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Does anyone have experince with NI/Mouser's MultiSim BLUE?

Instructorman

I just saw an ad for Mouser's NI based developemnt environemnt called MultiSIM BLUE.  It is billed as a schematic capture, board layout, simulation and BOM tool chain, and it is available for free.  The only caveat seems to be that the BOM links exclusively to Mouser products, but given the feature set they describe and the free price tag, I'm not sure limiting myself to Mouser as a vendor is a bad thing.

 

Before I download this software I thought I'd ask the E14 community if anyone has had experience with this tool chain, positive or negative.

 

Mark

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  • in reply to michaelwylie

    Here is the TL;DR from the review linked above:

    • Maximum of 65 components per schematic, not counting grounds and power sources.
    • Single-sheet designs only, no multi-page circuits or subcircuits.
    • Only two custom components can be created per design, and they can not be saved to a parts database for reuse in other designs.
    • Custom components must have standard footprints. That is, the footprint for a custom component must be chosen from the database of existing footprints. It is not possible to create a custom footprint.
    • A PCB layout cannot be updated with changes in the schematic. So if you design your circuit, layout your PCB, then change something in your circuit such as adding a resistor, you need to completely re-layout your PCB from scratch. (You also cannot do the reverse – make a change to your PCB and update the schematic to match – but I consider that a less important feature.)