Direc­tory tex-archive/graphics/circuit_macros

Circuit_macros

* Circuit_macros Version 7.4, copyright (c) 2013 J. D. Aplevich under     *
* the LaTeX Project Public License. The files of this distribution may    *
* be redistributed or modified provided that this copyright notice is     *
* included and provided that modifications are clearly marked to          *
* distinguish them from this distribution.  There is no warranty          *
* whatsoever for these files.                                             *

  This is a set of macros for drawing high-quality line diagrams to
  include in TeX, LaTeX, or similar documents, with support SVG and
  other formats.  Fundamental electric circuit elements and basic logic
  gates are included with several tools and examples of other types of
  diagrams.  Elements can be scaled or drawn in any orientation and are
  easy to modify.  The advantages and disadvantages of such a system
  are similar to those of TeX itself, which is macro-based and
  non-wysiwyg, with ordinary character input.

  The macros are to be processed by m4, and evaluate to drawing
  commands in the pic "little language," which is easy to read and
  learn. Pic is well suited to line drawings requiring parametric or
  conditional components, fine adjustment, significant geometric
  calculations, repetition, or recursion.  Arbitrary text for
  formatting by LaTeX can be placed at will in the diagram.  Free
  LaTeX-compatible interpreters for m4 and pic are readily available.
  An extensive set of examples is included, showing electric circuits,
  block diagrams, flow charts, signal-flow graphs, basic use of colour
  and fill, and other applications.

  The pic interpreter "dpic" can produce output in several forms: a .tex
  file for processing by latex with PSTicks or pgf/Tikz (also pict2e or
  eepicemu for simple diagrams), or an mfpic, MetaPost, xfig, SVG, or
  postscript file.  The GNU pic interpreter produces tpic special
  commands.

REQUIRED SOFTWARE:
Preferred setup:
  m4, dpic (see below), LaTeX, PSTricks, dvips
or
  m4, dpic, LaTeX or PDFLaTeX, TikZ-PGF

Alternative:
  m4, GNU pic (gpic), TeX or LaTeX, and a driver recognizing tpic specials
   (eg dvips)

Also possible for some diagrams:
  m4 and dpic with output in the following formats:
    LaTeX graphics or LaTeX eepic (for simple diagrams), mfpic, xfig,
    MetaPost, SVG, Postscript

USAGE (The following describes basic usage; see below for integration
  with other tools):

  A source file, for example cct.m4, is processed as shown:
    m4 -I <path> pstricks.m4 libcct.m4 cct.m4 | dpic -p > cct.tex
  or
    m4 -I <path> libcct.m4 cct.m4 | gpic -t > cct.tex
  where <path> is the path to the installed library directory.

  If the m4 installation recognizes the M4PATH envirionment variable
  and it has been set to the installed library directory, then in
  the above, the -I <path> option for m4 can be omitted.

  If cct.m4 contains the appropriate include(file) lines, these commands
  can be simplified respectively to
    m4 -I <path> cct.m4 | dpic -p > cct.tex
  or
    m4 -I <path> cct.m4 | gpic -t > cct.tex

  The file cct.tex is processed by LaTeX or, more typically, inserted
  into a document to be processed by LaTeX, and the resulting dvi file
  is printed using dvips.

  In the case of PGF, the command is
    m4 -I <path> pgf.m4 libcct.m4 cct.m4 | dpic -g > cct.tex
  or, using include lines in cct.m4,
    m4 -I <path> cct.m4 | dpic -g > cct.tex
  and the document is processed either by LaTeX to produce postscript
  or PDFLaTeX to produce pdf.

  For processing complex documents containing many diagrams or other
  components, a project-management tool such as "make" is convenient.
  Otherwise a scripting language can automate the production steps.
  The process can also be managed by special-purpose editors and
  project tools such as TeXnicCenter or Cirkuit.

  NOTE: One of the configuration files gpic.m4, pstricks.m4, pgf.m4,
  postscript.m4, mpost.m4, mfpic.m4, svg.m4, or xfig.m4 must be read by m4
  before any of the other files, depending on the required form of pic
  output.  By default, gpic.m4 is read if one of these is not loaded
  first, but this default can be modified as described below in the
  installation instructions.

INSTALLATION:
  1.  Decide where you will be installing the .m4 library files:
      $HOME/Circuit_macros or c:\localtexmf\Circuit_macros, for
      example. Copy libcct.m4 and the other .m4 files in the
      top-level directory of the distribution to the installation
      directory, or simply expand the .tar.gz or .zip distribution
      file in the installation directory.

  2.  Copy boxdims.sty (see Section 9 of the manual) to where LaTeX
      will find it, typically in localtexmf/tex/latex/local/ or
      C:\localtexmf\tex\latex\local, and refresh the filename database.

  3.  This is optional. You can change the definition of the default
      processor (the macro m4processdefault) to PSTricks or pgf (ie tikz)
      with dpic, for example, in the file m4defaults.m4.  To do this
      automatically, copy Makefile from the top-level directory
      to the installation directory and type
        "make psdefault"  to make dpic with PSTricks the default
        "make pgfdefault" to make dpic with Tikz pgf the default
        "make gpicdefault" to restore gpic as the default.
      Changing the default means that you need not explicitly name
      the configuration file (pstricks.m4 or equivalent) in the command
      path as in the cct.m4 example above. Each of the libraries reads
      the default file if a configuration file has not been read.

WORKFLOW: Including diagrams of any kind in LaTeX documents requires the
  management of files and workflow.  These macros have been developed in
  environments containing a "make" facility (Unix-like operating systems
  and Cygwin on PCs), which has great power and flexibility, but the
  macros are compatible with other project-management tools such as
  mentioned above and below.

TESTING:
  First-time users should read at least the Quick Start section of
  CMman.pdf.  To test your installation, go to the examples directory
  and create a test circuit in the file test.m4.  Copy ex01.m4, for
  example, or quick.m4 from the doc directory into test.m4.

  On a system with a "make" facility, first check the definitions at
  the top of the Makefile, and then type "make tst1" to produce the
  file tst.ps.  If the source requires processing twice, type "make
  tst" instead.  To process one of the example .m4 files in the
  examples directory, simply type "make name.ps" to process name.m4.
  If these tests work to your satisfaction, try typing simply "make" to
  produce examples.ps.  To test .pdf files, go to the pgf directory,
  copy name.m4 there, and type either "make name.ps" or "make name.pdf"
  to test the file under pdflatex and TikZ PGF.

  No "make" facility?  You have to test by hand (but see below for
  diagram production software).  Copy a test file as above into
  test.m4.  Assuming you have dpic installed, type the following:

  m4 -I <path> pstricks.m4 libcct.m4 test.m4 > test.pic
  dpic -p test.pic > test.tex
  latex tst
  dvips tst -o tst.ps

  Before release, the macros are tested on a PC with Cygwin, MiKTeX,
  and dpic.

SOURCES:
  M4 is widely available on Unix systems.  PC source and executables are
  also available: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/m4.htm
  A large set of Unix-like Windows tools, including m4, is available via
  http://www.cygwin.com/
  DJGPP versions are available as m4-NNb.zip (where NN is the current
  release number) on web archives and at
  http://www.delorie.com/pub/djgpp/current/v2gnu/

  There are several sources of hints on m4 usage; some places to look are
  http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/m4.htm
  http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/
  http://www.seindal.dk/rene/gnu/
  An academic discussion of the language can be found in
  http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/research/pdf/expl-m4.pdf.

  Gpic is part of the GNU groff distribution, for which the latest
  source is available from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/, but there are
  mirror sites that archive these sources, and others that distribute
  executables.

DPIC:
  Dpic is not included here you say?  If you want to try the LaTeX
  picture objects, mfpic, PSTricks, TikZ-PGF, MetaPost, xfig, SVG, or
  Postscript output provided by dpic, the current free source and
  Windows executable can be obtained from
  http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~aplevich/dpic/

MANUALS:
  View or print CMman.pdf in the doc directory.

  The original pic manual can be obtained at
  http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/10thEdMan/pic.pdf.  A more extensive
  manual is found in the documentation that comes with GNU pic, which
  is typically installed as gpic.  The latest version can be found in
  the groff package at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/ .  A pdf copy
  is included with the dpic distribution and a version can be found
  on the web at http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/gpic.raymond.ps

  The dpic distribution includes a manual containing a summary of the pic
  language and discussion of features unique to dpic.

EXAMPLES AND INTEGRATION WITH OTHER TOOLS:
  Read the manual CMman.pdf and view or print the file examples.ps in the
  examples directory.  For the possibly unstable development version, try
  http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~aplevich/Circuit_macros/

  The examples directory Makefile automates the generation of .ps, .eps,
  .png, and .pdf files for individual diagrams.  Subdirectories of the
  examples directory are for testing metafont, metapost, pdflatex, pgf,
  psfrag, and xfig examples.

  A set of examples and hints intended for his colleagues has been
  produced by Alan Robert Clark at http://ytdp.ee.wits.ac.za/cct.html

  A website describing usage and tools for Circuit_macros has been created
  by Peter-Jan Randewijk at
  http://staff.ee.sun.ac.za/pjrandewijk/wiki/index.php/M4_Circuit_Macros
  The site includes examples ranging from basic circuits to block diagrams.
  Tools for creating pdf and web diagrams are included, along with
  Circuit_macro customizations for the Kile LaTeX editor, which are described at
  http://staff.ee.sun.ac.za/pjrandewijk/wiki/index.php/M4_Circuit_Macros_-_Kile_Integration

  A KDE interface created by Matteo Agostinelli can be found at
  http://wwwu.uni-klu.ac.at/magostin/cirkuit.html

  Mac users: An introduction to installation and use on OS X
  has been written by Felipe Cavalcanti at
  http://www.lara.unb.br/~fbcavalcanti/docs/tech/circuit_macros/using_circuit_macros_in_mac_osx.pdf

  For more examples in the context of a textbook, have a look at
  Aplevich, J.D., "The Essentials of Linear State-Space Systems," New
  York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2000.  In Canada, look at Andrews,
  G.C., Aplevich, J.D., Fraser, and R.A., MacGregor, C.G.,
  "Introduction to Professional Engineering in Canada," (Third edition)
  Toronto:  Prentice Hall, Pearson Education Canada, Inc., 2008.  Some
  samples from these books can be found at
  http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~aplevich/

  For an example of the use of dpic in a wiki (thanks to Jason Grout),
  see http://math.byu.edu/~grout/software/dokuwiki/format-plugin
  Another web-based pic application can be found at http://figr.org/

  A collection of pic resources and related material is available at
  http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/troff.html Some of the example pic
  macros found there need minor tuning to work under dpic.

  A pic tutorial on the web is found at
  http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/06/21/in-praise-of-pic.html

  The examples in this distribution include some flowchart elements
  in Flow.m4.  For a pic-only version that does not require m4, look at
  http://www2.ing.puc.cl/~mtorrest/downloads/latex/flowchart.pdf

  The use of the pic language and pic macros for drawing graphs is
  described at http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~west/gpic.html

MetaPost examples:  Go to the examples/mpost directory.  Check the
  Makefile as described in the README file, type "make", and stand well back.

TikZ-PGF: Check the Makefile in the examples/pgf directory as described
  in the README file, and type "make" or "make examples.pdf".

PDFLaTeX: Check the Makefile in the examples/pdflatex directory as described
  in the README file, and type "make".  These examples use Metafont as an
  intermediate format and are made somewhat obselete by the above TikZ-PGF
  compatibility.

Postscript with embedded psfrag strings:
  Type "make" in the examples/psfrag directory to process examples
  using dpic -f for creating .eps files with embedded psfrag strings.

Postscript, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator:
  Circuits and other diagrams not requiring LaTeX-formatted text can be
  processed through m4 and dpic -r to produce encapsulated Postscript
  output. This output can also be imported into CorelDraw or Adobe
  Illustrator.  However, Postscript is not a word processor, so any
  LaTeX formatting instructions in the source are not obeyed. These programs
  also import svg output produced by dpic -v.

SVG output, Inkscape:
  Dpic -v produces svg output.  If the result is to be directly
  inserted into html, then as for Postscript output, the diagram source
  file has to be adapted to remove any LaTeX formatting.  A switch in these
  macros deletes explicit LaTeX markup from the defined elements and provides
  other macros in svg.m4 for xml text formatting.

  SVG is the native file format for the Inkscape graphics editor.
  Therefore, elements defined by these macros can be output by dpic -v
  in svg format for later manipulation by Inkscape.  Recent Inkscape versions
  can export graphics to eps or pdf format and text to tex format, so
  that labels can be formatted by LaTeX and overlaid on the graphics
  file. This process allows the use of Inkscape to place and embellish
  circuit elements.

  A basic library of circuit elements created from these macros for
  importing into Inkscape is found in examples/svg/svglib.m4.

Metafont:
  The file examples/mf/cct.mf is a Metafont source for a few variants of
  the basic elements, produced using the mfpic output of dpic.  It may
  be of interest to persons who cannot otherwise implement the macros.
  To see the elements (assuming a typical installation), type "make"
  in the mf directory.

Xfig:
  The file examples/xfig/xfiglib.fig contains circuit elements in xfig
  3.2 format produced by dpic.  The file is a prototype because many
  more elements could be included.  Logic gates often have many labels,
  and xfig is not a word processor, so some fine tuning of labels is in
  order.  Translation between languages always involves a loss of
  information and idiom, but Xfig can store diagrams in pic format, so
  it is possible to alternate between xfig and dpic.

LIBRARIES:
  The file libgen.m4 contains basic macro definitions and is included
  automatically by other libraries.  The file libcct.m4 defines basic
  circuit elements.  Binary logic-circuit elements are in liblog.m4.
  Macros for drawing 3D projections are in lib3D.m4, and some macros
  for drawing double-line arrows are in darrow.m4. The file m4defaults.m4
  is read by other libraries if a configuration file has not been
  read first.

MODIFICATIONS:
  Macros such as these inevitably will be modified to suit individual
  needs and taste.  They continue to evolve in my own library as I use
  them and as others send comments.  No such collection can hope to
  include all possible circuit-related symbols, so you will probably
  find yourself writing your own macros or adapting some of these.  Be
  careful to rename modified macros to avoid confusion.  The learning
  curve compares well to other packages, but there is no trivially easy
  way to produce high-quality graphics.

Feel free to contact me with comments or questions.  I have retired from
full-time duties but continue the hobby of maintaining these files.
I may now be able to spend more time on individual requests but I may
not reply instantly to email.


Dwight Aplevich
aplevich (AT) uwaterloo (DOT) ca

Direc­to­ries

Name	Notes
doc
examples

Files

Name	Size	Date	Notes
CHANGES	7954	2013-01-14 04:12:45
Copying	456	2013-01-14 04:12:45
Makefile	1411	2013-01-14 04:12:45
README	16104	2013-01-14 04:12:45
boxdims.sty	1187	2013-01-14 04:12:45
darrow.m4	15201	2013-01-14 04:12:45
gpic.m4	1006	2013-01-14 04:12:45
lib3D.m4	7558	2013-01-14 04:12:45
libcct.m4	103736	2013-01-14 04:12:45
libgen.m4	43059	2013-01-14 04:12:45
liblog.m4	23871	2013-01-14 04:12:45
m4defaults.m4	759	2013-01-14 04:12:45
mfpic.m4	1104	2013-01-14 04:12:45
mpost.m4	1071	2013-01-14 04:12:45
olddarrow.m4	8038	2013-01-14 04:12:45
pgf.m4	1527	2013-01-14 04:12:45
postscript.m4	2504	2013-01-14 04:12:45
pstricks.m4	1960	2013-01-14 04:12:45
svg.m4	2833	2013-01-14 04:12:45
xfig.m4	1019	2013-01-14 04:12:45