QUCS, Qucs-S and QucsStudio simulators are not the same thing

[RoGeorge]

They are all simulators for electronic circuits, just like LTspice or TINA-TI, but different.

1. QUCS (Quite Universal Circuit Simulator) - is the one usually found in Linux repositories, and the simulation engine is based on Qucsator, it is not based on SPICE

2. Qucs-S (Qucs with Spice) - has the look of QUCS, but the simulation engine is based on SPICE, more precise 'ngspice'.  Usually not in the Linux repositories, has to be compiled or installed manually.  Besides Qucs-S, ngspice must also be installed.

3. QucsStudio (IMO this is the best Qucs) - has the look of QUCS, it is released as a portable version for Windows only, but it works just fine in Linux with Wine and it is all built with GNU components, but compiled for Windows/MinGW only.  Just unzip and run bin/qucs.exe with WINE on Linux, or run the start.bat for Windows.

QucsStudio has the best GUI, a good set of video tutorials, and what I like most, it has live Sliders (called Tune), look how awesome this feature is (at minute 3:55)!



 



- All Qucs versions have some nice RF goodies e.g. microstrip simulation, filters design, Smith charts, etc.
- For non RF simulations, LTspice is easier to operate and have more parts models when in comparison with Qucs or TINA-TI.
- Components models and libraries seems different between Spice and Qucsator engines.

So far my pick is QucsStudio for Qucs like simulators and LTspice for Spice like simulators.

Are there other FREE simulators I should try?

[RoGeorge]

When running QucsStudio on Linux with Wine, if it throws an exception/crash error at simulation time (for example when simulating a transmission line) with a message similar with:

        "unimplemented function msvcp100.dll._Sinh called in 32-bit code"
       
then:
        - open 'winecfg' and
            - in the "Applications" tab add the QucsStudio's "qucssim.exe"
            - in the "Windows Version:" dropdown select "Windows 7"
            - in the "Libraries" tab of winecfg add "msvcp100"
            - edit and select "Native (Windows)"
                - in the "Existing overrides:" box shoud be now written "msvcp100 (native)"
        - press "Apply" and test, and/or "OK"


as shown in https://qucsstudio.de/forums/topic/linux-support/
http://qucsstudio.de/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/681/tlszmzomnl38qs7p188kkaefkmifk3mt.png

[Warhawk]

Micro-cap became free not long time ago.

[Whales]

Ooh, I didn't know about QucsStudio.  I'll give it a go.

Micro-cap became free not long time ago.

Microcap sims seem much slower than Qucs (~2x), at least in the few identical transient setups I tested previously.

[RiZsho]

@Whales I found out this to help speed up things. Ofcourse, while sacrificing some precision...
EDIT: Speaking for Microcap.

[rfclown]

Ooh, I didn't know about QucsStudio.  I'll give it a go....

I didn't know either. I'll also have to check it out. I use QUCS for s-parameter simulations and LTspice for spice. At my day job they have one license of ADS that everyone (10+ EEs) shares a license dongle for. I skip that nonsense and use QUCS.