New to these. Which other software should I learn in addition of KiCad so multiple software working ‘together’ to handle different phases of electronic hardware design workflow?
Steps:
draw schematic diagram and PCB layout
stimulation on passive parts (what pull up R for board C, to meet rise time of I2C)
stimulation on simple active parts, diode, FET
Calculator. Says, width of PCB track to handle xxxmA with yyy temperature rise.
Simple mechanical CAD. Case to hold PCB, drill holes for connector
Some software that handle file conversion etc. for these to work together
Will ngspice suit me? or it is too advance and many functions and may be difficult to learn and use? or it is like LibraOffice, I only use 10% of its function and it is easy to learn
I use ngspice which is included in KiCad for 2 and 3. However this is always a bit hacky. So if you want to simulate rise time, you have to create an equivalent circuit diagram that represents your data line.
Simulation: ngSpice integrated in KiCad works reasonably well, but it’s a bit difficult to get started. You mostly have to find models yourself, as they are not included (copyright, shady licencing, and problems with encrypted models), and ngSpice does not always converge very well. For beginners it is very difficult to figure out whether their schematic is misbehaving, or something with the models is not right. But It’s the only emulator I have experience with, I’m simply not going to learn and use another schematic entry program on top of KiCad.
Same as 2.
KiCad has a built in calculator in the project manager.
FreeCAD works quite well, but it has it’s own (quite steep) learning curve. There is also the excellent KiCad StepUp workbench in FreeCAD which makes it easy to exchange data between FreeCAD and KiCad.
Same as 5.
That is something you will have to figure out for yourself. I suggest you start with reading though a beginners tutorial and experiment with some of the examples.
If that is the current state of matter, may be I should use multiple sim software that a particular active device (FET, BJT and OP-Amp) manufacturer supports ‘officially’.
Any idea for passive parts (R C) sim software, easy co-operate with KiCad, at 20MHz and short trace length. Transmission line and reflection effect can be safely neglected.
