Jul 12, 2013

Running LTspice IV on OSX

UPDATE:
As Helmut Sennewald mentioned in comments, Linear published OSX native version of LTSpice - http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice



The following information will be useful only for older OSX versions.

Originally I considered using MacSpice, but unfortunately it lacks UI to draw circuits, and I don't see a reason to be limited to console input.
LTspice is a Windows program, and hence cannot natively run on OSX. WINE software can emulate Windows good enough for some programs to run, and luckily LTspice is one of them. There is more than one way to skin a cat, but I used MacPorts:
sudo port install wine
This runs for a while, and requires XCode. When WINE installation is complete, download LTspice, and launch the installer via WINE:
wine LTspiceIV.exe
Launching the actual program:
wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/LTC/LTspiceIV/scad3.exe


1 comment:

Helmut Sennewald said...

Hello Bolkin,

There is now native LTspice for MAC available sincee August 2013. It requires OS X 10.7+ (10.7, 10.8, 10.9).

http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice

Best regards,
Helmut