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Which is the best EDA software to learn?

Sudeep AJ

So I have been using Proteus for a year and I am finding difficulty to simulate certain circuits which are not coming in real-time. So I want better software. I wanted to know which one I should learn being an Electronics student.

  • +1

    Hi,

    What do you mean by EDA? You mention Proteus so I think you're referring to simulation of general circuits, (i.e. black box simulation of ICs and other devices) then nothing is actually "real-time", it's faked. Proteus will do it as good or as bad as any other simulator, since they all use Spice at the core, and Spice cannot simulate real-time, it just provides results in time intervals (known as transient analysis) and the time intervals can be reduced or increased depending on the complexity of the simulation as well as the granularity you want. Some simulators will run the simulation repeatedly and plot at each interval, to make it look like it is real-time, whereas others will just grab the results for all intervals and display them statically.

    Proteus and Multisim are in the first category, and LTSpice and TINA and nearly every other simulator is in the second category. A rare exception is Falstad which doesn't use Spice (as far as I'm aware) but is in the first category.

    All the above is for general simulation; there are specialist simulators for all sorts of other things (e.g. RF). An ultra-high-end option is ADS.

    If you're a student, I don't think it matters which simulator you use, provided you learn to use a simulator. Proteus is likely one of the easiest to learn since you want something real-time-like, and will give results just as competently as any other software, since they all use the same Spice software at the core (with some tweaks). LTSpice is extremely popular with professionals but as mentioned it computes and then displays the results.

  • 0

    Proteus requires a license. I mostly use LTspice for normal simulations and for RF you can check out QucsStudio or just Qucs. They both are similar to ADS and are open source/free for use. 

  • 0

    Micro cap is now free and works on Windows.  If such a thing can be said, it looks easier to use than LTSpice, but then I’ve used that on MacOS!

    http://www.spectrum-soft.com/download/download.shtm

  • 0 in reply to Jan Cumps

    Lol.  No, Sudeep sounds like an Indian name (apologies if not) and I’m definitely English.

  • 0 in reply to Andrew J

    Do you know who's maintaining it? It seems that the company folded in '19, but there's a verion12 release in '21.

  • 0 in reply to Jan Cumps

    I don't I'm afraid, it's not something I've followed.  I checked it out and some learning videos and it looks fully featured, but the chap who owned the company retired and now it's free.  You'd have to do some digging....

  • 0 in reply to Andrew J

    The name Andrew sounds English (or Scottish?), but one never knows from the name alone : )