clean prefix... nada.

Code: [Select]

% WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-staging /opt/wine-staging/bin/wine ~/.wine-staging/drive_c/users/berke/AppData/Local/Programs/ADI/LTspice/LTspice.exe
002c:fixme:winediag:loader_init wine-staging 9.1 is a testing version containing experimental patches.
002c:fixme:winediag:loader_init Please mention your exact version when filing bug reports on winehq.org.
0084:fixme:wineusb:add_usb_device Interface 1 has 7 alternate settings; using the first one.
0084:fixme:wineusb:add_usb_device Interface 2 has 2 alternate settings; using the first one.
0080:fixme:wineusb:query_id Unhandled ID query type 0x5.
0080:fixme:wineusb:query_id Unhandled ID query type 0x5.
0080:fixme:wineusb:query_id Unhandled ID query type 0x5.
0080:fixme:wineusb:query_id Unhandled ID query type 0x5.
011c:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
011c:fixme:kernelbase:AppPolicyGetProcessTerminationMethod FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA, 000000000011FE80
%

When laucnhed it rewrites LTspice.ini then exits.  Running it under strace or winedbg didn't yield any clues.

The installer LTspice64.msi has a SHA256 of 5356456...

(Previous versions have always been working fine, XVIIx64.exe runs fine with all the Wine versions.)

[SiliconWizard]

Using Wine 9.1 here (the distro is Arch, so I'm pretty much on the latest version for everything, which may make a difference. Don't know). Set as Windows 10. Something you could check is your DPI settings in winecfg. I have it on 96ppp (even though I'd like to set it a little higher, because the fonts in Windows apps look pretty tiny), because using any other value would wreak havoc with some apps, making them exit spontanously as well. Haven't tested with LTSpice specifically, but maybe you're having the same issue? Have a look.

Another thing I noticed, from your quote above, you seem to have installed LTSpice on Wine for a single user, instead of having choosen "all users". I have installed it for "all users", as I have noted issues in the past with Wine with some apps otherwise. So another thing you can try.

In my case, it's installed in: ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/ADI/LTspice/

[Smokey]

What is the best community parts library for LTSpice these days? 

[magic]

I have it on 96ppp (even though I'd like to set it a little higher, because the fonts in Windows apps look pretty tiny), because using any other value would wreak havoc with some apps, making them exit spontanously as well.

You can use different .wine directories with different configuration for different applications by setting WINEPREFIX.

[Mark]

What if I Like the Legacy (pre-LTspice 24) LTspice GUI?
https://ez.analog.com/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice/w/faqs-docs/32243/what-if-i-like-the-legacy-pre-ltspice-24-ltspice-gui

[berke]

Another thing I noticed, from your quote above, you seem to have installed LTSpice on Wine for a single user, instead of having choosen "all users". I have installed it for "all users", as I have noted issues in the past with Wine with some apps otherwise. So another thing you can try.

Thanks that did the trick!

[berke]

Using Wine 9.1 here (the distro is Arch, so I'm pretty much on the latest version for everything, which may make a difference. Don't know). Set as Windows 10.

I'm trying it now, there is still this ages-old annoying display bug where if you right-click on a diode or transistor to select a different model, the column headings in the selection table are not displayed until you resize the window.  I learned to live with it, but do you get this too?  Xorg XFCE4

Fig. 1 After right-click


Fig. 2 After resizing the resulting window

[iMo]

I never experienced that bug (Win here).

[magic]

Most of the time I use old LTspice IV for Windows XP because it doesn't have all these stupid issues with Wine. It even runs on ARM with an emulator.

I launch a newer version when I need latest models, usually to run other people's files. Or to run some foreign models, I particularly found IV really struggles with finding operating points of opamp models from TI.

[John B]

On Fedora, tried installing LTSpice64.msi through bottles using wine 8.0.2, but simply gives a generic error msiexec.exe has encountered a serious error and must close.

Through the terminal, I created a new prefix with the system running wine 9.0, and tried to run the installer manually, but it simply hangs on these 2 debug messages until I terminate the process:

0480:fixme:file:NtLockFile I/O completion on lock not implemented yet
0480:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION

I tried using Mono 8.0 and 9.0 on the prefix, but maybe another dependency is missing? I couldn't find any solutions.

[exe]

I'm trying it now, there is still this ages-old annoying display bug where if you right-click on a diode or transistor to select a different model, the column headings in the selection table are not displayed until you resize the window.  I learned to live with it, but do you get this too?  Xorg XFCE4

Yep. I haven't tried the latest version yet...

[berke]

Actually I was able to install it using the Debian-provided Wine on one computer but it still doesn't work on the other computer, even when I select "Install for all users."

I've tried it a bit on the other computer, one nice UI change is that you can easily switch between simulation types without having to comment directives by hand.  There is also a button for horizontally tiling the windows and another one for vertically tiling them (you previously had to go to the menu to tile windows other than the default way).

[SiliconWizard]

Using Wine 9.1 here (the distro is Arch, so I'm pretty much on the latest version for everything, which may make a difference. Don't know). Set as Windows 10.

I'm trying it now, there is still this ages-old annoying display bug where if you right-click on a diode or transistor to select a different model, the column headings in the selection table are not displayed until you resize the window.  I learned to live with it, but do you get this too?  Xorg XFCE4

Fig. 1 After right-click
(Attachment Link)

Fig. 2 After resizing the resulting window
(Attachment Link)

Not this one, but the "Configure analysis" dialog doesn't show controls below the "maximum timestep" one in the Transient tab, until I hover the mouse pointer over the controls below. It seems to only affect the Transient tab for some reason, and does that every single time. Has in previous versions too.

[iMo]

I ran the "new" analysis mode - the "FRA" and found an interesting feature
The setup window indicates an estimated duration of the analysis in seconds (pretty well btw), the analysis then shows the elapsing time information in seconds (with perhaps usecs resolution) and also the speed of simulation in ms/sec.
The fun is the second there == 20seconds in reality as the speed is 50ms/sec only in my case.

Otherwise pretty interesting enhancement for stability analysis, before that you had to include 13 directives and many clicks in the menu in order to get the same result..

PS: ..and the 0db and phase margin info is placed a bit off, but that is a minor issue..
PS1: you may move the info text with "stretch"..
PS2: the removing "dtmax=10u" gives the results within couple of secs..

[SiliconWizard]

Yes, nice feature. Again, LTspice hadn't gotten that many improvements in a long time. I was questioning the future of it when its author, Mike, left, but apparently the new team is doing a good job. (I don't know if Mike has done any consulting for this new version though, maybe?)

[Zero999]

It works for me, running a recently updated PCLinux machine, running Gnome desktop.

I haven't played with it much yet, but so far, so good. It's good to see they've not messed around with the user interface, the way Microsoft do, just to remind people they're using a new version. At first, I didn't like the toolbar icons, but I've changed my mind because they're higher contrast, so I can make them smaller and still legible, which saves screen space.

[m98]

The 90s called and want their UI back. No way letting one of the electrical engineers draw the icons in paint was more cost-effective than just outsourcing the task to someone who knows what they're doing...