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Installation

Requirements

Minimum operating system

The packaged binaries are compiled against these minimum OS versions (macOS: the deployment target is set at build time, see CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET in CMakeLists.txt):

Platform Minimum version
macOS macOS 13.3 Ventura (Apple silicon and Intel)
Windows Windows 10 or newer (64-bit)
Linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or any distribution with glibc 2.39+, on X11 or Wayland

Software

  • KiCad 10.0 or newer (only needed for the KiCad plugin mode)
  • Xyce installed somewhere on disk — Xyce Studio drives the Xyce executable; it does not bundle a simulator. The path is configured on first use (see Configuring the Xyce Executable).

KiCad plugin

Step 1: Enable the KiCad API

  1. Open KiCad.
  2. Go to Preferences → Settings → API.
  3. Enable KiCad API.

KiCad Plugin Preferences

Step 2: Restart KiCad

Restart KiCad so the KiCad API server is available.

Step 3: Download the plugin package

Download the latest release from github.com/spice-projects/xyce-studio/releases/latest.

Pick the package for your platform: kicad-xyce-plugin-macos.zip or kicad-xyce-plugin-windows.zip.

Step 4: Install the plugin

  1. Open KiCad.
  2. Go to Tools → Plugin Manager (or Preferences → Plugin Manager).
  3. Click Install from File... and select the downloaded .zip file.

Install from File

Step 5: Restart KiCad

Restart KiCad so the newly installed plugin is loaded and registered.

Step 6: Launch Xyce Studio

Open a schematic project. The plugin appears as a toolbar button in the schematic editor — Run Xyce Circuit Simulator. Click it to launch the simulator with your schematic already netlisted.

KiCad Schematic Editor

When launched from KiCad, Xyce Studio extracts the schematic netlist automatically and places it in the built-in editor. The editor is read-only in this mode — edit your schematic in KiCad and relaunch to pick up changes.

Standalone application (macOS)

  1. Download xyce-studio-macos.zip from the latest release.
  2. Unzip it and drag Xyce Studio.app to your Applications folder.

The standalone app does not connect to KiCad: it opens netlist files (.cir), runs simulations, and visualizes the output. It can also open Xyce simulation output files (.raw, .prn, .csv, .csd or .dat) directly — useful for re-examining results from a previous run or analyzing output produced by a command-line Xyce session.