LTspice - tips and tricks

#161 In this video I look at some of the most common tips and tricks I use on a regular basis when it comes to LTspice. Some of them you probably know, but you might still find some useful. I look at various things - starting from visual settings to more obscure simulation options and just general simulation tips.
LTspice Tutorial series:
EP1-Getting started:
• LTSpice Tutorial - EP1...
EP2-AC simulation and the Baxandall tone control circuit:
• LTspice tutorial - EP2...
EP3-.param and .step directives:
• LTspice tutorial - EP3...
EP4-How to import libraries and component models: • LTspice tutorial - EP4...
Ep5- Stock example simulations to play with: • LTspice tutorial - Ep5...
Ep6- Basics of FFT analysis and .four statment: • LTspice tutorial - Ep6...
EP7- Dependent voltage and current sources
• LTspice tutorial - Ep7...
Ep8- Turning a datasheet into a component model
• LTspice tutorial - Ep8...
EP9- Independent voltage and current sources
• LTspice tutorial - Ep9...
Ep10- .wave statement and audio file processing
• LTspice tutorial - Ep1...
Ep11 The effect of temperature on your circuit
• LTspice tutorial - The...
EP12 Modeling a DC brushed motor
• LTSpice Tutorial - Mod...
Ep13- Worst Case, Monte Carlo and Gaussian statistics circuit analysis
• LTspice tutorial - Wor...
EP14 - Digital circuits and logic gates • LTspice tutorial - Dig...
EP15- SMPS EMI and electrical noise and filters
• LTspice tutorial - SMP...
EP16- Feedback loop simulation
• LTspice tutorial - Fee...
Ep17 - Verifying Simulation Models
• LTspice tutorial - Sim...
Ep18 - Simulating Capacitors
• LTspice tutorial - Sim...
Ep 19 - Simulating Inductors
• LTspice tutorial - Sim...
EP 20 - Noise simulations
• LTspice tutorial - Noi...
Ep21 - Models and Libraries
• LTspice Tutorial - Cre...
Ep22- Voltage and current limited source
• LTspice Tutorial - Vol...
Ep23- Measuring Power Factor
• LTspice tutorial - Mea...
Ep24 - Modeling a vacuum tube triode
• LTspice tutorial - Mod...
Ep25- Using standard symbols
• LTspice tutorial - Re-...
Ep26- Modeling transformers
• LTspice tutorial - Mod...
Ep27 - Stepping sets of parameters
• LTspice tutorial - Ste...
EP28 - Simulating Quartz crystals
• Measuring and Simulati...
Ep29 - Simulating gas discharge tubes
• LTspice tutorial - Gas...
Ep30 - LT tips and tricks
• Video
Special Thanks to all my supporters on Patreon! Especially Ralf B., Paul Pr. Richard, Jonathan Alvarado and Tosta!
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[@paulpaulzadeh6172]

This was the best content about Ltspice , 30 years experience working with ltspice, still teach my self from your channel, keep going. Great channel. Regards from Sweden

[@maksudulhossainjewel378]

Is Ltspice more than 30 years old!

[@paulpaulzadeh6172]

@@maksudulhossainjewel378 Berkeley initial release 1973 .

[@alexloktionoff6833]

I’ve heard that there was a version for Windows 3.1

[@johnjordan3126]

Useful bits I've learned on your channel: using .step param (e.g., Resistor value = {X} .step param X LIST 1k 2k 5k ) to simulate with multiple values in one run, and drawing a wire from V+ through one or more components directly to ground is way faster than drawing the individual wire segments.

[@DeDeNoM]

One thing that was relay helpful for me was learning some hotkeys. Learning to use F1 through F5 as well as the hotkeys for standard components and rotating/mirroring made designing circuits some much more easy.

[@vladomaimun]

Or just changing them to something that you are already familiar with. The first thing I do after installing LTSPICE is setting custom hotkeys.

[@alexloktionoff6833]

Hotkeys is the only way to go under MacOS I have…

[@pfabri]

*To integrate a waveform:* CTRL + Click on the waveform's label in the plot window. This is very useful, for example, to obtain average power consumption over time from a simple time-domain plot of momentary power consumption.

[@alaricsnellpym]

That's really helpful. When I tried Ltspice out, I gave up on my switching PSU circuit as I couldn't get it to work... I was just using default components... Now I know it wasn't just me failing to understand the principles!

[@johncarson2877]

A tip that I learned a short time back was how to easily measure the differential voltage between two nodes. I thought that i would have to write an equation in the plot window but all you have to do is to move your mouse to the initial node you are interested in, press and hold the left mouse button while moving the mouse to the second node, then release. The differential voltage between the two nodes will be plotted. This doesn't seem to work with measuring current, however.

[@breedj1]

Great video! Here's another small tip. If you right click on a net and add an '.op Data label' you will see a number with 6 decimals. These take up a lot of space and I normally only need to know one decimal. You can change the data label and use, for instance, 'round(I(R7)*10000)/10000' to round a current to 1 mA, or use round($*1)/1 to round to 1.

[@dippybird1166]

Thanks, very helpful! Small remark regarding the cshunt. I guess it should be pronounced c-shunt, rather than cs-hunt

[@mglepd]

Wow, thanks! I’ve been struggling to see the waveform traces (thin navy blue line against black background). Changing the defaults has made it so much better

[@p_mouse8676]

The best advice I can give, is the following. I see a lot of people simulating very big and complicated circuits. Often struggling with it or having to wait forever for it to finish. It's a lot easier to divide the circuit in smaller subcircuits and just simulate those little subcircuits instead and focus just on a few parameters. For example, the behavior of a mosfet or some kind of over current protection doesn't need the practical circuit to study its behavior. Also, instead of a constant current source, it's easier to work with a resistor and giving it the value R=V(out)/I. For I fill in the current (100m for example). The issue with a constant current source is that it will always draw the current, which can give very strange values or behavior sometimes. One more very practical tip. Bind the run command shortcut to the spacebar. Will make your day so much easier.

[@FesZElectronics]

Great suggestions! I would just like to point out that for current sources, you have a box to tick on the middle right somewhere "this is an active load". This should stop it from sourcing current.

[@bwolfe58]

The default hotkey for the spacebar is to fit the schematic to the display window. I use this all the time. I would choose a different hotkey for the run command. By default, there is no hotkey for the run command.

[@p_mouse8676]

@@FesZElectronics Oh right, I never thought about that, haha Thanks! :)

[@p_mouse8676]

@@bwolfe58 I know, spacebar was just a suggestion, I never ever use that schematic fitting option at all :)

[@AdityaMehendale]

"Tile vertically" and "panes" to add more plots on a common timescale, e.g. at 13:00 ; math on the plots' title to multiply/integrate etc.

[@alexfedorov1160]

I've been using LTspice for quite some time now. Though, almost all of your tips are new to me and indeed very useful. Thank you!

[@bowfinger26]

Awesome! I had the time step too small problem with exactly the MCP6001 and it drove me crazy. Thanks!

[@hedleyfurio]

yet another great video

[@petrusbosman4264]

This is really helpful, thank you very much.

[@CliveChamberlain946]

Most helpful! Thank you 👍

[@cat-ie6yp]

Thanks Fez, I hope one day to have even an ounce of your knowledge!

[@jacobfaseler5311]

The last trick with duplicate circuits is also great for deriving the amount of error in a system you’re doing monte-Carlo analysis on. Having both ideal values and varying values on the same sheet makes it trivial to .measure the difference between the ideal output and various worst-case outputs.

[@FesZElectronics]

I never though of that, but you are right!

[@Graham_Wideman]

Very useful tips indeed! One possible addition for hotkeys: I use so many different drawing, MCAD and ECAD programs that have their own hotkeys that it's very difficult to remember them all. So I have found Streamdeck quite useful. It's a function key pad where the keys are backed by a video screen to provide the keys with programmable legends. You can quickly switch between key maps as you switch between programs.

[@dimsum5567]

Brilliant content

[@ahmadiyatzindabad3622]

Your work is very good.

[@soothcoder]

Another good one is breaking loops so you can measure loop response. Also another scenario is where your simulation works but your circuit doesn’t (as it oscillates for ex). Adding wire resistances, capacitances and inductances are good tricks to replicate the measured behavior.

[@kiltrash1]

Other useful tips include: 1) Using formulae not just node names in the Plot window eg 10*V(R1)*I(R6). 2) The .savebias and .loadbias commands to save/load the entire set of initial conditions - useful with audio amplifier models when you want to look at waveforms or do frequency sweeps without waiting for large caps to charge/settle, 3) The .step temp list.... command to check bias conditions when output transistors get hot, 4) the View, FFT command in the plot window to get an insight into amplifier clipping/distortion. 5) And for advanced users, you can use the .meas command to calculate things like 10-90% risetimes, waveform overshoot, etc. A final simple tip is just to break the circuit and also the simulation down into smaller chunks.

[@ReyciclismoMTB]

God, is supposed to be German hahahah epic. Another great video!

[@savinogiovannimuscio2953]

You are the best absolutly

[@surendrakumarsahoo9878]

Nice and helpful 🙏

[@Lolipop5370]

Great Video !

[@bbigboy01]

I have watched many of your podcasts and they are very helpful. I am trying to use LTSpice to simulate a circuit that can detect asynchronous pulses from a source that can have its polarities switched at any time. I have done this part, but when I try and take the digitized pulses from this circuit and input the pulses to the available counters LTSpice provides, the counters wont work. The counters do work, if I use an LTSpice pulse generator. Can you offer any areas where I may be doing something LTSpice doesn't like? Thank you.

[@JohnDuthie]

Have you ever made a LTSpice tutorial on how a musical tesla coil works? I bought one off amazon the other day and it only has a few parts and I wish I understood what was going on.

[@maxgooglesohn2955]

I have a question regarding the 3rd party symbols and sharing your spice simulation. As of now I create a symbol by opening the .lib file and then I autogenerate a symbol. The symbols are then saved in the default directory. The problem occurs when I move the .lib or I want to share the project with another person who was a different path file setup. The other person cannot find the implementation of that model on their computer as the simulation uses a file path which only existed on my computer. Is there a way to share LTspice simulations easily without having the other person needing to generate the 3rd party symbols themselves? I have tried putting the .asy file and .lib in the same folder as the .asc file, implementing the .lib via a .include statement and tried some different path setting the options menu. Sadly without success. Any ideas?

[@vidhyadhar64]

For the last trick, will the 'built-in difference calculations' be more useful? I mean, can we plot the waveform showing difference between waveform of circuit1 and waveform of circuit 2?

[@FesZElectronics]

Of course, you can perform calculations with any value from the simulation as long as both circuits are run in the same simulation.

[@alexloktionoff6833]

I have 12cores CPU, but I’ve found that LTSpice loads only single core, do you have a tip for this?

[@electronix2919]

Hello Fesz, i would like to know if it will be possible to make a video that explain how to do a sweep frequencies (vobulation) on a Lc parallel circuit using LTSPICE. I saw in your different videos that you really mastered Ltspice. Thank you a lot for the share of your knowledge. 😉👍

[@electronix2919]

Hello Fesz, did you Saw my message.... I Hope you 'll Can answer to my question.

[@pieters286]

very informative! cs-hunt -> c-shunt -> 'shunt' is a bypass i.e. capacitive shunt?

[@pieters286]

@Rocky Robinson yes, current shunt is probably a better description as the cap is shunting current.

[@AdityaMehendale]

@@pieters286 Then it should've been called i_shnt

[@AdityaMehendale]

Isn't CS -hunt actually c_shunt :: as in "series resistor or shunt capacitor" ?

[@FesZElectronics]

I think you are right! I think it stands for shunt capacitor

[@kumu2024]

Thank you very much. How would any one know about that kind of tricks like the cshunt? Where do you get that info? How many similar tricks are out there that we don't know??

[@FesZElectronics]

Honestly, I found it by searching on random forums on how to fix convergence issues; a problem I got when trying to import various component models - the cshunt option usually helps with that.

[@kumu2024]

@@FesZElectronics And thanks for you that we didn't need to get that trouble to search for a solution .. you just helped us before getting the issue. Great thanks for you.

[@kumu2024]

@@FesZElectronics And thanks for you, you helped us to not go to that rabbit hole .. we know now how to solve that. Great help and thanks.

[@qzorn4440]

very interesting , ltspice has so many features, can LTspice be used in design and testing Modbus rtu master slave rs485 arduino projects with CRC error codes? 😎 thanks, great video

[@aiswaryanarayanan7269]

Sir, how to create LM741/NS on ltspice??

[@arabeagle7591]

Fascinating explanation manner as usual and as we used to from you.... Many thanks, could you please clarifying me a point that how to isolat an AC signal on a plot pan that superimposed on a DC, in other words how to plot the AC signal with a zero offset isolating the component of the DC in the simulation. MANY Thanks

[@yveslesage8525]

if I understand correctly what you want to see...just add a large capacitor at the wanted node (e.g. 1F (one farad !) and put a probe after the capacitor, you'll get rid of the DC component that bothers you. If needed to zoom the AC content (as it may be too small on the same scale as the DC+AC content)..right click on the graph, select "add a plot pane" and add the AC trace on it).Another way is to substract the mean value (ie the DC content) to the trace (AC+DC).

[@FesZElectronics]

Other than the other good responses I have seen to this problem, I would suggest simply subtracting the DC part - for example if you are interested in node V(n001) which has a 2V DC component; in the traces window, you can right click and edit the plotted expression to be V(n001)-2

[@arabeagle7591]

Many thanks @Yves Lesage I have of course used a coupling DC capcitor 😁😁👍🙏 but for sure the subtracting function is more professional way😉👍😉👍

[@arabeagle7591]

@@FesZElectronics thanks a lot I appreciate your concern to reply...

[@arabeagle7591]

@@yveslesage8525 Many thanks I have of course used a coupling DC capcitor 😁😁👍🙏 but for sure the subtracting function is more professional way😉👍😉👍

[@jakep8484]

I like storms and for the most part the grey and black in spice but then again I am in engineering and am mostly German 😁

[@kacperbardecki3671]

Alt+Left click doesn't work for me :( Can anyone relate? Should I be able to use it for a resistor? Does it only work for "U" components?

[@FesZElectronics]

It should work as long as you are running a transient type simulation..

[@johnwest7993]

As strange as it seems, I have trouble reading a schematic with interconnects that aren't black. I suppose that's from seeing them in black for the last 60 years.

[@FesZElectronics]

Well, that is not difficult to change; in the color's menu, you can change any color, including interconnections and component colors - black is of course an option

[@alessiocaffi5992]

LTSpice is an incredible for electronics but still some Users: I would like modern looks, icons ,wiring sort of QUCS/ADS, KiCad. Author: "it is free and it works so why change". Haha Cheers

[@dr-mnizam]

Here is the video for intallation of LTSpice with basic voltage divider circuit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWbXZXZoisl-gKs

[@R2AUK]

LTSpice UI on MacOS is so terrible that I used to pay for CrossOver to emulate Windows environment.... until I learned that you have to pay again for it after the major system update 😭

[@paulcohen1555]

This isn't related to LTspice, I just need a simple method to find which unmarked Ferrite core in my"stock" is better for inductors (high Q) and which is better to RFI suppression (high losses)

[@Henry-sv3wv]

2:07 nooo, a white background, my eyes start bleeding, need dark theme

[@funmath3835]

is electronics good paying work ? i am confused pls tell

[@funmath3835]

@G E T R E K T thanks

[@stevenbliss989]

THANK YOU, I learnt some VERY useful tips! :)