ghepardoman/NI-Multisim-14-for-Linux-and-MacOS

Automated installer for NI Multisim 14.3 on Linux and MacOS via Wine.

Built for the redpilled breed of engineers and students who rely on NI Multisim every day but run Linux/MacOS as their primary OS. This repository provides the tools, tweaks, and compatibility setup needed to make Multisim usable on a daily-driver environment without the usual headaches.

Authors: Giovanni De Rosa, Lorenzo Pappalardo

⚠️ Beware of unofficial copies of this project.

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📋 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Linux Support
• MacOS Support
• Usage
• How it works
• Notes & Known Issues

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Overview

This bash script automates the full process of installing NI Circuit Design Suite 14.3 (Multisim) on Linux or MacOS. It handles Wine installation, a dedicated Wine prefix, dependency setup, and the Multisim installer execution — all in a single run across all supported distros.

Prerequisites

wget, git, wine or winehq-stable, winetricks, cabextract, curl and unzip available on your system

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🐧 Linux Support

Supported Distributions

Distribution Family	Tested Distros
🔵 Arch	Arch Linux
🟠 Debian / Ubuntu	Ubuntu
🔴 Fedora / RHEL	Fedora
🟢 openSUSE	openSUSE Tumbleweed

🍎 MacOS Support

Requirements

• macOS 10.14 (Mojave) or later (the script has been tested on macOS 26)
• Intel or Apple Silicon

Many of the required dependencies are already on the system. If git is not already present in your system, type it in your terminal: it will yield an error but you will then be prompted to install the XCode Command Line Tools and the issue will be fixed.

Wine should be installed with Homebrew: brew install --cask wine-stable winetricks. If Wine suddenly disappears, brew remove it and install it again.

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💻 Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghepardoman/NI-Multisim-14-for-Linux-and-MacOS/main/install.sh -o install.sh && bash install.sh

or more explicitly

# 1. Download the script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghepardoman/NI-Multisim-14-for-Linux-and-MacOS/main/install.sh -o install.sh

# 2. Make it executable (optional but good practice)
chmod +x install.sh

# 3. Run it normally
./install.sh

⚠️ Do not run as root. The script uses sudo internally where needed.

🧹 Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghepardoman/NI-Multisim-14-for-Linux-and-MacOS/main/uninstall.sh -o uninstall.sh && bash uninstall.sh

or

# 1. Download the script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghepardoman/NI-Multisim-14-for-Linux-and-MacOS/main/uninstall.sh -o uninstall.sh

# 2. Make it executable (optional)
chmod +x uninstall.sh

# 3. Run it
./uninstall.sh

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⚙️ How it works

Distro/OS Detection

The script is "universal" in the sense that it has cross-compatibility between Linux distros/macOS without the use of unique functions, albeit the script occasionally uses /etc/os-release or uname -s if a distro-specific or macOS-specific step/fix is required.

Checking for Prerequisites

Automatically checks for required packages and prints out the missing ones, if any.

Wine Prefix Setup

Creates a dedicated Wine prefix at ~/.multisim143, isolated from your default Wine environment, configured with Windows 10 compatibility mode. Because it is just a regular 64-bit prefix there's no need to mess with wine versions.

Choosing Multisim Edition

Allows you to choose whether to install Multisim Educational or Professional. Script-wise this only affects which installer gets downloaded with wget. Both the installers are the "online" version, making their filesize much lighter.

Installing Multisim

The script will run Multisim's installer; here you're required to follow the setup steps manually. We highly suggest you say "no" when prompted for automatic updates at the very end of the installation.

Getting the Jet Database to work

MDAC 2.7 and Jet 4.0's installation will be handled by the script: both of their redistributables are pulled with wget from the Web Archive (the same location where winetricks installs them from).

MDAC 2.7 is installed by simply running what the downloaded with Wine, MDAC_TYP.exe.

Jet 4.0's installation requires a few extra steps:

• First the script runs through Wine the redistributable that has just been downloaded (Jet40SP8_9xNT.exe);
• Then it is required to extract the DLL files by running cabextract a few times *(view install.sh for specific steps)`;
• The three required DLLs are then copied inside ~/.multisim143/drive_c/windows/syswow64/;
• Two of the DLLs have to be registered using wine regsvr32.

Why not just use Winetricks?

Because we'd just end up having architecture-wise compatibility issues.

Cleanup

Removes whichever temporary folders were created for installed files/extraction operations.

Adding Multisim to Applications (macOS only)

Because it is not handled by macOS, unlike how it happens on Linux distros, the script downloads the .app package that we created from this repository (assets/macOS/multisim.app.zip); it is then unzipped and placed inside /Applications/ allowing Multisim to be launched easily.

Reboot

Asks for system reboot; not required but fixes any issue with running Multisim most times.

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🗒️ Notes & Known Issues

Linux-Specific

• The Wine prefix is stored at ~/.multisim143 and is completely separate from any existing Wine setup you may have.
• A system reboot is recommended after installation.
• If Multisim does not appear in your application launcher after install, try running:

  update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications
  

• Only the subsequent distros were tested: Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE Tumbleweed.

MacOS-Specific

• The .app bundle needed to be created manually.

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This project is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied.

The authors are not responsible for:

• Any damage to your system resulting from the use of this script
• Compatibility issues with specific hardware, software, or OS versions
• Changes to third-party services (NI download servers, Wine, Homebrew, package repositories) that may break the installer
• Any legal issues arising from the installation or use of NI Multisim 14.3

NI Multisim is proprietary software owned by National Instruments (NI) / Emerson. This script only automates the download of the official installer from NI's own servers and does not redistribute any proprietary software.

You are solely responsible for ensuring you have a valid license to use NI Multisim 14.3.

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📄 License

This script is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
You are free to use, modify, and redistribute it, provided you include the original copyright notice and this license.