#95 Add ability to add custom aliases for global 0 node

[George]

Hello!
I really need an ability to add custom aliases for 0 global node except built-in gnd.
I tried to do that by adding zero voltage source between 0 and arbitrary name node, together with making it global, but it affects the convergence in some circuits.
thank you in advance, George.

[Holger Vogt]

Unfortunately your personal needs may not be enough motivation to add features to ngspice.

So please explain (in general terms) why you need this feature, and why it might be useful for other people.

[George]

hello, yeah I understand that, just hoped that is not a big issue because of already existing mechanism of aliasing (presence of gnd alias).
I need it for my open source project that brings together different physical domains: electrical, magnetic, mechanical, thermal, etc. I want to clearly distinguish for user different domains, do erc check, and each domain has its own reference. For ngspice there is no difference, but for user and highlighting mechanism of domain specific nets it's important. I use xschem, you can see it in this thread https://github.com/StefanSchippers/xschem/issues/197 . (and in attached examples to this post).
How it can be useful for other users: there is a practice to divide analog, digital and power grounds in IC design, that are united to the same ground node in simulator, now you can do it only with zero voltage sources.
Thank you, George.

[George]

and such mechanism exists in commercial SPICEs, for example, in ADS simulator https://people.ece.ubc.ca/robertor/Links_files/Files/ICCAP-2008-doc/icref/icref0713.html