Btukfyl

I am using WINDOWS 8.1, am a REAL BEGINNER with circuit_macros, a tool for creating circuit diagrams using M4 macros written by Dwight Aplevich. I realized that the support for Windows is very limited since most of the avalaible documentation are for UNIX and GNU/Linux users.

I am using Miktex 2.9 with Texmaker 5.0.2 on Windows 8.1.According to the installation instructions, here is what I have done so far:

1. Download the executable of dpic (pic interpreter) from
   https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~aplevich/dpic/Windows/index.html (THIS STEP IS DONE)
   
   I put the two executables files dpic.exe and m4.exe to a folder at:
   
   C:dpic
   
   Then I added do the Path the above-mentioned folder from the "View Advanced System Settings" menu, so that I execute the programs from the Command Prompt no matter in which folder I am.




2. Download and install a m4 macro interpreter.
   
   Still according to Aplevich's instructions on the repository, one may download a program from the sourceforge website at:
   http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/m4.htm (STEP DONE)




3. Download and unzip the circuit_macros distrubiton from CTAN (THIS STEP IS DONE)




4. Decide where to install the .m4 library files (THIS STEP IS DONE)
   
   In accordance with what is suggested on the README file, I created the localtexmf folder at C:localtexmfCircuit_macros and copied the donwnloaded unzipped files of the distrubition to the target folder.



5. 
   

   Copy boxdims.sty from the top
   distribution directory to where LaTeX will find it (THIS STEP IS DONE)
   
   In my case, I pasted it at newly-created folder called "boxdims" at
   
   C:UsersmandresybillyAppDataLocalProgramsMiKTeX2.9miktextexlatexboxdims

   
   
   

   After that, I opened the MikTex console and from the upper-left menus, I clicked on Tasks>Refresh file name database.

   
   



6. Define the environment variable M4PATH to point to the installation
   directory determined in Step 1. (THIS STEP IS DONE)
   
   In the Control Panel at "View Advanced System Settings", I created a new environment variable called M4PATH and attributed its value:
   
   C:localtexmfCircuit_macros

Now, my installation works but does not FULLY work. When I create an elementary circuit as a .m4 file and run the appropriate command, the .m4 file converts to tex. So, from Windows's command prompt, the following creates "filename.tex":

m4 filename.m4 | dpic -g>filename.tex

Yet, I cannot invoke m4 and dpic automatically from a latex document directly. Let us say here is the latex code

documentclass{article}

usepackage{tikz}

newcommandmtotex[2]{immediatewrite18{m4 #2.m4 | dpic -#1 > #2.tex}}



begin{document}

mtotex{g}{filename} %This line should create filename.tex from filename.m4

input{filename.tex}

end{document}

For some reasons, the above MWE returns an error all the time, meaning that there must be a problem in the installation. Did I miss something?

I would be immensely appreciative if someone can make a comprehensive step-by-step, for dummies-like list of instructions of how to get circuit_macrosup and running on Windows systems. Thanks in advance.