Please Note: All the information
presented here is my own work and not from Linear Technology. This advice does not replace the information given by Linear
Technology, the
LTWiki or the
Yahoo LTspice User group. Please also read my sites
general disclaimer.
Adding New Components using Windows
LTspice comes with a selection of components and models, but you may
find on occasion there is a need to add new parts and models.
You can design your own, but you may find that one has already been
created.
The
yahoo LTspice user group
has a files section where you can download new components.
You need to join the group first, then browse to the files section and lib (library) directory, screenshot below.
Download your desired files and save them to your computer. Next
you need to place them in the required directories. On windows
this location will generally be C:\Program
Files\LTC\LTspiceIV\lib\ Open windows explorer and browse
to the lib folder (screenshot).
Inside C:\Program Files\LTC\LTspiceIV\lib will be three more folders,
cmp, sub and sym. It is a good idea to bookmark this location for
future use. Click Favorites and add a suitable name.
To add for example the CMOS4000 library, download the files CD4000.lib
and CD4000.zip. The lib folder can be placed anywhere inside lib
directory. Many library files are kept in the sym folder but as long as
an include statement ( .inc CD4000.lib) is placed on the schematic they
will be found as the search is recursive through the directory
structure. (Screenshot below.)
Now it is also necessary to add the symbols for the CMOS4000 series. The symbols need to be inside the
sym folder. The symbols are compressed into a zip file, copy CD4000.zip into the sym folder a
nd extract it,
a sub folder called CD4000 is created.
Inside the CD4000 folder, the symbols of many of the 4000 series IC's have been created.
Using the new components is easy, start a new schematic, click parts (or press F2) and you should now see
the new CD4000 library (screenshot below).
Selecting the [CD4000] folder should now display many of the CMOS4000
series IC's. Clicking the model should also preview the symbol.
Once created remember to add the include statement.
If designing circuits for other people then all component libraries,
models and any custom symbols need to be included in the same file
otherwise they will get a component not found error.
The following example circuit is an example using the CMOS 4000 library and LTspice :
1 Hour Timer
Adding New Components using Linux
If you are running LTspice from linux then installing new components is
the same as for windows. The main difference is the location of LTspice.
LTspiceIV runs perfectly as long the wine program is installed. Wine is
software that allows many windows programs to run on linux. A
hidden .wine folder will be
created for each user on the system. Download the component files to
~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/LTC/LTspiceIV/lib/cmp
You can bookmark this location in konqueror or nautilus or simply copy
using the terminal. A screenshot using konqueror file manager is below:
Adding New Discrete Components
To add new transistors
download this fileand
save in the cmp directory. This file adds new European transistor e.g.
BC107 series, BC547 series and many of the circuits on Circuit
Exchange.
Please note this file will overwrite
existing model files in LTspice.
Shell Script for linux Users
The
following bash script is designed to make life easier when adding new
components to LTspice. It is a simple shell script that can be modified
and places all component, library, model and subcircuit files into the
relevant directory in LTspice. My download location is
/media/share/electronics/ltspice Just replace this with your
download location for your system.
Transfer shell script
Just download the script and execute it with ./transfer.sh