Software for a beginner to design and learn about circuits with?

For i.c. designs its $100k+ for each component tweek;-)

And one should still point out that, to all intents and purposes, us i.c. designers don't use breadboards at all, ever. Even in debugging one avoids die probing as its so awkward to do. A lot stuff at HF would never work any way on a BB. It needs to be all on chip. Spice is that good in i.c design the models are usually extremely good. Things often work right of the bat, essentially identical to simulation.

But its extortionately expensive.

So why not try SuperSpice:-)

As I often point out, if you are creative you can use the demo for quite large circuits all for free. This is because you can have one level of schematic hierarchy. So placing schematic attached blocks allow you 30 blocks * 25 components per block = 750 real components. You even get around this limit by using the automatic .subckt from schematic facility.

But most PSpice models will run in other simulators. If they don't, its usually just a minor modification.

As I have mentioned a few times, I wrote SS as I could not afford a personal copy of PSpice. In my view, PSpice has had its day as being a cost effective Spice. If you specifically want speed and convergence than the de facto choice is LTSpice, if you want ease of use, its SuperSpice:-)

Kevin Aylward snipped-for-privacy@anasoft.co.uk

When I learnt to do circuits there wasn't any software.

You'll learn only from reading. Software can't teach you circuits that work. It's more likely to mislead you.

If you're thinking analog - and especially audio - although they're old you could do worse than see if you can still find the National Semiconductor Audio Handbook. Texas's Bifet Manual - and go to TI's website and download 'Op Amps for Everyone' a 2 meg file of 464 pages of practical examples and info.

Graham