I've just posted up an initial web page that includes my short program for converting LTSpice schematics into ASCII ones:
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The included ASCII library file has just a few symbols in it, right now. And I mean __just a few__!! It has two resistor orientations, 0 and 90, two cap orientations, 0 and 90, one orientation for 'npn2', one for 'voltage' and that is IT! It's dead easy to add more, though, with any editor program. I'm going to work on adding the fuller complement of the more common parts as time permits, but I thought it was more important to put out something right now and let folks look and complain and kibitz so that it can be improved quickly before too much time goes into the library side of things.
Anyway, full source is included (for those with MS VC 1.52C compiler) and there is a big comment section at the top describing many details.
I've finally managed to add some of the basic ASCII library elements so that most schematics will look ... about right. If you already have LTSpice you may want to give it a try. It's still very preliminary and the ASCII symbols aren't the best for everyone, but it will read okay I think.
The program handles netlist node names, resistors, capacitors, inductors, bjts, mosfets, diodes, and a voltage source. No B-sources or similar stuff, yet. I can use any feedback on how things should look and any library enhancements anyone adds to the library file.
For now, I've just compiled it as a DOS .COM file. In the ZIP it is named "ASCSCHEM.COM" and the library file is "ASCSCHEM.SYM". But you can move these two files anywhere in your path and you can also rename them, just so long as they both have the same name.
To use it, just type (in DOS):
ascschem draft3.asc
which places the ASCII schematic on stdout. Or,
ascschem *.asc
which places all of the schematics onto the same file names but with a .TXT extension.
etc.
Here's an example from a 2Hz oscillator I had on disk:
Sorry, Terry. It's "programmer speak." The standard input is usually just the keyboard. But it can be redirected using "pipes." Rather than try to explain all that, my recommendation is that if you don't know what it is, don't use it. It's not really important, most of the time.
No, not the same thing. That actually specifies a file name, which is different. Here's an example of the first case (using standard input):
type draft3.asc | ascschem
But I don't expect you to follow that one.
It's just the screen, usually. Again, it can be redirected. For example:
type draft3.asc | ascschem | wc
Which would send draft3.asc to ascschem and then take the output of that and send it to the word-counting program (for what reason, I cannot imagine.)
I'd recommend just realizing that if you type one file name, the output goes to the screen. If you type two or more or use wildcards, you'll get saved .TXT files, instead.
Yes. That's one way to do it.
Okay. That makes sense.
Well, Terry. There remains a big problem, still. This is NOT a finished product, yet!! Please, please keep that in mind. I've got this VERY TINY library of just a few basic parts.
By the way, check the site every few days and re-get the stuff, if you want. I'll try and update the program every so often with new library entries and perhaps some proram updates, as well. However, keep in mind that while this remains a serious work-in-progress you may find yourself frustrated. Perhaps it would be better to wait a month or so, then look, if you want to avoid playing with a program that lacks so much, just now.
Actually, what you are seeing is that anytime a library part isn't in the ASCII library file, nothing appears where it should be. It's just blank space. From the above, I can see that the library is missing something.
If that was a BJT, but turned around, please just reload down the program again. I think I fixed that, now, by adding some of the other rotations.
Yup. That should work, now.
Yup. But that particular one is solved, right now. Just reload the program stuff from the site.
I've got the MOSFETs and inductors added, now. Try getting the program again. Sorry to keep saying that, but there it is.
And yes, they are currently ignored in the program. I specifically exclude placing them, since I'm not yet sure how to emulate them in ASCII. If something really nice comes to mind, I'll see about putting it in there. In the meantime, use nice and neat horizontal and vertical lines. Oh, well.
For a regular LT Spice user who can dash off schematics quickly (as I can sometimes do in CircuitMaker), your program could prove an excellent alternative route to an ASCII schematic. Especially for those like me who find ASCII originals a struggle, even with tools such as Andy's and Gary's. As you see from my later comments, I've used your program successfully in several examples, although almost certainly not in optimum fashion.
Could you clarify a couple of points please. From your web page: "Without any command line options, the program simply converts its standard input and writes the results to the standard output."
What exactly is 'its standard input' and 'the standard output'?
Or (probably the same question?) from the above post: "To use it, just type (in DOS): ascschem draft3.asc which places the ASCII schematic on stdout"
What is 'stdout'? Is this some programming or scripting term? (I'm not a programmer.) Presumably draft3.asc was your specimen LT Spice output, copied into the ASCSCHEM folder?
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Using a Windows XP PC, what I did was copy several ASC files from C:\Program Files\LTC\SwCADIII\examples\Educational to the same folder in which I've placed your 3 files, i.e D:\Program Files\ASCSCHEM
I opened a Command Prompt window (as close to 'DOS' as I understand Windows XP gets), navigated to your folder. I then entered the command ascschem Draft2.asc, and hit enter. That gave me a neat result in the Command window, white on black, which I've copied from that odd source and pasted below:
DRAFT2.ASC
,-------+-------, | | | | | | | | | - V1 \ --- C1 --- 1 / R1 --- 1 - \ 2 | --- / | | | | | | | | | | | +-------' | | GND GND My next example, NE555.asc was badly chosen, as it gave a result with
235 lines of text, incomprehensible when pasted! Not surprising when I looked at in LT Spice; it's the 555 internals, not the simple astable or similar that I'd unthinkingly assumed . So I previewed my next few examples in LT Spice first. For interest, here are a few more of my laborious pastes:
Presumably diagonal lines are a problem, e.g. top of R4 to right of C1? (BTW, CircuitMaker can't do them either; my schematic above would have a sort of Nazi swastika for those two diagonals )
And the 'mirrored' NPN BJT Q2?
Presumably these just await appropriate library entries?
Several parts seem missing in that one, such as the FET J1, and inductors L1 and L4. Here's what it looks like in LT Spice:
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After barely a couple of days, I must say I'm mightily impressed. Give it another week or two and maybe you could come up with a polished version running under Windows - for CircuitMaker!
It won't, I'm fairly sure. It uses Microsoft-specific libraries. They aren't complex ones (for example, _strlwr() is used to lower the case of every character in a string) but they'd need to be replaced by appropriate functions in the gnu library.
Okay. Of course, you'd need to change the parsing process. How hard that will be will depend a lot on how closely aligned the schematic semantic designs are.
Just try again, I suppose.
If you do take a whack at this, I'd appreciate any feedback on the source code or the ASCII library layout. All these things are subject to change and improvements. For example, there is no distinct "node point" designation in the ASCII library for the parts, with special meaning. Instead, the source code tries to do "reasonable things" when it sees a dash (-) or vertical bar (|) in the image and matches it up with wires it sees in the schematic.
Is there any reason it shouldn't compile under linux? If not, I may have a go to see if it can display the results of the gschem schematic program. I can't read your site atm, which is why I haven't just done it.
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