Looking for free simulation program

[carbonzit]

[who isn't?]

Having never used this kind of software, I'd like to get a simulation program and start playing around with it. I was thinking about downloading LTSpice, but know nothing about it.

What do y'all recommend? Easy to learn would be nice, but so would lots of features and functionality. I don't really have any specialized things I want to do with this just yet (RF, microwave, etc.). Just general-purpose stuff.

All helpful replies much appreciated.

 

[crutschow]

LTspice is probably one of the best free ones and is fairly easy to use. The documentation is reasonably complete and should allow you to use the program with a moderate amount of effort. It can perform DC, AC, and Transient simulations and you can simulate directly from a schematic. A number of the people that contribute to this forum use it to illustrate the operation of various circuits so, if you know it, you can better understand their simulations, or easily duplicate the simulation as desired.

It's used mostly for DC to RF simulation. Microwave simulations are rather difficult and are typically performed by specialized software. But not many people need the ability to simulate microwave circuits anyway.

 

[Jaguarjoe]

LTspice is great. After about 20 minutes of reading, I was up and running with it and I'm old and forgetful. Yahoo groups has a good LTspice group too.

 

[MikeMl]

I have posted hundreds of running LTSpice simulations here. Search for posts by Mike Ml (or mikeml)