Webench, what's the point?

I gave it a try, specified my power supply and let it run. It outputs a schematic and a BOM but there is no explication how it selected the components. You have to look up all the datasheets to figure out why it did pick a certain component. When you start a simulation it is soooo slow, actually everything is very slow. When you change the value of a component the value is no longer displayed and according to Webench the inductor is of component type capacitor.

Are there actually people getting results with this???

Thanks,

--DF

Hello DF,

After having tried various 'automatic design' programs and having been slapped with messages like "circuit cannot be designed with your input parameters" or such I decided that I'll stick to my own brain cells. For some reason one of those rejected designs has by now been produced more than 10,000 times. Go figure.

As Max said, maybe they are ok for some loop calcs but even those I prefer to do with my, ahem, slide rule calculator. It never complains about "low battery" :-D

Regards, Joerg