best way to simulate electric circuits

[nikoladsp]

hi,
I am wandering what is the best way to simulate electric circuits, using for example c++? I intend to create simple simulator, but don't know where to start: does anybody can recommend some literature or so? (I'm fluent in c++, but never wrote such type of applications). I just guess that I need a 'catalogue' of elements with approximation for voltage-current relationship (non-linear in general). any thoughts?

thanks in advance

 

[keith1200rs]

The best way to simulate circuits is to use a Spice simulator, not to write your own. A huge amount of effort has gone into developing Spice over many years - I don't think you can usefully start from scratch and ignore what already exists.

Keith.

 

[nikoladsp]

I've worked with PSPICE on college, but unfortunately its not an option. i dont intend to write complete simulator. i need basic patterns to be able to write software to analyze large distributive networks

 

[bigdogguru]

Is this a school project?

Do you need to write it in C++ or can it be another language?

Can you use existing libraries?

BigDog

 

[nikoladsp]

no, its for research purposes (proof of concept). c+ is a must. 3rd party libraries i would like to avoid if possible. i'm more interested in proper literature or something that can give me a start. i presume that i have to implement (or use) libraries for non-linear equations (with accent on sparse matrixes)

 

[FvM]

i dont intend to write complete simulator

Nevertheless, what you plan sounds exactly like this. There's a large amount of 70th and 80th literature related to the development of Spice and it's predecessors. I also guess, you know that Berkley Spice 3.xx is coded in C and the sources are open to the public.

 

[nikoladsp]

Nevertheless, what you plan sounds exactly like this. There's a large amount of 70th and 80th literature related to the development of Spice and it's predecessors. I also guess, you know that Berkley Spice 3.xx is coded in C and the sources are open to the public.

did not know that. thanks. can you point out some literature (newer will be great, i read something about homotopy-based algorithms)

 

[FvM]

Unfortunately I don't have literature links. It's been a long time that I was equipped with this stuff.

Some original papers and the SPICE sources are linked here SPICE - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia