Anyone here use ElectricVlab at all

[Specmaster]

I recently purchased this program from Amazon, called "ElectricVLab" and it looked to be a quite good program with the ability to layout circuits in either 2D or 3D and then run a simulation to see if the proposed circuit would work as planned before committing to either a breadboard or a pcb.

After installing it and updating it to the very latest version everything was going fine on a circuit I'm mucking about with until it came to inserting a amplifier IC, a LM4871 only to find that it does not have that in its library and as far I can see anyway of adding anything into its library either. Plenty of gates, bjt, npn, fets and logic chips and Arduino's 

Does this program have any way of importing / inputting anything to its library at all or is a pile of shit. If it is, what can anyone recommend as an suitable alternative that is either free or cheap?

[janoc]

LTSpice?

[Specmaster]

I have that as well and experimenting with it but I can't see anyway to input new parts etc either?

[Specmaster]

In LtSpice, how do you get a potentiometer symbol, is it by combining a resistor and the gnd symbol?

Edit.
I understand from bd139 that you cannot have variables in this program because it is primarily a simulation based program. I'm actually looking for something that would ideally allow me to draft a schematic, then hopefully run a simulation and if at all possible lay it all out on a pcb to a status where I could then make or get made up the pcb's to suit. Is there such a program out there that is fairly easy to use without costing a king's ransom to obtain at all?

I have just played around with a demo version of Livewire which seems reasonable at least for TH stuff, will this do SMD as well, or is there something better still and yet affordable?

[janoc]

In LTSpice you create new parts by creating/adding models. Typically you will have to download these from the manufacturer's website.

In LtSpice, how do you get a potentiometer symbol, is it by combining a resistor and the gnd symbol?

Uhm, no. I think there may be a variable resistor symbol (don't have it in front of me right now), if not, you just make a fixed resistor(s) as needed and change their values on the fly. It makes no difference from the simulation point of view.

I understand from bd139 that you cannot have variables in this program because it is primarily a simulation based program. I'm actually looking for something that would ideally allow me to draft a schematic, then hopefully run a simulation and if at all possible lay it all out on a pcb to a status where I could then make or get made up the pcb's to suit. Is there such a program out there that is fairly easy to use without costing a king's ransom to obtain at all?

You won't find this in cheap/free programs. KiCAD has some start on Spice integration but it isn't very usable yet. And anyhow, you most likely don't want to use a simulator for doing schematic capture for your PCB design as the requirements and the sort of data you need to put in are different. For example, it is common to do simulations with ideal components, to include components such as voltage and current sources that replace entire sub-circuits of your system that aren't relevant for simulation in order to speed it up (large circuits can take hours to simulate!). You won't find this in a PCB oriented tool because you can't put e.g. an ideal current source on a PCB - it doesn't exist! On the other hand, you will need footprint information - which the simulator tool doesn't have and doesn't care about because it is irrelevant in most cases.

If you don't want to draw a circuit diagram twice, then most PCB CAD tools allow you to export a netlist - that you can then import into most simulators, such as that LTSpice, and only add the bits and pieces necessary for the simulation there.

I have just played around with a demo version of Livewire which seems reasonable at least for TH stuff, will this do SMD as well, or is there something better still and yet affordable?

Use a dedicated tool. A $70 jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none tool doesn't inspire much confidence, IMO.