Multisim Circuit Is Not Grounded Error When Using a Multimeter to Find Resistance

Updated Jan 11, 2019

Reported In

Software

  • Multisim 13.0 Base

Issue Details

I connected a resistor to a multimeter to find its resistance, but when I simulate the circuit, I get an Error: The circuit is not grounded from Multisim. This is not a requirement in the real world, so why do I need to connect ground to the resistor in Multisim?

Solution

One requirement in any SPICE simulator is that there must be a node 0 (ground) somewhere in the circuit. Since you connected a resistor directly to a multimeter, Multisim auto-node naming likely called the wires node 1 and 2.  When you simulate the circuit, the SPICE engine does not see a node zero and therefore, it prompted you with the error message.
To get around this, double-click one of the wire and to open the Net Properties dialog, in the Preferred Name enter 0.