Group's favourite SPICE software

That's easy: LTSpice, also known as LTSwitcherCAD, from Linear Technologies.

It is free, and is probably the fastest, most likely to converge, and all around best spice package available.

-Chuck

It seems to be one of the few free SPICE packages out there that's "actively" maintained and improved upon these days... Linear Tech made one smart choice in having Mike Engelhardt write them LTspice from scratch -- his skills definitely seem to be on the level of the folks who once worked on PSpice, and if it were a team of people rather than just Mike himself, I have no doubt that LTspice would rapidly start having the much fancier graphing and scripting abilities that, e.g., PSpice does.

For commercial packages John Warner's SI-Metrix is pretty nice. Last I heard he was maintaining SI-Metrix with just a couple of other people, and was looking to hire more if he could find appropriately talented individuals.

---Joel

I'll put my vote in for LTspice. Free, works well, PSpice compatible syntax, and if there's a bug, Mike E. fixes it pronto. I've seen him fix bugs in a matter of hours! Mike will also add user recommended features when he sees fit. I find myself using LTspice over PSpice for most small tasks since it is easy to use.

I like PSpice for the graphing capabilities, the one thing where LTspice doesn't shine.

--
Mark

Damir

SIMetrix SPICE is very good:

Leon

The only thing keeping me from switching.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |

"Francis Elers" a écrit dans le message de news: buGdnb3jA-KComfanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com...

It is not free, but I'll definively vote for Labcenter's VSM

as we are using it nearly daily with pleasure : very good spice frontend with full graphics capabilities (if you buy the advanced simulation option), real time simulation (turn a potentiometer and see the effects), usable also as mixed signal simulator (your prefered microcontroller simulated with the analog parts...) and PCB design too.

Friendly, Robert

What don't you like about LTSpice's graphing?

You should see the graphing of my DSO when you use its math functions. Nice Taiwanese bonbon colors. But luckily it has an Excel interface and there you can customize everything.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

LTspice graphing dislikes:

1. Can't lock the scaling. This is my number one gripe about LTspice graphing. The workaround is a few button clicks to recall saved graph setup parameters.

1. Can't separate the graphing window from the main app window (nice for dual monitor setup, schematic on one monitor, graph on second monitor).

2. Doesn't have the equivalent of PSpice's Performance Analysis which is handy for parametric runs.

1. A few years ago, didn't support cartesian coordinate display in AC analysis. However, Mike added that feature which sidelined PSpice.

--
Mark

Ok, I can see that. Mostly I use SPICE just for "what-if" quick checks where most of this didn't matter and I don't have a dual monitor setup at the big PC (yet).

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

Here's my set-up...

Newsgroups: alt.binaries.schematics.electronic Subject: From S.E.Cad: Group's favourite SPICE software - DualMonitors.jpg Message-ID:

I couldn't live now without dual monitors... makes probing _so_ nice!!

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |

Those links don't work for me, no idea why.

I'd do that as well but it would become quite cramped in here. The office desk is huge but the corner location is occupied by a laptop and the other desk space is needed for paper.

An office laptop is essential. Like this morning when the electricity was gone. The utility was amazing, 1/2h later jack hammers were heard and another hour later power was back on.

BTW, did your nfilter catch any gmail junk in the last couple of hours? I just wedged a blanket-filter for gmail into Thunderbird and it's awfully quiet now.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

It links to a post.message on alt.binaries.schematics.electronic. In Agent, double-clicking on the Message-ID takes you there.

I no longer specifically filter on gmail. Since I added "googlegroups", "aioe", "uar" and "remailer" to nfilter I'm seeing(*) NO spam.

(*) Actually I'm still watching the filter action to separate out the "good guys", but that test seems about over... very few "good guys" use googlegroups.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |

Me either. Once I went to duals it was like a whole new world.

I'm just about to switch at home to using a 17" LCD (1920x1200) laptop as the "main" computer (with a second monitor, though :-) ) -- I'd rather haul a large laptop around every now and again than always having to be vigilant about taking every last file I worked on at home back to the office or out of town.

17" is ok but does get old when you have to do 10-12 hour CAD marathons. At least once you've passed the black balloon festival and the eyes aren't as good anymore as they used to be.

Since I run the biz from here the files are in a central repository and always backed up. So which PC I use doesn't really matter. When I go to clients I spool their files onto a color-coded USB stick and hop in the car or on a plane.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

Well...you could have a go at my SuperSpice. Its a tad cheaper than Simetix.

I use it because, as I wrote it, it costs me nothing, and er.. additionally...has all the features I need that ain't in LTSpice.

--
Kevin Aylward
ka@anasoft.co.uk

SuperSpice also seems to have been one of the first (and still one of the few) SPICE front ends where you could drop graphs onto the schematic itself rather than always having them in a separate window.

Joel Koltner a écrit :

And Kevin is smart enough to not buy it from himself for $20 on ebay :-)

--
Thanks,
Fred.