Electronics > Beginners
Free circuit simulator ?
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DimitriP:

--- Quote ---Very not intuitive in many ways which makes it very slow.

--- End quote ---

There is no "not intuitive" software. Only people lacking intiution.

But it's easier to blame the software.


Ian.M:
For various reasons I still use LTspice IV which has a less rich U.I than the current  LTspice XVII. 

LTspice is a lot easier to 'drive' if you use a five button mouse + a utility like X-Mouse Button Control that lets you map macros to mouse buttons on a per application basis.  You could also use a gaming mouse with its OEM button utility.

For LTspice, I use the side buttons (normally browser navigate Forward/Back) to make must commonly used commands directly accessable without needing to click the toolbar or touch the keyboard.   One of the side buttons acts as a modifier key to access extra macros on all the other buttons, and the other side button starts a 'Drag' at the cursor position by sending  {F8}{Enter} keystrokes on buttondown.

With the modifier button held, the 'Drag' button becomes 'Move' ({F7}{Enter}), Left becomes 'Wires' mode ({F3}), Right becomes the 'Select Component' dialog ({F2}}.  Finally, wheel up becomes rotate clockwise ({Ctrl}r), wheel down becomes rotate anticlockwise ({Ctrl}r{Ctrl}r{Ctrl}r) and the wheel button becomes 'Mirror' ({Ctrl}e), all of which are valid for the currently active move, drag or component placement.   Its also worth noting that a plain right-click aborts move/drag/place operations.

That leaves 'Duplicate' aka 'Copy' and 'Delete' unmapped, but as they can be quite destructive if inadvertently selected, I prefer to use them from the keyboard or toolbar.

On the speed side of things - if it bogs down when you click 'Run' it usually means either you've done something dumb like forgetting to ground an appropriate node, (which doesn't always trigger an error message, as some components provide very high impedance paths to an implicit ground), or its trying to find an initial stable state for a circuit that may not even have a steady state, or you're trying to do *FAR* too much* on your sim.

Most new sims will start and run with a .tran 1m startup sim command (or instead of 1m, another duration depending on the timescale you are interested in) as initial operating point issues go away when the circuit  starts from 'Switched off'!  Other causes of stalling normally indicate a non-physically-realisable circuit, e.g. expecting a diode to instantly block when a current reverses, without allowing any stray or junction capacitance that will limit the dV/dt across it or charging a zero ESR ideal capacitor from a zero output resistance ideal voltage source.

* I am frequently guilty of this - I tend to do stuff like fully model obsolete mixed signal ICs ( https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/ltspice-simulation-madness-xr-2240ua2240lm2240-programmable-counter-timer/ ), Philips PSUs ( https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/how-do-make-a-current-limiting-knob-using-lm723-for-linear-reg-power-supplies/msg1212923/#msg1212923 ) or construct complicated sims to generate realistic test signals for anyone who has a design problem I find interesting . . . .
Mattjd:
Personally, I like Cadence Orcad. I currently use Orcad 17.2 and it works nicely.

There's a lot too it so i can be confusing, but its very powerful. I would love to buy a full blown version of cadence virtuoso but I'll settle for Cadence Orcad. I've gotten to use both through university. Steep learning curve but very rewarding once you do.

Please done use TINA.
Zero999:

--- Quote from: soldar on March 30, 2019, 09:24:56 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 30, 2019, 09:11:53 pm ---Another thing which beginners often struggle with is, LTSpice is not a real time simulator. The circuit is designed, the simulation run and the results shown. Many educational simulators aimed at beginners attempt to simulate a circuit in real time which has limitations, mainly that they have to be optimised for speed, over accuracy, as everything needs to happen fast enough to respond to the user's input.
--- End quote ---

I have two main complaints. One is that it is not intuitive in finding components or doing actions. I waste a lot of time with this.

And then, once you have drawn the circuit you still have to run it and this is also confusing. You need to set some parameters and then click run and most of the time it goes into a calculating frenzy which goes nowhere and you have to tinker with the run parameters and try again.

Very not intuitive in many ways which makes it very slow.

--- End quote ---
The commonly used passive components are on the toolbar and other components can be found by clicking on the AND gate symbol. A lot of time can be saved by using the copy/duplicate command, which needs to be activated before clicking/selecting the items which need to be replicated.

Regarding the simulation, you need to know a bit about how SPICE works to make full use of it. There are several different modes, depending on what you want to do. The results make more sense if you label important nets, using the icon next to the ground symbol, on the toolbar.
kripton2035:
I bought icircuit some times ago for this purpose: quickly check simple circuits, and I LOVE it.
for some $10 it's really worth it.
exists on win,mac,ios and windows phone.
http://icircuitapp.com/


edit: it's even $5 for windows ...
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