Appeal to John Broskie ... for Mac support

[triode_al]

With his TubeCAD, John Broskie is the fame of many an audio DIYer - as long as you have a Windows platform. TubeCAD and B2 Spice are very useful for grossly checking a circuit idea, with a very good accuracy, also for trying various circuit topologies and see how they fit for a certain purpose. And the simulation helps understanding ideas you have.
I have last used B2 Spice until two years ago, and I have always associated Broskie as developer this tool.

But - I switched from Windows to Mac. And I can't find a tool as good as the B2 spice / electronics CAD software pack for the Mac.

My appeal is: please support me in asking Broskie to port his Windoze version to the Mac!

This is a plea from the market: add your thoughts.
Or tell me what excellent tools exist .

Albert

ps Of course I sent him a few mails ...

 

[triode_al]

I have just seen this post in this same section:
ARTA analysis SW and LTspice under OSX on a hackintosh.
That seems to point a way ahead.
I'll try Wine and then try to install B2 Spice.
albert

 

[Kofi Annan]

I've had good luck running LT SwitcherCad (LT Spice IV) on the Mac using crossover. I'd imagine it would be able to run other flavors of Spice and possibly the TubeCad / Glass Audio software as well.

Let us know if you are able to get any of Broskie's brilliant software on the Mac through Crossover!

Kofi

 

[triode_al]

I installed and brought up the Crossover Win Emulator.
Created a WinXP bottle (an environment).
Clicked on the B2-software - and this gave the old fashioned blue install screen.
I used the defaulted destination (c:\ etc).
It installed in less than 10 secs; notified this will start a 45 days trial period.; and the Finish button popped up.
OK!
I did select the B2 software:
I did get an address violation when it opened, but the desktop opens anyway.


I can select a schema that exists, and you can see I have the simulation running.
But the parts lib does not open:


I can't draw/change a schema.
B2 Spice requests common db sources I have not available.

Anyway, this is promissing.

albert
[By the way, CrossOver/Wine will support a software developer to port the Win package using their software]

 

[triode_al]

I've looked into this further:
I have read in the B2 Spice manual that it ain't anything to do with Broskie, he is just a very well known user and advocate.

The user manual says:

B2 Spice
Version 5
USER’S MANUAL
Manual by Thien Nguyen, Christopher Hsiong and Jon Engelbert
© 1996 - 2005, Beige Bag Software, Inc.
info@beigebag.com
Beige Bag Software
(734) 332-0487

So should change the name of the thread, apologies John !!!!!!

Anyway,
in the Crossover registration mail I saw that they will help if there is a representative group who would like to have the Crossweaver development team support.

We are very interested in supporting further applications, but
it is hard work, so we can only do it for single users that band
together or for organizations that have a fairly significant number
of users.

The bottom line is that if you need a particular application
supported, and you think it may be worth our while, please
write us back at this email address or to sales@codeweavers.com;
we are very interested in supporting your application.

Who would like to have B2 Spice running, on the Mac?
albert

 

[triode_al]

I've had good luck running LT SwitcherCad (LT Spice IV) on the Mac using crossover. I'd imagine it would be able to run other flavors of Spice and possibly the TubeCad / Glass Audio software as well.

Let us know if you are able to get any of Broskie's brilliant software on the Mac through Crossover!

Kofi

Hi Kofi,
I got LT Spice up but did not get everything running.
e.g. can not open no help file.
Any tricks?
albert

 

[triode_al]

Regarding LR Spice IV, I have downloaded Chmox - a viewer for the Microsoft help files.
Use finder to go to the LTspiceHelp.chm and I can fully browse it (alas not search)
This showed me how to make a shortcut to rotate, and also how to properly edit attributes.
I have run a simulation on a circuit, it looks like it is all functioning!
albert

 

[kevinh]

IMO the best solution is to get parallels for the Mac so you can run your PC software there. It works great as long as you have a Mac with the intel chip.

 

[triode_al]

I think you are right.
The cost has prohibited me (penny foolish, pound wise guy as I am ) But I will have to revert to that - later on when budget allows.

It is a big surprise the Mac community has not flowered in this direction.
albert

 

[richiem]

Surprises me too. Since the change to Intel processors, I think porting has gotten easier. Since I use a hackintosh, I can't run Parallels and such -- or at least not easily. CrossOver does run a lot of stuff though.

 

[triode_al]

What I should do is sit down and try a lot f things once more.
All schematics diagrams for Mac I found were course tools for instance searching this subforum, are linux-guy oriented (sloppy and lossy user interface to say the least) and not content-rich.

I got the tool LTSpiceIV running though, next step is the search to find the proper spice models for the triodes. Need them dearly, as well as rectifiers. Will take me some time.
albert

 

[kevinh]

The overhead for John to support 2 platforms at the prices he charges doesn't amke sense for the potential customer base IMO.

 

[triode_al]

I understand.
Apologies for having John in the thread header (I thought him the owner of the platform; I found out it is not so)
It seems LTSpiceIV is then the most natural platform.
albert