software for circuit design

[M0BSW]

Hello everyone,
Can anyone reccomend software for circuit design,watching one of Daves video he was using software , but i have know idea what to aim for, and is there one for dummies.

[mianchen]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-pcbedacad-discussions/

[Neilm]

When you say circuit design, do you mean the schematic capture or designing / modeling circuit behavior?

If it is the schematic capture there are a few free ones around. I know Dave has used Altium, but that is SO not a freeware.

If you are after modeling the circuit behavior then he uses LTSpice quite a lot. This is a free SPICE modeling package that is quite good. There are others but that is the best one I have ever used.

Yours

Neil

[M0BSW]

Hi Niel, You know when you want to design something for yourself and see if it works, that the type of software I want to find, and schmatic capture would be nice

[M0BSW]

thank you i'll take a look at lt spice

[Vijayshankar]

Hi,

You can also use Proteus software, its easy to do schematic's & also u can simulate through output waveforms. If u know what output u want, then u can modify the circuit & finalize with this software to transfer to ur board.

[Bored@Work]

Proteus, yeah, very poplar to use ripped-off copies in India. To the point that whole university courses in India are based on Proteus ripoffs.

If you decide to go with Proteus at least have the decency to pay Labcenter for a legal copy.

[Vijayshankar]

Sorry Dear,

Demo version for Proteus are also available to work on. Also for ur kind information, our universities uses Spice software, not proteus.

we use demo for our small uses, but work more on hardware not on software, because simulations don't provide reality.

[george graves]

LT Spice has a steep learning curve.  I can never seem to get it to work!!!!!

I have been using https://www.circuitlab.com/ - it's like an online beginner's version of LTspice.  Part selection is really tiny - but when you're just setting things up to learn/experiment, you don't really care that much.

[M0BSW]

I downloaded the LT spice, and I have to admit I had to walk away from it, I'll give this a try.

[TerminalJack505]

For simulation I use either Tina-TI or QUCS.  I use LTspice only as a last resort.  LTspice's interface is an "acquired taste", as they say.

The first two attached screenshots are from Tina-TI to give you an idea of what it looks like and what you can do.

The last two attached screenshots are QUCS.  QUCS is a bit temperamental and seems to have been abandoned by its creators.

[Neilm]

I have had problems with Tina-TI - I find the part range limited and last time I used it it would not work unless you had an IC in the circuit.

LTSpice does let you add spice commands - I have found a couple of PDF help files that explain how to execute the Spice syntax. I had to learn it as I needed to do some simulations with parts that I had spice models for but were not in LTspice.

Yours

Neil

[targ2002]

I use a combination of Design spark for PCB layout and schematic capture, and I use LTSpice for circuit simulation. I do find that LT Spice has a poor UI. If you really want to learn how to use spice, then I suggest you DaveCad for schematic capture and then notepad to create the spice file and user Berkley spice, thankfully i haven't needed to do this for a long time.

[M0BSW]

I didn't realise there was so much around, my sister in law has got me a copy of something called IM-SOFT,supposed to be circuit creater ??, I'll find out during the week when I see her.

[seanspotatobusiness]

For a noob like me with very simple needs, Circuit Lab is amazing! Thanks for the suggestion! My new favourite internet toy