Which software package for simulation?

[Andrew]

What software package do you all use for circuit simulation? I'm
primarily interested in analog simulation, but digital would be a
bonus.

 

[John Devereux]

What software package do you all use for circuit simulation? I'm
primarily interested in analog simulation, but digital would be a
bonus.

Jim T. uses PSpice, but he's the only one who can afford that.

Otherwise, "we all" use the free, fast, excellent LTSpice, also known
as SwitcherCad.

Oh and Kevin uses SuperSpice because he wrote it.

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Jim T. uses PSpice, but he's the only one who can afford that.

I've used it on occasion; at work we do have a copy.

I prefer SI-Metrix, although I would admit that the PSpice engine does have
some fancier features that SI-Metrix doesn't.

Pulsonix makes for a decent front-end to SI-Metrix. (When you buy "Pulsonix
SPICE" you're getting SI-Metrix as the simulator.)

LTSpice is, of course, excellent for the price... and you often don't have
much of a choice if you're using LT's parts! (Almost all of their SPICE
models use proprietary LTSpice features.)

Oh and Kevin uses SuperSpice because he wrote it.

You also see folks here using Electronics Workbench. I used it once years ago
and it struck me as a little too PlaySkool at the time, but perhaps it's
improved since then. Hmm... looks like National Instrucments has acquired
them...

---Joel

 

[Jim Thompson]

Jim T. uses PSpice, but he's the only one who can afford that.

Maintenance is under $2K/year (I don't use Capture), which is not a
significant percentage of my income ;-)

I've written so many auxiliary tools and symbols for it, it'd be hard
to walk away from :-(

Otherwise, "we all" use the free, fast, excellent LTSpice, also known
as SwitcherCad.

Oh and Kevin uses SuperSpice because he wrote it.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Charlie Edmondson]

Jim T. uses PSpice, but he's the only one who can afford that.

Otherwise, "we all" use the free, fast, excellent LTSpice, also known
as SwitcherCad.

Oh and Kevin uses SuperSpice because he wrote it.

Jim ain't the 'only' user of PSpice here. Several of the others have it
for when they 'need' to know the results are correct. While LTSpice is a
good product, since its free, some suits refuse to acknowledge its
existance!

Also, the front end for it is not nearly as good as the front end for
PSpice, whether Schemtics (Jim...) or Capture.

Charlie

 

[linnix]

What software package do you all use for circuit simulation? I'm
primarily interested in analog simulation, but digital would be a
bonus.

I use spice3f5 running on a quad xenon 3GHz box with 8T bytes of
memory (virtual server of course). Most simulations take minutes on
my desktop and seconds on the server.

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Also, the front end for it is not nearly as good as the front end for
PSpice, whether Schemtics (Jim...) or Capture.

Agreed, although for one person (Mike Engelhardt) it's OK. It's too bad that
Cadence doesn't hire more Mike Engelhardt-types to work on their software
anymore -- I get the impression he's exactly the sort of individual that
worked on PSpice during its "glory days" and added all that cool behavioral
modeling stuff, fancy macro capabilities, etc.

---Joel

 

[JeffM]

(Attribution unclear)
::Kevin uses SuperSpice because he wrote it.
::

You also see folks here using Electronics Workbench.

"It's crap" (Aylward, et al)
..
http://groups.google.com/group/sci....Electronics-Workbench+Multisim+Not.surprising

"EWB sucks. This has been noted so many times
it should be stated in the group FAQs." (Larkin, et al)
..
http://groups.google.com/group/sci....d-me-*-if-I-bought-the-newest-version-*-*-*-*

"we need [to form] a club for people who have returned EWB. (Larkin,
et al)
..
http://groups.google.com/group/sci....turned+zzz+hated-it+Electronics-Workbench+EWB

The companies that have owned it
have further tarred it with their bad reputations.
Folks who do have Multisim (nee EWB), generally got it off P2P.

 

[Helmut Sennewald]

I use spice3f5 running on a quad xenon 3GHz box with 8T bytes of
memory (virtual server of course). Most simulations take minutes on
my desktop and seconds on the server.

Hello "linnix",

Since when is spice 3f5 multithreaded? Any link?
As far as I know, there is no SPICE using multiple processors for the math.

I think a PC with a 3GHz Core2 Duo processor will give you the best
perfomance you can buy today.

Best regards,
Helmut

 

[Charles]

What software package do you all use for circuit simulation? I'm
primarily interested in analog simulation, but digital would be a
bonus.

http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/index.jsp

Try it and you won't hate yourself in the morning!

 

[linnix]

Hello "linnix",

Since when is spice 3f5 multithreaded? Any link?

It's not, but I can run multiple batch simulations with different
parameters.

As far as I know, there is no SPICE using multiple processors for the math.

I think a PC with a 3GHz Core2 Duo processor will give you the best
perfomance you can buy today.

I was running out of memory on my desktop with 512M, even with a very
simple circuit. Large memory space helps with bigger circuit. I
don't need a powerful desktop for anything else, so a shared virtual
server makes more sense.

 

[Helmut Sennewald]

It's not, but I can run multiple batch simulations with different
parameters.

Hello Linnix,

That's indeed a good idea especially when using an optimizer.
I will keep this idea in mind.

I was running out of memory on my desktop with 512M, even with a very
simple circuit. Large memory space helps with bigger circuit. I
don't need a powerful desktop for anything else, so a shared virtual
server makes more sense.

The 512MB are indeed at th low end. I have 2GB even on my PC at home.
This helps a lot when the output file becomes large during a simulation.
It also helps when viewing signals from such a large file.

I forgot to mention that I use LTspice.
You could use it with WINE and Linux too.
There is a user group for LTspice.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LTspice/

Best regards,
Helmut

 

[Wimpie]

What software package do you all use for circuit simulation? I'm
primarily interested in analog simulation, but digital would be a
bonus.

Hi Andrew,

I'm using Beige Bag (spice simulator) for analog circuit simulation.
It is cheap (V5 professional: 399USD) and comes with a large model
database. www.beigebag.com

Best regards,

Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl