KiCon 2024 in Asia is coming in November!
Get your tickets now to join the largest KiCad conference ever.

SPICE Simulation

KiCad integrates the open source spice simulator ngspice to provide simulation capability in graphical form through integration with the Schematic Editor.

Compatible with various spice models

The use of ngspice grants compatibility with existing models meant for:

  • spice

  • ltspice

  • pspice

  • hspice

Schematic Integration

Design your simulation circuit in the schematic and launch the simulator directly from the editor

Configure simulations

Configure four standard simulation modes:

  • AC Sweep

  • DC Transfer

  • Operating Point

  • Transient

or define your own custom simulation

Run and probe simulations

Run simulations and use the probe tool to select nets to plot voltage and pins to plot current.

Basic SPICE symbols

Both a standard SPICE library of symbols

Screenshot of simulation-spice library in symbol picker dialog

and PSPICE extended library symbols are included in KiCad’s standard symbol library

Screenshot of pspice library in symbol picker dialog
Note KiCad does not currently bundle any third party SPICE libraries. SPICE models are generally available to download from manufacturers' websites.