Desktop Schematic And PCB Layout Tools Offer High-End Features

Larger libraries, more advanced features and tighter integration from schematic to pc board layout than in previous versions are said to be advantages of the latest releases of CircuitMaker and TraxMaker, both of which are offered in standard and professional editions. Version 6 of CircuitMaker (see photo) provides high-quality schematic capture and accurate SPICE-based analog, digital and mixed-signal simulation in one package. Schematic features include a built-in symbol editor for custom symbol creation, "quick-connect" drag-and-drop wiring, page borders, and moveable page breaks for automatic print scaling.The software offers a proven SPICE 3f5 simulation engine, a 6000-model device library (PRO version) and a host of analyses and virtual instruments for testing and probing. A major advantage of CircuitMaker is its method of probing circuits, it's claimed. A context-sensitive Probe tool enables users to simply point and click at any point in the circuit during simulation, and the corresponding waveform immediately appears on the display for the selected instrument. There's no need to predefine test points, choose nodes or wire up instruments. The easy-to-use simulator imports SPICE models directly, and the PRO version supports digital SimCode, a high-level programming language for writing custom digital models.TraxMaker provides professional printed-circuit board layout with a built-in autorouter, design rules checking and a fully documented footprint library of thousands of components. TraxMaker is tightly integrated with CircuitMaker but will import netlists from most other schematic programs.