Proteus ISIS or Altium designer summer 09?

[nasrmiad]

Which do you think is better for schematics and simulation? I was thinking of doing the schematics in Proteus ISIS and then transferring to Altium for the PCB design. What do you think?

[EEVblog]

Altium is hopeless for simulation.
You can make it work, kinda, but it's painful.
Never used Proteus, so can't comment.
I use LTspice for simulating small sub-circuits where needed.

Dave.

[logictom]

I've never used either for simulation - again only ltspice.
Where I work they bought ISIS but dropped it in favour of Altium. I've only used Altium and so far haven't had many issues with it.

[DLWarr]

Well, I use All,,Proteus, Altium, LTSpice... For simulation Proteus is absolutely the best for Microprocessor based design, You actually write your software for the processor then add it to the possessor in the simulation, and you can mix it with desecrate components etc.
Altium is best for FPGA design, but not that great with the simulations.. and LTSpice has become best for desecrate (specific Purpose ICs, op-amps, transistor,ect) simulations..

For PCB design work Altium is the Best and the defacto, Followed by Proteus, and LTSpice has no PCB capability...

LTSpice is a Must have,,,  and although free, it is used by design engineers around the world to communicate their design Ideas with each other, as every one has it...

Proteus is best for all round  simulate and then convert to a PCB...

Altium is best if you want to design PCB's for a living.. It is the most time extensive and complex to learn of the 3, but top grade PCB's...

When selecting design software its good to keep in mind that if you, for any reason leave the field for a time, it can be difficult to re-educate yourself to your complex software....

[dmills]

The thing is simulation is mostly useful for confirming that you have not made a thinko on things like filters and control loops, it is of very limited use on jellybean circuits because it is only ever as good as the models, and beginners do not really seem to get this.

I nearly never simulate more then a dozen components at a time, you know, is that MFB filter actually right? Is that loop stable? Those kinds of questions for which simulation is good, but generally going in I know what I am expecting to see. Simulation is great for telling you something will not work, but any sim reporting that something will work should be read as a 'maybe'.

I find Proteus (And I have had to use it) inferior in all ways to even old AD plus spice of choice, or even something like (Spit!) Pads/DxD, and it takes something to make me consider DxD to actually be more useful....  Both Altiums nod toward simulation and their FPGA tools are not worth the time however.

Regards, Dan.