SPICE Schematic Preview
reox8637 downloadsDraw SPICE netlists in spice code blocks as circuit schematics, with a button to flip each one between the schematic and its source.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates7
Turn SPICE netlists in your notes into circuit schematics. Write a spice code block and the
schematic appears in its place, in Reading view and Live Preview. The plugin only draws circuits;
it never simulates them. Desktop only.
```spice
* RC low-pass driving an emitter follower
V1 in 0 AC 1
R1 in mid 10k
C1 mid 0 100n
Q1 vcc mid out 2N3904
R2 out 0 1k
VCC vcc 0 5
.model 2N3904 NPN
```
Features
- Schematics in Reading view, Live Preview, embedded notes, hover previews, Canvas cards and exported PDFs.
- Six SPICE dialects: ngspice, LTspice, PSpice, HSPICE, Xyce and Spectre.
- Model libraries and subcircuits from files in your vault, through
.includeand.lib. - Captions, alignment and alt text for each schematic.
- A button to see a netlist without leaving Reading view, and one to see its parts as a table.
- Follows your theme: schematics stay readable in dark themes.
- Works offline.
Install
- In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins and turn off Restricted mode if it's on.
- Select Browse, search for SPICE Schematic Preview, then select Install and Enable.
To install by hand instead, download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the
latest release into
<your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/spice-schematic-preview/, then enable the plugin.
Writing netlists
Put the netlist in a code block tagged spice. Placement and wiring are automatic: the netlist
says what's connected, not where it goes. The first line of a SPICE file is its title, but a code
block has none, so start a title line with * to make it a comment.
What gets drawn
| Element | Drawn as |
|---|---|
R, C, L |
Resistor, capacitor, inductor, with the value |
D |
Diode, with its model |
V, I |
Voltage or current source |
Q |
NPN or PNP transistor, from its .model |
M |
NMOS or PMOS transistor, from its .model |
X |
A box named after the subcircuit, with its pin names |
| Other elements | A box saying what the element is |
Every connection to ground (0 or gnd) gets its own ground symbol, and global nodes get net
labels. Simulation commands such as .tran are skipped.
Dialects
Blocks are read as ngspice unless you choose otherwise, either for all blocks with the Dialect
setting or for one block with the dialect option:
```spice {dialect="ltspice"}
V1 in 0 PULSE(0 5 0 1n 1n 5u 10u)
R1 in out 1k
C1 out 0 1n
```
The dialect names are ngspice, ltspice, pspice, hspice, xyce and spectre. The
spice-renderer documentation lists what
each one reads.
Model libraries and subcircuits
.include, .inc and .lib read files from your vault, as SPICE does:
```spice
.include models/opamp.inc
X1 0 inv out opamp
R1 in inv 10k
R2 inv out 47k
```
- Paths start from the note's folder.
../reaches other folders of the vault. - Only files in your vault can be read. A path that leads outside it shows "the file is outside this vault".
- Files in hidden folders (names starting with
.) aren't found, because Obsidian doesn't index them. - Included files may include others, up to 8 levels deep. Only names and elements are taken from them; nothing is run.
- When an included file changes, the schematics that use it redraw. Refresh included files in the command palette rereads every file.
Captions and other options
Add options in braces after spice:
```spice {caption="Figure 1: CMOS inverter" align="center" alt="A CMOS inverter"}
M1 out in vdd vdd pch
M2 out in 0 0 nch
.model nch NMOS
.model pch PMOS
```
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
dialect |
The SPICE dialect of this block, as above. |
caption |
Text shown under the schematic. |
align |
left, center or right. |
alt |
A description read aloud by screen readers. |
class |
A CSS class, for styling the schematic with a CSS snippet. |
Put each value in quotes. Values are plain text, not Markdown. If an option is misspelled, it's ignored and the schematic still appears; an unknown dialect is shown as an error that lists the six.
Viewing the netlist
- Reading view: hover over a schematic and select the </> button in its corner to see the netlist as written. Select it again to see the schematic. Obsidian remembers which schematics you switched, even after a restart. Show every schematic in this note in the command palette switches them all back.
- Live Preview: select Obsidian's own Edit this block button, just as for a Mermaid diagram.
The BOM view
In Reading view, the button beside </> shows a block's parts as a table, a bill of materials (BOM). Identical parts share a row with their quantity and references. Select it again to see the schematic. Like a netlist view, a BOM view is remembered, and Show every schematic in this note switches it back.
| Qty | References | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VAC | voltage source | SIN(0 12 50) |
| 4 | D1, D2, D3, D4 | diode | 1N4007 |
| 1 | C1 | capacitor | 1000u |
| 1 | RL | resistor | 1k |
- Parts are identical when their type, subcircuit name and everything written after their nodes
match, ignoring case and extra spaces.
10kand10Kshare a row;10kand10000don't. - A multiplier such as
m=2stays in the Value column and doesn't change the quantity. - Parts from included files join the table, with a File column naming the file.
- Parts inside a
.subcktdefinition aren't listed, as they aren't drawn. - If a schematic takes too long to lay out, its table still appears. If the netlist has a mistake, the table says so instead.
Choose how the table looks with BOM table style: Plain uses your theme's table styling, Compact is a dense full-width table, and Card puts the table on the schematic's card with a part count.
Dark and light themes
Schematics follow your theme. In a dark theme, wires, symbols and labels take your theme's text colour on the page. In a light theme, schematics appear on a white card.
To always show schematics on a white card, turn off Follow dark themes in the plugin's settings.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dialect | The dialect for blocks without a dialect option. ngspice by default. |
| Layout timeout | How long laying out a schematic may take before it's shown as an error. 3 seconds by default, from 0.5 to 60. |
| Follow dark themes | On by default. Turn off to keep every schematic, and the Card table, on a white card. |
| BOM table style | How the BOM view's table looks: Plain (the default), Compact or Card. |
| Debug logging | Writes ignored options and notes from the netlist reader, such as an undefined transistor model, to the developer console. |
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Refresh included files | Reads every included file again and redraws every schematic. |
| Show every schematic in this note | Switches every block in the note back to its schematic, from its netlist or its BOM view. |
| Restart renderer | Starts the schematic engine afresh and redraws open notes. |
When something goes wrong
- A mistake in the netlist: the error appears in place of the schematic, quoting the line with a caret under the problem.
- "Took longer than…": the layout hit the Layout timeout. Densely connected circuits of a few hundred parts may need more time; raise the limit in settings.
- Size limits: a netlist may have up to 400 elements and 64,000 characters. An included file may be up to 8 MB, and a block may include up to 32 files and 16 MB in all.
Privacy
Schematics are drawn on your device, inside Obsidian. The plugin doesn't connect to the internet and doesn't collect any data. It reads only the files your netlists include, and only from your vault, through Obsidian. It never writes files.
Credits
Schematics are laid out by the Eclipse Layout Kernel through elkjs, with symbols from netlistsvg. The licenses of the software built into this plugin are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
Released under the MIT License. To build or change the plugin, see DEVELOPMENT.md.