• Logisim home page
• Guide to Being a Logisim User
  • Beginner's tutorial
    • Step 0: Orienting yourself
    • Step 1: Adding gates
    • Step 2: Adding wires
    • Step 3: Adding text
    • Step 4: Testing your circuit
  • Libraries and attributes
    • The explorer pane
    • The attribute table
    • Tool and component attributes
  • Subcircuits
    • Creating circuits
    • Using subcircuits
    • Debugging subcircuits
    • Logisim libraries
  • Wire bundles
    • Creating bundles
    • Splitters
    • Wire colors
  • Combinational analysis
    • Opening Combinational Analysis
    • Editing the truth table
    • Creating expressions
    • Generating a circuit
  • Menu reference
    • The File menu
    • The Edit menu
    • The Project menu
    • The Simulate menu
    • The Window and Help menus
  • Memory components
    • Poking memory
    • Pop-up menus and files
    • Hex editor
  • Logging
    • The Selection tab
    • The Table tab
    • The File tab
  • Application preferences
    • The Template tab
    • The Tools tab
    • The International tab
    • The Experimental tab
    • The command line
  • Project options
    • The Canvas tab
    • The Simulation tab
    • The Toolbar tab
    • The Mouse tab
  • Value propagation
    • Gate delays
    • Oscillation errors
    • Shortcomings
  • JAR libraries
    • Gray Code Incrementer
    • Library Class
    • Simple Gray Code Counter
    • Gray Code Counter
    • Guidelines
  • About the program
    • GNU General Public License
• Library Reference
  • Base library
    • Poke Tool
    • Edit Tool
    • Select Tool
    • Wiring Tool
    • Text Tool
    • Menu Tool
    • Splitter
    • Pin
    • Probe
    • Clock
    • Text
  • Gates library
    • Constant
    • NOT Gate
    • Buffer
    • AND/OR/NAND/NOR Gate
    • XOR/XNOR/Even/Odd Gate
    • Controlled Buffer/Inverter
  • Plexers library
    • Multiplexer
    • Demultiplexer
    • Decoder
    • Priority Encoder
    • Bit Selector
  • Arithmetic library
    • Adder
    • Subtractor
    • Multiplier
    • Divider
    • Negator
    • Comparator
    • Shifter
  • Memory library
    • D/T/J-K/S-R Flip-Flop
    • Register
    • Counter
    • Shift Register
    • Random
    • RAM
    • ROM
  • Input/Output library
    • Button
    • Joystick
    • Keyboard
    • LED
    • 7-Segment Display
    • Hex Digit Display
    • LED Matrix
    • TTY
  • Legacy library
    • Logisim 1.0 D/J-K Flip-Flop
    • Logisim 1.0 8-Bit Register

Generating a circuit

The Build Circuit button will construct a circuit whose gates correspond to the currently chosen expressions for each output. The circuit's inputs and outputs will be displayed in top-down order corresponding to how they appear under the Inputs and Outputs tabs. Generally speaking, the constructed circuit will be attractive; and, indeed, one application of Logisim's Combinational Analysis module is to beautify poorly drawn circuits. Still, as with any automatic formatting, it will not express the structural details that a human-drawn circuit would.

When you click the Build Circuit button, a dialog box will appear prompting you to choose which project where you want the circuit and the name you wish to give it. If you type the name of an existing circuit, then that circuit will be replaced (after Logisim prompts you to confirm that you really want to do this).

The Build Circuit dialog includes two options. The Use Two-Input Gates Only option specifies that you want all gates constructed to have two inputs. (NOT gates, of course, constitute an exception to this rule.) The Use NAND Gates Only option specifies that you would like it to translate the circuit into one using only NAND gates. You can select both options if you want to use only two-input NAND gates.

Logisim cannot construct a NAND-only circuit for an expression containing any XOR operators. This option will therefore be disabled if any outputs' expressions contain XORs.

Next: User's Guide.