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Command-Specific Variables

These variables control the operation of specific WRspice commands and functions. Most of these variables can be set indirectly from the Command Options tool from the Commands button in the Tools menu of the Tool Control window.

appendwrite
When set, data written with the write command will be appended to the file, if the file already exists. If not set, the file will be overwritten.

checkiterate
This sets the binary search depth used in finding operating range extrema in operating range analysis initiated with the check command. It can be set to an integer value 0-10. If not set or set to zero, the search is skipped.

diff_abstol
This variable sets the absolute error tolerance used by the diff command. The default is 1e-12.

diff_reltol
This variable sets the relative error tolerance used by the diff command. The default is 1e-3.

diff_vntol
This variable sets the absolute voltage tolerance used by the diff command. The default is 1e-6.

dollarcmt
This boolean variable, when set, alters the interpretation of comments triggered by `$' and `;' characters, for compatibility with input files intended for other simulators.

In other simulators, the `$' character always indicates the start of a comment. The `;' (semicolon) character is interpreted as equivalent to `$' for purposes of comment identification. In WRspice, `$' is used for shell variable substitution, a feature that does not appear in other simulators and prevents general use of `$' comments. This can cause trouble when reading files intended for other simulators. WRspice will detect and strip ``obvious'' comments, where the `$' is preceded with a backslash or surrounded by white space, but this may not be sufficient.

Setting this variable will cause `$' and `;' to indicate the start of a comment when reading input, if the character is preceded by start of line, white space, or a comma, independent of what follows the character.

dpolydegree
This variable sets the polynomial degree used by the deriv function for differentiation. If not set, the value is 2 (quadratic). The valid range is 0-7.

editor
This variable is set to the name or path of the text editor to be used within WRspice. This overrides the SPICE_EDITOR and EDITOR environment variables. If no editor is set, the internal editor xeditor is used if graphics is available, otherwise the vi editor is used.

errorlog
If this variable is set to a file path, all error and warning messages will be copied to the file. The variable can also be set as a boolean, in which case all errors and warnings will be copied to a file named ``wrspice.errors'' in the current directory. When not set, errors that are not currently displayed in the error window are lost. Only the last 200 messages are retained in the error window.

filetype
This variable can be set to either of the keywords ascii or binary. It determines whether ASCII or binary format is used in the generated rawfiles, for example from the write command. The default is ascii, but this can be overridden with the environment variable SPICE_ASCIIRAWFILE, which is set to ``1'' (for ASCII), or ``0'' (zero, for binary).

fourgridsize
When a fourier command is given, the data are first interpolated onto a linear grid. The size of the grid is given by this variable. If unspecified, a size of 200 is used.

helpinitxpos
This variable specifies the distance in pixels from the left edge of the screen to the left edge of the help window, when it first appears. If not set, the value taken is 100 pixels.

helpinitypos
This variable specifies the distance in pixels from the top edge of the screen to the top edge of the help window, when it first appears. If not set, the value taken is 100 pixels.

helppath
This variable specifies the search path used to locate directories containing help database files. This variable takes its initial value from the SPICE_HLP_PATH environment variable, if set, otherwise it assumes a built-in default ``( /usr/local/xictools/wrspice/help )'', or, if XT_PREFIX is defined in the environment, its value replaces ``/usr/local''.

modpath
This list variable contains directory paths where loadable device module files are expected to be found. A list variable in WRspice takes the form of a list of words, surrounded by space-separated parentheses, for example
( /path/to/dir1 /path/to/dir2 "/usr/bill/my files" )
If a directory path contains white space, it should be quoted, as above.

The loadable device modules found in modpath directories are normally loaded automatically on program start-up. See the description of the devload command in 4.6.11 for more information.

mplot_cur
This variable contains the name of the last margin analysis output file generated. This variable can be set, but has no effect, as the file names are generated internally.

nfreqs
This variable specifies how many multiples of the fundamental frequency to print in the fourier command. If not set, 10 values are printed.

noeditwin
If this boolean variable is set, no window is created for the text editor. This is desirable for editors that create their own windows.

nomodload
This variable has relevance only if set in the .wrspiceinit file. If set, the automatic loading of device model modules will be suppressed. This normally occurs after the .wrspiceinit file (if any) is read and processed. This variable is set if the -m command line option is given.

nopadding
If set, binary rawfiles with vectors of less than maximum length are not zero padded.

nopage
If set, page breaks are suppressed in the print and asciiplot commands. The nobreak variable is similar, but suppresses page breaks only in the asciiplot command.

When given in the .options line, page ejects are suppressed in printed output, in batch mode.

noprtitle
In interactive mode, when a circuit file is sourced, the title line from the circuit is printed on-screen. If this boolean variable is set, the title printing is suppressed, and circuit sourcing is silent unless there are errors. The variable can be set by checking the box in the source page of the Command Options tool from the Tools menu.

numdgt
This variable specifies the number of significant digits to print in print, asciiplot, fourier, and some other commands. The default precision is six digits.

This variable sets the number of significant digits printed in output from batch mode, when used in the .options line.

printautowidth
In column mode of the print command, if this boolean variable is set, the logical page width is expanded as necessary to print all vectors, up to a hard limit of 2048 characters.

printnoheader
In column mode of the print command, if this boolean variable is set, the three-line header that normally appears at the top of the first page of output is suppressed.

printnoindex
In column mode of the print command, if this boolean variable is set, the column of index values that normally appears to the left of all vector data is suppressed.

printnopageheader
In column mode of the print command, if this boolean variable is set, the two line page header which is normally printed at the top of each page is omitted.

printnoscale
In column mode of the print command, the values of the scale vector are by default printed in the first data column of each page. Setting this boolean variable suppresses this. A deprecated alias noprintscale is also recognized, for backwards compatibility with Spice3 and earlier WRspice releases.

random
When set, the HSPICE-compatible random number functions (unif, aunif, gauss, agauss, limit) will return random values. When not set and not running Monte Carlo analysis these functions always return mean values.

This applies to the listed functions only, and not the statistical functions in 3.16.9, and not the voltage/current source random functions, which always produce random output.

This can be set with the set command or in a .options line to enable the random functions for use in scripts, during analysis, or working from the command line. The random output is disabled by default since some foundry model sets make use of random functions intended for HSPICE Monte Carlo analysis, and this would cause big trouble in WRspice.

Warning: with this variable set, reading in foundry models such as those from IBM will generate random model parameters, as these models have built-in random generation compatible with HSPICE and WRspice. This may be exactly what you want, but if not, be forewarned.

rawfile
This variable sets the default name for the data file to be produced. The default is as entered with the -r command line option, or ``rawspice.raw''. An extension sets the file format, which can be the native rawfile format, or the Common Simulation Data Format (CSDF). See the description of the write command (4.5.11) for more information about the formats and how they can be specified. In server mode (the -s command line option was given) data will be output in rawfile format in all cases. The filetype variable is used to set whether native rawfiles are written using ASCII or binary number representations (ASCII is the default).

rawfileprec
This variable sets the number of digits used to print data in an ASCII rawfile. The default is 15.

rhost
This variable specifies the name of the default machine to submit remote simulations to. This machine must have a wrspiced daemon running. The default machine can also be specified in the SPICE_HOST environment variable, which will be overridden if rhost is set. Additional machines can be added to an internal list with the rhost command. The host name can be optionally suffixed with a colon followed by the port number to use to communicate with the wrspiced daemon. The port must match that set up by the daemon. If not given, the port number is obtained from the operating system for ``wrspice/tcp'' or 6114 (the IANA registered port number for this service) if this is not defined.

rprogram
The name of the program to run when an rspice command is given. If not set, the program path used will be determined as in the aspice command.

spectrace
This enables messages to be printed during Fourier analysis with the spec command, for debugging purposes.

specwindow
This variable is set to one of the following strings, which will determine the type of windowing used for the Fourier transform in the spec command. If not set, the default is hanning.

bartlet Bartlet (triangle) window
blackman Blackman order 2 window
cosine Hanning (cosine) window
gaussian Gaussian window
hamming Hamming window
hanning Hanning (cosine) window
none No windowing
rectangular Rectangular window
triangle Bartlet (triangle) window

specwindoworder
This can be set to an integer in the range 2-8. This sets the order when the gaussian window is used in the spec command. If not set, order 2 is used.

spicepath
This variable can be set to a path to a simulator executable which will be executed when asynchronous jobs are submitted with the aspice command. If not set, the path used will default to the value of the environment variable SPICE_PATH. If this environment variable is not set, the path is constructed from the value of the environment variable SPICE_EXEC_DIR prepended to the name of the presently running program. If the SPICE_EXEC_DIR variable is not set, the path used is that of the presently running WRspice.

units
If this variable is set to ``degrees'', all trig functions will use degrees instead of radians for the units of their arguments. The default is ``radians''.


next up previous contents index
Next: Plot Variables Up: Variables Previous: Shell Variables   Contents   Index
Stephen R. Whiteley 2022-09-18