8 useful Electrical circuit simulators for Engineers

What is an electrical circuit simulator

By using an electrical simulation software we can construct or design an electrical circuit diagram we can run it and check for any mistakes and improvements in the circuit can be done with the help of this circuit simulator and thus we can save cost there are many simulation software which is really useful for electrical engineers to create or improve a circuit. Some of these simulators are listed below

  1. circuit lab
  2. partsim
  3. circuit maker
  4. Multisim
  5. ZUKEN E3 series
  6. Ngspice
  7. Cadence
  8. DCAC lab

Circuit lab

This schematic simulator is very user friendly and is really easy to design circuit analog and digital simulation can be done really quick and there is no need for downloading or installation of this software it can be directly launched from its home page by clicking the launch icon we have opened it and then it can be used for designing circuits

The “power tools” is used for designing a circuit in the circuit lab it is very simple and easy to operate by the easy wire mode in the tools will help us to wire the elements in a circuit very simple, the analog and digital signals can be simulated side by side with the help of mixed-mode circuit simulation, values can be given to the components with no trouble

Website: https://www.circuitlab.com/

Partsim

Partsim is a circuit simulator which allows anyone to design a circuit and simulate it the tools in the partsim is really helpful from the source tab we can pick the power sources and by clicking the passive tab the resistors and capacitors can be selected and the port tab is also used for designing a circuit

In this simulator, the wiring of the circuit is simple by simply clicking on the component pin and then click on the other component pin to be connected. The components values can be changed by clicking on the values and editing it.

Website : https://www.partsim.com/

Circuit maker

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Circuit maker is a schematic software which can be used easily and its functions are not complex we can use circuit maker to design PCB and it can be used for designing a digital or analog circuit and mixed analog/digital circuits by using circuit maker

Required Hardware/software

  • IBM compatible 486 or higher PC
  • Math compressor for analog simulation
  • 8M RAM, 15M hard disk space (20M during installation)

WEBSITE: https://circuitmaker.com/

Multisim

Multisim is a better interacting circuit simulator which can help us to design better products in less time. It is an ideal tool for capturing schematics and then instantly simulating circuits. It provides the user with the ability to capture and simulate with the very same integrated environment and this will allow the new users to not worry about the complex SPICE (simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis)

Multisim also allows its user to connect virtual instruments to their schematics and it ould make it easy and fast to view interactive simulation result. It also provides special components called interactive parts which can be modified while the simulation is running, interactive parts such as switches and potentiometers will immediately affect the result of simulation

WEBSITE : : Multisim Download - NI

ZUKEN E3 series

This circuit simulator is very useful to design circuits and wiring panels it can do circuit board layout, it can also be used to transfer data from electrical engineering to hydraulics and pneumatics

It is designed for the Windows operating system which includes Windows-XP, 2000, NT

Areas of Use

  • Power supply industry
  • Plant and machinery applications
  • Automobile industry
  • Electronic design
  • Measurement and precision technology
  • Hardware manufacturing
  • Telecommunications and switching technology

WEBSITE: Electrical Design Software | E3.series | Zuken EN

Ngspice

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It is a general source circuit simulation program for linear and non-linear analyses, it is an open source spice simulator for the electric and the electronic circuits. The circuit may contain capacitors, inductors, mutual inductors, independent or dependent voltage or current source and semiconductor devices.

It supports a mixed level of simulation, it provides a mixed level between the technology parameters and the circuit parameters. A mixed level circuit simulator can provide greater accuracy than a stand-alone circuit or device simulator

WEBSITE : Ngspice, the open source Spice circuit simulator - Downloads (ngspice nightly and others)

CADENCE

It can be used for the PCB design and it provides a full-featured analog simulator which supports for digital elements and it can be used to solve any design from high-frequency system to low-power IC designs, it has an interactive graphical user interface which gives complete control over the design process

BENEFITS

  • System level interface can be tested with actual electrical designs using SLPS
  • It can check circuit behavior using AC, DC, noise and transient analysis
  • It can improve simulation times reliability and convergence on larger designs
  • By the smoke analysis it can determine which component is over-steered
  • By the help of the optimizer the circuit performance is maximized
  • It identifies the analog and digital signals and applies A to D and D to A interface

WEBSITE : https://www.cadence.com/content/cadence-www/global/en_US/home/support/software-downloads.html

DCAC lab

By using this circuit simulator we can design circuits with less time when compared to the real lab conditions. By the help of circuit simulator, we can design or improve the circuits. By using the DCAC simulator we can create circuits out of schematic drawings, the resistance of different object can be known by using virtual-lab, this circuit simulator is very helpful to simulate and study a circuit

There are keyboard shortcuts for DCAC lab which will be really useful to design a circuit very easily

F: Flip

R: rotate clockwise

R+shift: rotate anticlockwise

CTRL+Z: undo

SHIFT+CTRL+Z: redo

Components color can be changed by this simulator and the values can be changed by clicking the components and the values will pop up and then we can change it

Website: Dc Ac Lab Software Free Download - suggestions