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User’s Manual
Chapter 2 Quick Start
Tutorials - Overview
This chapter covers a number of tutorials that will help you get started with SIMetrix.
Tutorial 1 is designed for total novices. You may wish to skip to tutorial 2 if you
already have experience with SPICE type programs.
Tutorial 2 assumes you have grasped the basics of using the schematic editor. You don't
have to worry about setting up analyses or the characteristics of any input stimulus
such as V2 in tutorial 1; these procedures will be explained.
If you are an experienced circuit designer but have never used a circuit simulator
before, we recommend you read “Simulation for the Novice” below. This will
familiarise you with a few concepts about simulation that may be alien to you if you
are used to traditional methods of evaluating circuits.
Examples and Tutorials - Where are They?
In Linux the examples and tutorials reside in the examples.tar file that forms part of the
standard distribution. Note that this file is not automatically installed.
On Windows the example files are first installed under the main installation root (e.g.
under C:\Program Files\SIMetrix600\support\examples) but it is not intended that they
are used from that location. Instead they will be copied to your “My Documents”
folder when SIMetrix starts for the first time, but only if you accept the option to do so.
If you can’t find the examples files, you may need to manually copy them from the
installation root to a suitable location of your choice.
In the following tutorial discussions, the examples directory is referred to as
‘EXAMPLES’.
Simulation for the Novice
When measuring a real circuit, you would probably connect up a power source - bench
power supply perhaps - maybe also some signal source, then switch it on and take
measurements using - probably - an oscilloscope. You can also make adjustments to
the circuit and see the effects straight away.
For simulation, you have a choice of analysis modes and not all of them have an exact
real life equivalent. The analysis mode that most closely resembles the method of
bench testing a circuit described above is transient analysis. This performs an analysis
over a specified (by you) time period and saves all the results - i.e. all the voltages and
currents in the circuit - to your hard disk. The difference between real life testing and
simulation is that the simulation is not running all the time. If you want to see the
effects of changing a part value, you have to change it then re-run the simulation. (But
note there is a potentiometer device that automates this procedure see “Potentiometer”
on page 140).
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