On SUN SOLARIS machines
, SPICE3 can be run in background.
This means, that instead of calling directly the function
which executes SPICE3:
function$runsim()
it is called this way:
pthread_create(&thread,(pthread_attr_t *) NULL, ... (void * (*)(void *)) function$runsim,(void*) NULL)
So, instead of blocking the SPICECAD graphics entry when running SPICE3 using runsim, you can say run in background and carry on editing your schematics. After a few moments after starting the simulation, you can select a net which you want to plot and plot it. In the plotwindow, the curve you wanted will appear . If you run a longer transient simulation, the curve will stop somewhere before the expected final simulation timepoint. When you want to display what has happened a few seconds later, you can use zoomout to redisplay the plot. You will discover that the last timepoint of the simulation curve approached the final timepoint. This way, you can check (for example) whether the circuit that you have designed is oscillating.
If you run SPICE3 in background, is is possible to start a second simulation in foreground or in background. You should NOT do that because this will result in unpredictable behaviour of SPICE3 and SPICECAD.