Logisim Tutorial
Step 0: Logisim GUI Layout
• Logisim GUI is divided into three parts, called the explorer pane, the
attribute table, and the canvas. Above these parts are the menu bar and
the toolbar.
– The canvas is where you'll draw your circuit
– The toolbar contains the tools that you'll use to draw circuit
Step 1-1: Adding AND Gates
• Add two AND gates:
– Click on the AND tool in the toolbar (the
next-to-last tool listed).
– Then click in the editing area where you
want the first AND gate to go.
– Then click the AND tool again and place
the second AND gate below it.
Step 1-2: Adding two Not Gates and an XOR Gate
• You can select a component
and drag it to the desired spot.
• You can delete it by selecting
Delete from the Edit menu or
pressing the Delete key.
Step 2: Adding Wires
• When the cursor is over a point that receives a
wire, a small green circle will be drawn around
it.
• Press the mouse button there and drag as far
as you want the wire to go.
• Whenever a wire ends at another wire, Logisim
automatically connects them.
• You can also "extend" or "shorten" a wire by
dragging one of its endpoints using the edit
tool.
• Blue wire in Logisim indicates that the value at
that point is "unknown," and gray indicates that
the wire is not connected to anything.
• By the time you finish it, none of your wires
should be blue or gray.
Step 3: Adding Text
• Adding text to the circuit isn't necessary to
make it work
• If you want to show your circuit to somebody
(like a teacher), then some labels help to
communicate the purpose of the different
pieces of your circuit.
• Select the text tool (A).
• You can click on an input pin and start typing to
give it a label. (It's better to click directly on the
input pin than to click where you want the text
to go, because then the label will move with the
pin.)
• You can do the same for the output pin.
• Or you could just click any old place and start
typing to put a label anywhere else.
Step 4: Testing Circuit
• Select the poke tool ( ) and start poking the
inputs by clicking on them.
• Each time you poke an input, its value will
toggle.
• To archive your completed work, you might
want to save or print your circuit. The File menu
allows this.
Step 5: Save your Project
• Your project can be saved as .circ files.
Step 6: Export your Project Diagram as Images
• The circuit diagram of your project can
be exported as image files.
Step 7: Load Previously Defined Project
• You can open the saved project and
continue to work on it.
Back Up Your Work
• Logisim is known to have a bug where files get
corrupted.
• To make sure you do not lose progress on the off
chance this happens to you, regularly backup
your work.
• Corrupted files cannot be recovered!!
