cktimg — the Rust library

SPICE/netlist text in, schematic out. The pipeline is parse → place → render, and the render step is pluggable: a backend is just a function Fn(&Ir, &Strings) -> String. JSON is built in; write your own to dump xschem .sch, KiCad, SVG, or anything else.

Install

From crates.io (once published):

[dependencies]
cktimg = "0.1"

Or against this repo:

[dependencies]
cktimg = { git = "https://github.com/<you>/cktImg", package = "cktimg" }

CI builds an optimized .crate on every push (see .github/workflows/library.yaml) — grab it from the run’s Artifacts if you want to vendor it.

Use

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// SPICE text → JSON string + a parse report (ignored/skipped lines).
let (json, report) = cktimg::run(spice, cktimg::backend::json);
if !report.is_clean() {
    eprintln!("{}", report.summary());
}
std::fs::write("ota.json", json).unwrap();
}

Built-in backend, fn(&Ir, &Strings) -> String:

• Rail nets (vdd/vcc power, gnd/vss/0 ground) get their rail devices auto-inserted when the netlist names them but draws none — the placer anchors on rails, plain SPICE doesn’t carry them.

For native TikZ/PGF output (pdflatex draws it — no converter), use the cktimg-latex crate: cktimg_latex::tikz(spice).

Bring your own backend

A backend is any function with the right shape. Want xschem? Write it:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
fn xschem(ir: &cktimg::Ir, s: &cktimg::Strings) -> String {
    let mut out = String::from("v {xschem version=3.4.5}\n");
    // walk ir.devices / ir.physical, resolve names via `s.get(id)`, emit `C {...}` lines
    out
}

let (sch, _) = cktimg::run(spice, xschem);
}

run calls your closure with the placed IR (ir.physical is Some) and the string pool. Everything the built-in backends see, you see.

What’s in the IR

The JSON backend is the easiest map of what’s available — devices (name, class, value, rotation/mirror, position), their pins (terminal name, net, xy), the net list, the routed wires (trunk + stub polylines per net), and junction dots. The raw types live in the re-exported cktimg::ir crate (devices, pins, nets, physical); the JSON view is a denormalized, resolved projection of them.

Re-exports

cktimg re-exports netlist, ir, devices, config, and build so you can drop to a lower level (custom parse, inspect Schematic<Placed>, etc.) without adding more dependencies.