MicroSim's PSpice Student vs. SiMetrix Intro

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "K. C. Herrick by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <kchdlh-at-juno-dot-com>

Recently I downloaded PSpice Student v. 9.1--all 28 MB of it--and after
making a few attempts at it have regretfully concluded it is a prime
example of what we Americans of a certain age would refer to as a kludge.
 I threw up my hands and looked elsewhere.  Either you can't teach this
old dog new tricks or it really is a kludge.

What I found was SiMetrix Intro, a free version, at
http://www.newburytech.co.uk and a miserly 6 MB or so to download. 
Perhaps this has already been mentioned on the List but if so, I'll
repeat it.  I can't quite believe the difference in user-friendliness and
ease of understanding as compared to the MicroSim product.  I can't wait
to get into it further--and wish I had had it available years ago.

It's all one program:  You draw your schematic in a window, including
signal sources and utilizing handy component-type buttons (R's, C's, L's,
wires, signal sources, etc.).  You edit component and signal values with
no more than a few mouse-clicks.  You then click on Simulator|Choose
Analysis & set the stimulus parameters (pulse-once, pulse-continuous, ac,
dc, step, frequency-sweep, etc.).  You then click on Simulator|Run
and...Whammo!: all the voltage and current waveforms at all the circuit
nodes are instantly calculated and put onto your HD.  

So next, you can click on Probe and then select from a great long
drop-down list of types of measurements to be plotted.  Click on one of
them (say, voltage or current) and you get a little "probe" pointer
on-screen.  Move that to where you want to "probe", click again
and...Whammo!: a pop-up graph appears with the appropriate waveform that
exists at that location in the circuit!  Then you can add, delete or
change a component, Run again, and plot again--on the same graph, thus
giving a comparison of before & after.  And you can do that any number of
times, building up a set of waveforms--differently colored and you can
hide them or delete them among other options.

The Help manual is very straightforward and thorough and is a pleasure to
read.  As to help, you even get a little pop-up window in the corner of
the screen that will tell you what error you've just made and recommend
what to do about it.

This program is outstanding.  I've hardly begun to describe all its
features.  Maybe the MicroSim products incorporate all that I've
described; I don't know because I was so put off by the unfriendly GUI
and the wholly impenetrable Help manual.

Check into this!

Ken Herrick