Everything it simulates, and everything it checks.

01 · Import

Five file formats, one board model

Drop the files on the canvas or open them from the project menu. They are read on your machine, in the desktop app or a browser tab, with no ECAD tool installed and nothing uploaded.

KiCad

Our own parser reads .kicad_pcb, .kicad_pro and .kicad_sch directly. KiCad doesn't need to be installed.

Altium

The binary files are read directly: .PcbDoc for copper and netlist, .SchDoc for the part values, .PrjPcb for net classes.

Eagle

The XML files are read with their connections, and each part's pin-to-pad mapping is applied so schematic nets match board nets.

Gerbers

RS-274X/X2 with Excellon drill files, BOM and pick-and-place. Nets are rebuilt from overlapping copper, pads from solder-mask openings and parts from the placement file.

ODB++

A job as .tgz or .zip, or its folder. Parts, pins and nets are read from the job, the layer stack from its matrix. The format carries no schematic.

Schematic-only

No board file? The netlist is enough. A board is generated from it so you can still simulate the circuit.

02 · Part models

Complex parts, modelled from their datasheets

Simple parts like resistors and capacitors are easy to simulate from their values. Complex parts are where a design goes wrong, so Amptrace builds their models from their datasheets: threshold voltage, Rds(on), forward voltage or a regulator's reference. You see where the real part deviates from what your design assumed, a mistake a rule checklist does not catch.

Part models

An AI model turns a part number and its pin names into a DC model. A power MOSFET, for example, becomes its Rds(on) between drain and source. Identical parts are modelled once and reused.

Real datasheets

Upload your own datasheets, or let Amptrace look them up from the part's Datasheet field, a distributor or the manufacturer's site. The desktop app downloads them itself; a browser is often refused, and then the app asks you for the PDF. Either way, Amptrace extracts the pages that matter and builds the model from them.

Inspectable

Generated models are labelled, show their assumptions and can be edited or replaced before you simulate again. Nothing is changed without you.

03 · Simulate

Your layout, simulated with its real copper

A circuit simulator solves the schematic and treats every connection as an ideal wire. Amptrace solves your actual layout: each net's copper becomes a resistor network from its sheet resistance, vias and zones, so you see the current in every track and the voltage at every pin of the board as you drew it.

IDC current flow

Place voltage sources and current loads on pads and get the current in every track and via, coloured on the board.

IR drop

Voltage lost in the copper for each track, via and plane, with its own view and legend.

Transient

Step, pulse or sine sources simulated over time. Capacitors charge and diodes switch at each step. Move the cursor to follow the copper through inrush, PWM cycles and RC settling.

Startup

The power-up as a snapshot you can scrub through. Drag the time cursor along the waveform and the board follows.

Live

Re-solves as you edit, so the numbers change as you move a source. With Dynamics on, each tick is a real transient: capacitors charge and inductors ring in real time.

Regulators

A DC/DC converter or LDO holds its output and draws the matching input current, with warnings for dropout and current limit.

Power tree

Where every milliwatt goes: the rails as a tree from the input connector down, each part's current and power, the converter losses, and the whole budget as a flow diagram.

04 · Equivalents

Inspect your model in detail to understand the results

A model with the gate on the wrong pad looks like a correct one, but it doesn't work. Amptrace can draw each part's equivalent circuit on the part itself, so you can check the model against the PCB.

Every part, in place

View ▸ ⧉ Equivalents draws each part's equivalent circuit on top of the part, on the board, the schematic and the 3D stack. A dashed line joins the pins an element connects, with its symbol and value on it.

Devices as devices

A MOSFET, BJT or regulator is drawn as its own symbol in a frame over its three pads, with the terminals named on the pads (G/D/S, B/C/E, IN/OUT/GND) and a regulator's enable marked EN or /EN.

Programmed pins

A part running firmware shows each pin's role as an arrow: out for a pin the program drives, in for one it reads, a bar for a supply. Each carries the pin name and an output's live level, like PB3 HIGH or PB0 60%.

What it could not model

A hollow ring marks each pin the model doesn't use, and a line above the part says what was left out, for example “+2 not shown”, “not modelled” or “SPICE subcircuit”.

And what you placed

⊙ Interactives shows the rest: the sources, loads, probes, switch levers and lit LEDs you put on the board, drawn the same way and switched separately.

05 · Lenses

Inspect your board's simulation from six views

Each view in the ribbon changes what the copper colours mean. Hover over the copper for the exact value; each view has its own legend.

Layers

The board as manufactured: tracks, pads, zones and silkscreen in the usual layer colours, each layer switchable.

ICurrent · Flow

Copper coloured by the current it carries. Flow animates it as particles, faster where more current flows.

VVoltage

A continuous scale, or one colour per rail. Click a level in the legend to show only its nets and zoom to them.

IR drop

Voltage lost in the copper, from the feed point or per millimetre, on a mesh as fine as you choose.

Thermal

Dissipation in parts and heating in tracks, as temperature rise or absolute temperature against an ambient you set.

Overlays

Designators, highlighted nets, source markers and the legend, on top of any view, in 2D or on the 3D stack.

06 · The board in 3D

Your full stackup in 3D

Check that a via carries current between the layers you expect, and that each plane sits where you think it does. Amptrace draws every copper layer, prepreg and core at the thickness given in your file, in the same colours as the board view. Spread the layers apart, hide any of them, or read the stack edge-on or from below. Hover over a via to see which layers it joins and, in the Current view, which layer it carries current from and to. Component bodies on both sides and your supply and probe markers are drawn too.

07 · Checks & reports

A report built on the full simulation

Ten categories: copper, power, thermal, converters, layout, interfaces, signals, parts, DFM and EMC/ESD. Each finding links to its place on the board. Accept a finding or turn a rule off for the kind of board you build, and it stays off.

• Footprints checked against the real package of each part number
• Every rail summarised with the power it draws
• Export as PDF or HTML for the design review

08 · Programming

Write the firmware and the board runs it

Describe what a microcontroller should do and the app writes Arduino-style code for it, names every pin it can identify and marks which ones the program drives. The simulation then runs the code, so an output pin drives real current into whatever it connects to. On the example board, the STM32 runs an LED chaser, and its LEDs light because the code drives them.

• Pins by role. Outputs the program drives, inputs it reads and supplies, all named from the part number.
• Live levels. An output shows HIGH, LOW or a PWM duty cycle on its pin.
• Code and copper agree. Turn the routine off and the copper feeding those LEDs carries nothing.
• Limited by the datasheet. Output impedance and supply current come from the part, so a pin can't drive more than the real one.

09 · Assistant

Ask the board what it does

Ask our assistant about your board in plain words, and point at the parts you mean.

Answered on your machine

Questions like “What is on +3V3?”, “What does J1 connect to?” or “How many capacitors?” are answered by the app itself, exactly, in English or German, and nothing leaves your machine. Ask where a part is and the answer comes with a picture of it.

You decide what is sent

Questions that need judgement go to an AI model, and a four-step setting decides how much of the board goes with them. It starts with only the parts you mentioned, and you see the exact payload before it is sent.

Point instead of describing

Pick parts and nets on the board to ask about them. Part and net names in the answer are links: click one and the board shows it.

It suggests, you decide

An answer can suggest edits, such as a value to set or a source to place. They are only applied when you apply them.