recommendations for a PC Electronics sim package?

[fyffe555]

I'm trying to get to grips a little more with the design stuff. All purely amateur. Been doing some things with Analog and decided a simulator might help. Looked at Electronics Workbench, found a copy of circuit maker, downloaded Proteus VSM.

Here's what I've found. The same simple Op amp circuit in each, two outputs, one square, one triangle wave. Checked the device spice parameters,values, all wires connected all device pins connected.

Circuit maker just sits there and shows a fixed voltage on both outputs.

EWB demo shows no voltage on the Square but the triangle wave form works - even though its integrated from the square?

Proteus VSM demo fired up right away and shows both forms fine.

Problem? Proteus is more than I want to spend @ $500 - it does include pic emulation too though. Circuit maker is defunct and EWB just looks and seems to work flakey .

Anyone have experience with this stuff have a recommendation . Am I wasting my time / money? IS there a prefered simulator?

Keep in mind I just want to produce simple stuff and I'm not looking for anything complicated. I've looked at some of the pure spice products and they're way overkill and more than I want to deal with.

Thanks

Andrew

[philba]

Try the SPICE from Linear Tech - free. It's called switcher cad but its a pretty good SPICE simulator. You can adapt most models though I'm far from an expert. it does seem to work pretty well and has a decent library (but mostly LT devices).