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AnalogPackrat

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
3,354
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Far Away From Newsom
----------------------Useful Software---------------------------

This is a meta-thread, made to allow you to keep track of the posts concerning this single issue - I will continue re-editing this first post.

- All should be contained in this first post - which is re-edited regularily.

- Everyone is welcome to reply with comments and pointers to things they consider relevant. This will be copy/pasted into the first post, if the meta-keeper finds it relevant. (I deeply dislike censorship, but here it seems necessary for the sake of overview)

- On a regular basis, replies will be copied to the first message and deleted, then bumped to the top.


All Platforms

Circuit Simulators

Big page of SPICE family SW
http://www.sss-mag.com/spice.html

Symbol Libraries

Tube and transistor symbol library for pdf based programs.
http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Cad_Programs/schematic_library.pdf

Front Panel Layout

The scale-o-matic from our friend mcs. Make dial scales for your front panel.
http://stiftsbogtrykkeriet.dk/~mcs/Scale.html

Guitar Oriented

Don Tillman's guitar pickup response simulator
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/index.html

Miscellaneous Calculators

Resistor string value calculator for constructing stepped attenuators.
http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~nroberts/atten.html
Tee, Pi, Bridged Tee, Balanced, Attenuator Calculator.
http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/calcattenuator.cfm

Analog Devices VRMS / dBm / dBu / dBV calculator
http://www.analog.com/Analog_Root/s...ols/interactiveTools/dbconvert/dbconvert.html
Analog Devices SNR / THD / SINAD calculator
http://www.analog.com/Analog_Root/static/techSupport/designTools/interactiveTools/utility/snr.html
Analog Devices Power Dissipation vs. Die Temperature Calculator
http://www.analog.com/Analog_Root/s...ols/interactiveTools/powertemp/powertemp.html

National Semiconductor Power Supply Designer
http://www.national.com/appinfo/webench/power/SS/SS.cgi?flow=power&step=0A/
National Semiconductor Amplifier design Tool
http://webench.national.com/appinfo/webench/amplifiers/select_topology.cgi
National Semiconductor Active Filter Designer
http://webench.national.com/appinfo/webench/filters/design_requirements.cgi

Voltage-Current-Resistance-Power CALCULATOR
http://www.opamplabs.com/eirp.htm
Resistance-Frequency-Capacitance CALCULATOR
http://www.opamplabs.com/rfc.htm
Capacitance-Frequency-Inductance CALCULATOR
http://www.opamplabs.com/cfl.htm
dbm-Voltage-Impedance CALCULATOR
http://www.opamplabs.com/dbm-v-z.htm
Zener Voltage Regulator CALCULATOR
http://www.opamplabs.com/zenerreg.htm


Windows Platform

Combo Simulation/Layout/Schematic Capture

ORCAD/PSpice
http://www.orcad.com/community.aspx

schematic and PCB software. It makes net list and Gerber file for you or just print it out on your printer. fully functional except maximum size is 499 pins.
http://www.winqcad.com/

Circuit Simulation

SIMetrix circuit simulator. Free download.
http://www.catena.uk.com/

Home of Tube CAD, Audio Gadgets, SE Amplifier CAD, and Glassware Tube Manual software.
http://www.glass-ware.com

Several free design programs, all in French.
http://b.urbani.free.fr/index.htm

PCB Layout Software

PCB 123
http://pcb123.com./
Eagle
http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

Rimu
http://www.hutson.co.nz/

Express PCB (tied to their PCB ordering/manufacturing)
http://www.expresspcb.com/
Additional library for Express PC Board program. Includes tube symbols. Load it into the custom library directory in the express program. Thank's to Cayacosta!
http://home.pacifier.com/~gpimm/downloads.html

Free PCB
http://www.freepcb.com/home.html

Logiciel TCI is free, but all in French! Jaakko Viitalähde says "a VERY good program!"
http://b.urbani.free.fr/pagetci/tci.htm

Audio Test Applications

http://www.audiotester.de/
Rightmark audio analyzer!
http://audio.rightmark.org/index_new.shtml
Up to 24 bit 96K sine wave generation stereo L / R / L+R / L-R. 10-48 kHz with Burst Sine, Square, Triangle, Noise, Sweeps from 1 to 20000 Hz, Saw tooth, Pulse trains, Sine plus Noise, DTMF tones, warble sweeps.
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/audio-osc.zip
Lab grade Audio Spectrum Analyzer. Uses sound card.16K fft linear or log freq plot, ave/peak response, Blackman window, range/reference options, THD, top 10 harmonics readout, pass/fail testing of target harmonics, persistent reference plot.
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/SA3000.zip

Front Panel Layout

Front panel express design app. Free download.
http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/

Mechanical CAD

Free software for drawing two and three dimensional parts.
http://www.emachineshop.com/

Free Demo Software (limited component/node count)

Micro-Cap 8.1 - nice & easy
http://www.spectrum-soft.com

SuperSpice - a bit cluttered GUI but lots of models included.
http://www.anasoft.co.uk

Miscellaneous

Duncan Amplification has some neat utilities like a power supply designer, anode load calculator, speaker impedance calculator, and a tone stack calculator.
http://www.duncanamps.com/software.html

Windows program for filter design. Free download.
http://www.nuhertz.com/
Filter design v4. Written by Almost all digital electronics. One of the best filter design programs. Does graphic analyses of all kinds on the circuit it designs.
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/Filter-Design.exe

Transformer wire and insulation specs and properties. Free download.
http://www.wiretron.com/free.html

Free download site for Electrical and Electronic Formulas.
Simple, low tech, small file, Dos-like program.
http://www.programmersheaven.com/search/Download.asp?FileID=846
Aavid engineering program for heat sinks. just enter thermal characteristics for the semiconductor you are going to cool. you get them from the data books data sheet for the chip you are cooling.

http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/coolcatv20c.exe

Simple good program to calculate resistor values for transistor class "a" stage amplifier. also op-amp filters, zener diode dropping resistor, 555 timer, filter cap's plus more.
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/electronic_design.zip

Calculates trace resistance at a given length and temperature, and voltage drop across the trace for a given current.
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/wiregage.zip

Attenuation Curve Calculator (DACT):
http://www.dact.com/html/ac_calculator.html
http://www.dact.com/DACT_Attenuation_Curve_Calculator.xls

Attenuator Design Calculator (Excel File)
http://www.platenspeler.com/download/attenuator_publish.xls

Linear Technology LTspice and other SW, fully functional, no limitations
http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp

Macintosh Platform

Combo Simulation/Layout/Schematic Capture

QUCS (schematic and simulation not SPICE) OSX packages
http://naranja.umh.es/~atg/

gEDA (schematic, netlist, simulation, pcb) fink .info files for OSX
http://www.ghz.cc/charles/fink/

MI-SUGAR (schematic and simulation) OSX 1.3 Carbon
http://www.macinit.com/misugar/

XCircuit (schematic and netlist)
http://xcircuit.ece.jhu.edu/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcircuit/
(install on OSX with fink: $fink install xcircuit)

PCB Layout Software

Eagle
http://www.cadsoftusa.com/
Osmond PCB
http://www.swcp.com/~jchavez/osmond.html

Circuit Simulation

Freeware SPICE for Mac (Classic and OS X) -
http://newton.ex.ac.uk/teaching/CDHW/MacSpice/

UNIX/Linux Platform

Combo Simulation/Layout/Schematic Capture

QUCS (schematic and simulation not SPICE)
http://qucs.sourceforge.net/

gEDA (schematic, netlist, simulation, pcb)
http://geda.seul.org/

XCircuit (schematic and netlist)
http://xcircuit.ece.jhu.edu/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcircuit/

PCB Layout Software

PCB
http://bach.ece.jhu.edu/~haceaton/pcb/
Eagle
http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

Forum Links

Simulation software discussion
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=8442

PCB software discussion
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=3343
 
http://www.sillanumsoft.com/
visual analyser : oscilloscope and spectrum analizer. (soundcard based)

posted by Analag
 
Professsional (now freeware) DOS-based PCB software - Not crippled. Does arcs, angles, various trace-widths, multi-layer. The net has SMT outlines for components available as well. Component libraries from RCS and a new printer driver from airborne that does .pcx output. Airborne will send you SMT and other component libraries if you ask.

http://www.altium.com/Community/Support/Downloads/

Scroll down page to download AUTOTRAX

Download EASYTRAX manual - it's the manual for AUTOTRAX put in the wrong place, but heck, since it's free, we can't complain too much, can we?

It does gerbers, printer and plotter output, drill files, the whole enchilada. I've used it for several years for analog boards and I like it much more than Eagle or the Express PCB.

The learning curve is less steep than most. Runs fine in a dos window under all MS OS'es including XP.

There is another, non-Protel program called AutoTrax that isn't free. The one you want is at the above link.

Enjoy :thumb:
 
hi AP:

I was trying to get to the link that has the imports for the ExpressPCB software (by Cayocasta). Do you know of another place to access this? The link dead. :?

Thanks.
 
anybody using this?
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/

dos autotrax is supposed to run under dosemu, right?
 
I don't run Linux, so I can't say for sure if dos Autotrax runs under dosemu. Or more importantly, how well dosemu emulates dos under Linux.

But I would think you could get an old Pentium P166 machine for next to nothing just about anywhere in the world these days, and then you wouldn't have to suss out any problems with printing\plotting pass-through from dosemu. Emulators can tend to be buggy in my experience. DOS autotrax runs like lightening on a P166 <grin>

Of course if you're sending off the files for someone else to make the pcb for you, it'd probably be fine. But PnP Blue seems more economical for one-offs IMHO, and that means the printer or plotter stuff has to work right.
 
Great Spice tutorials. Good variety of circuits and topics that pertain to audio:
http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/Circuits.htm
 
Bouncing round my own website, came accross this page...

http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/allamplifiertools.html
There's some links there for interactive tools for things like filter design tools and buffer amplification etc.

They look pretty useful.

ciao

R
 
If you have a raster format, let's say a scan / photo and want a nice vectorized format like DXF / DBF you can use WinTopo (http://wintopo.com/)
Freeware or Pro version available.
If you got your nice DXF you will probably mind downloading Sonnets Sonnet-DXF to Extended Gerber RS274X Converter...from here:
http://www.sonnetsoftware.com/support/downloads/dxftogerber.asp
Freeware

Nice one i think... :razz:
Happy scanning... :thumb:

Kind regards

Martin
 
Having using RMAA for freq-plots of filters etc, I was now looking for phase-graphs as well. RMAA can't do that, right ? Or did I miss something ?

Visual Analyzer can do phase, but I'm having problems with it.

Any other suggestions ? Would be nice to be able to plot freq-responses for amplitude (Y1-axis) & phase (Y2-axis) in one graph.

Thanks,

Peter
 
tranformer design software. (xls about low level transformers from the RDH4 formules and stand alone output trafo design software)

http://www.groupdiy.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&t=9892
 
[quote author="tv"]anybody using this?
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/[/quote]
I am and I moderate its user group at yahoo. Good basic program, unlimited and runs on both Windows and Linux.

A lot of people seem to use switcherCAD http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp for circuit simulation these days. I find it to be very good for audio stuff.
 
OSX: FuzzMeasure Pro2



http://www.supermegaultragroovy.com/products/FuzzMeasure/screenshots.py

FuzzMeasure Pro is an audio and acoustical measurement application you use to perform, analyze, and produce visually stunning graphs of your measurements. Using FuzzMeasure's tools, you can easily gather measurements of a home theater system, recording studio, stage, auditorium, raw loudspeaker components, and more.
 
[quote author="12afael"]www.abacom-online.de front panel design software[/quote]

They have a bit more:

Front Designer (front panel design software):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/frontdesigner.html

sPlan (schematic editor):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/splan.html

Sprint Layout (PCB design software):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/sprint-layout.html

Lochmaster (for designing stripboard layouts):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/lochmaster.html

The features are very basic but that results in a very easy handling.
 
[quote author="sonicwarrior"][quote author="12afael"]www.abacom-online.de front panel design software[/quote]

They have a bit more:

Front Designer (front panel design software):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/frontdesigner.html

sPlan (schematic editor):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/splan.html

Sprint Layout (PCB design software):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/sprint-layout.html

Lochmaster (for designing stripboard layouts):
http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/lochmaster.html

The features are very basic but that results in a very easy handling.[/quote]

Checked out the demo - has got a bitmap import so you can trace over scans - currently €40. Spent couple of hours using demo, took me about 45 minutes to "trace" 160 x 100 pcb! I like the look of this software but just checking if anyone has got this and successfully used it for producing manufactured PCBs?
I seem to recall a post "best €40 ive ever spent" - can't find the post but i'm sure it was relavent to CAD software.

Is there any FREE soft out there that has this scan/bitmap import so you can trace over - otherwise ill be going for sprint :thumb:
 
[quote author="mikeyB"]I like the look of this software but just checking if anyone has got this and successfully used it for producing manufactured PCBs?
[/quote]

Ok, I'll post my PM here:

yes I have done my miniPSU PCBs with SPrint Layout:
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=19418

The hidden silkscreen was a problem caused by PCB-Pool because
they don't manufactur single sided PCBs and I didn't understood that prior to ordering the PCBs.

It's the first PCB layout software that I really liked (tried KiCAD, Target3001 and Eagle).
Perfect for a beginner but lacking essential features for pro users (e.g. multi-layer stuff, no integration of a schematic editor, ...). But also very stable and fast.
 

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