Tweet
Or, what I'm going to do on my Thanksgiving vacation? 
Seriously, though LspCAD 6 hasn't received the warmest of welcomes, due to the pricing on the new version, and lack of availability of a lower cost "standard" version (at this time, only the "Pro" version is available), I have to say this is a complete re-write and a there's a lot to like here- some fairly obvious, some more subtle. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...
So for the benefit of those who haven't waded through the demo manual and run the demo in depth, I'll toss out some comments and highlights. As I encounter or discover or remember more things, I'll come back and update this first post. If you check out the demo yourself, or get LspCAD 6 and have your own opinions and experiences, please feel free to post on this thread.
One point upfront- I own a couple of older copies of Soundeasy, but I'm not intending to get into a "he said, she said" kind of tit for tat between the two programs- I haven't been using SoundEasy for a few years, so I'm out of the loop for that. When I "switched" to LspCAD it was because I found it fit my working style better, and had certain capabilities, including ones more related to documenation of work, that I liked and valued. YMMV.
So, if you're in a new purchase mode, consider both, and by all means get as many opinions as you can, but also get some hands on time with both before making up your mind. There's a lot to explore in the LspCAD 6 demo.
Schematic Editor
The data entry part of LspCAD is totally re-vamped, and now works like a true simulation schematic tool - it's not driven by the constraints of a ladder network simulator using text entry, but allows you to draw out your schematic manually. Big plus, coming from a CAD guy like me.
Components have detailed menus brought up by right clicking, including building in parasitic resistance, specifying a minimum and maximum range of component value under the optimization process (way cool), range for olerance analysis, enabling/disabling optimization, and being able to specify which optimization target uses this component- also way cool.
Detailed component configurations can be cloned, differing only in designator and nominal starting value. Way cool, since you can save these configured components to a scap sheet or a template file...
(if you're thinking that there's a lot of features here which make this a powerful, configurable production environment that would appeal to a real engineer or someone who has to do this for a living, you're on the money).
Note boxes can be added to the project schematic pages as needed, to hold comments and thoughts as you develop a project.
Projects can have up to 10 pages of schematics, accessed by a drop down box.
Box models are now created on the schematic pages, and a templates for common types are included. Box models can be mixed with measured data, passive crossovers, active crossovers and active EQ all in the same single project file- a unified modeling environment is used for all.
Graphs
Graphs are now collected together into a single window, using tabbed panes to select which is displayed. Includes a new polar plot and polar map function.
Calculated data from graphs can now be exported, either in simple text format, or MatLab format.
As with past versions of LspCAD, updating component values manually or by arrow keys in the Schematic produces immediate updates to the displayed graph.
Optimizer
Box transfer function as well as network transfer functions can be optimized using selected parameters.
When you're optimizing a section of a filter or your crossover, the parts which are checked in their local right click menu for optimization appear in bold, as a reminder of which parts are being adjusted/affected.
User Interface
The main control window is used to open projects (multiple can be open at once, up to memory limitations), and lists all the components in the current Schema pages, including drivers, along with key parameters and data.
Settings and controls for the Optimizer and Emulator are located here.
More to come- this is a post in progress.
Seriously, though LspCAD 6 hasn't received the warmest of welcomes, due to the pricing on the new version, and lack of availability of a lower cost "standard" version (at this time, only the "Pro" version is available), I have to say this is a complete re-write and a there's a lot to like here- some fairly obvious, some more subtle. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...
So for the benefit of those who haven't waded through the demo manual and run the demo in depth, I'll toss out some comments and highlights. As I encounter or discover or remember more things, I'll come back and update this first post. If you check out the demo yourself, or get LspCAD 6 and have your own opinions and experiences, please feel free to post on this thread.
One point upfront- I own a couple of older copies of Soundeasy, but I'm not intending to get into a "he said, she said" kind of tit for tat between the two programs- I haven't been using SoundEasy for a few years, so I'm out of the loop for that. When I "switched" to LspCAD it was because I found it fit my working style better, and had certain capabilities, including ones more related to documenation of work, that I liked and valued. YMMV.
So, if you're in a new purchase mode, consider both, and by all means get as many opinions as you can, but also get some hands on time with both before making up your mind. There's a lot to explore in the LspCAD 6 demo.
Schematic Editor
The data entry part of LspCAD is totally re-vamped, and now works like a true simulation schematic tool - it's not driven by the constraints of a ladder network simulator using text entry, but allows you to draw out your schematic manually. Big plus, coming from a CAD guy like me.
Components have detailed menus brought up by right clicking, including building in parasitic resistance, specifying a minimum and maximum range of component value under the optimization process (way cool), range for olerance analysis, enabling/disabling optimization, and being able to specify which optimization target uses this component- also way cool.
Detailed component configurations can be cloned, differing only in designator and nominal starting value. Way cool, since you can save these configured components to a scap sheet or a template file...
(if you're thinking that there's a lot of features here which make this a powerful, configurable production environment that would appeal to a real engineer or someone who has to do this for a living, you're on the money).
Note boxes can be added to the project schematic pages as needed, to hold comments and thoughts as you develop a project.
Projects can have up to 10 pages of schematics, accessed by a drop down box.
Box models are now created on the schematic pages, and a templates for common types are included. Box models can be mixed with measured data, passive crossovers, active crossovers and active EQ all in the same single project file- a unified modeling environment is used for all.
Graphs
Graphs are now collected together into a single window, using tabbed panes to select which is displayed. Includes a new polar plot and polar map function.
Calculated data from graphs can now be exported, either in simple text format, or MatLab format.
As with past versions of LspCAD, updating component values manually or by arrow keys in the Schematic produces immediate updates to the displayed graph.
Optimizer
Box transfer function as well as network transfer functions can be optimized using selected parameters.
When you're optimizing a section of a filter or your crossover, the parts which are checked in their local right click menu for optimization appear in bold, as a reminder of which parts are being adjusted/affected.
User Interface
The main control window is used to open projects (multiple can be open at once, up to memory limitations), and lists all the components in the current Schema pages, including drivers, along with key parameters and data.
Settings and controls for the Optimizer and Emulator are located here.
More to come- this is a post in progress.
Comment