Dordt College Engineering & Department

LINEAR CIRCUITS AND ELECTRONICS
EGR 220, PHYS 206
(Fall 2011)

PSpice is loaded on most engineering lab computers. If you are willing to do your PSpice work on one of Dordt's computers it is not necessary for you to download it and install it on your personal computer.

Cadence offeres a "Demo" version of the software for free. It has all the features and capabilities of the regular version except that the number of circuit elements it can simulate is restricted. This restriction has never been an issue with work done by students here at Dordt. Thus, for the purposes of this course, you would never be able to tell the difference between the Demo version and the regular version.

To get started downloading, click on the PSpice logo (the image above). There you can read more about the program. Note that PSpice is downloaded as part of a larger software package called ORCAD. The "download" link is in small blue type near the lower right of the window in a frame labeled "Related Info." Click on "ORCAD Downloads."

After clicking on "ORCAD Downloads" you have a choice.

Option A.) (Recommended) If you only want to use the software to do homework for this class, you need only download the "Capture and PSpice Only" version of the "ORCAD Demo DVD." This is the second choice offered on the download page.

Options B.) If you want the PCB editor and the complete ORCAD suite of software, download the "ORCAD Demo DVD" (720 MB). After installation it will occupy about 2 GB of your hard drive. This is the first choice offered on the download page.

PSpice was forked from an earlier program called SPICE. You can read more about SPICE here and here. Practically all commands and features of spice are supported in the demo version of PSpice that we use here at Dordt College. Thus documentation for SPICE can be used with and applied to PSpice.