Simulation Software

[electricstorm]

I was wondering which simulation software everyone uses. I have MultiSim myself. But I've seen some talk about LTSpice.

Is one any better than the other? Are there other Si, software out there? Do you have trouble finding SPICE data for your parts to simulate?

Just curious.

Jim

[stecykmi]

i've used multisim, which is nice because it allows you to see signals in real time (with the oscilloscope tools), and PSPICE, which is nice because it's simpler and easy to use, but still fairly powerful.

i've tried LTSpice, but didn't like it as much, although i used it only for a few minutes.

i often use the generic parts based on the general model for that type of device, then sub in "real" parts later. i find it's often more reliable to rough out the circuit in a spice program, then build it on breadboard.

[jkokura]

I'd like to know if there's a good one for the Mac OS platform.

Jacob

[culturejam]

I haven't found any decent simulators for OS X. The few times I've used LTSpice, I've run it in a virtual machine with VirtualBox.

[electricstorm]

I haven't heard of PSpice before. May have to check it out. Multisim works pretty well. especially the O'scope for viewing signals. Only problem is it doesn't come with some of the most basic components, such as the LM3914 LED Bar/Dot driver. Could have used that for class last semester. Can't find any SPICE simulation data for it either.

Thanks, everyone!

Jim

[RobA]

I dislike LTSpice, but it's what I use.

It works on OS X using Wine. That's how I run it. I have Wine installed using MacPorts. It works well this way and is less resource hungry than having to use a VM.

[stecykmi]

I haven't heard of PSpice before. May have to check it out. Multisim works pretty well. especially the O'scope for viewing signals. Only problem is it doesn't come with some of the most basic components, such as the LM3914 LED Bar/Dot driver. Could have used that for class last semester. Can't find any SPICE simulation data for it either.

Thanks, everyone!

Jim

http://www.engr.uky.edu/~cathey/pspice061301.html

[Vallhagen]

I was doing a pretty deep research some months ago to find "mine" sim software. One requirement was to have a free (or very cheap) program. I liked 5Spice, but found the free version too limited, and i didnt like LT-spice at all. I ended up using Tina-TI (Texas Instruments). Free, does the job, fairly (enough) intuitive.

The only disadvantage seem to be that we are not many (around the diy-box-web) using it. LT-spice seems to have won that battle:)

Cheers