[sdiy] best PCB setup for Mac??

[Grant Richter]

> 
> Not that I plan on having PCB's made for designs I haven't breadboarded,
> but SPICE could be useful for circuit development -- enter the breadboard
> into the layout software, move it to SPICE, try improvements, update the
> breadboard to new SPICE model, move it back to the layout software, and so
> on.  While that might sound rather ambitious for "home use", I would like
> to improve my self-education in electronics.

SPICE (and variants like Electronics Workbench) work best for optimizing
circuit functional blocks. It can be very accurate (predicted vs. measured
within 20 mv. typically).

Modeling an entire module can be counter productive, as you spend more time
trying to get the simulation to run than learning anything. With SPICE you
have to manually insert all the parasitic capacitance, wire resistance and
inductance and other "real world" wonders. These additional components can
make your SPICE schematic become quite large.

I did manage to simulate an entire Buchla 258 oscillator under Electronics
Workbench, but it took me days of fiddling to get the simulation to run
successfully.

You may find it best to eat the elephant one bite at a time.