List of useful software

A place to keep track of reference material - any particularly useful books, articles, etc. should be listed here.
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Jeroen Vriesman
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List of useful software

Post by Jeroen Vriesman »

Maybe this could be a faq? I've compiled a list of useful software, professional actively maintained software which is free (really free, not some cracked version) or within a hobby budget, easy to learn and preferably multiplatform. Exchanging ideas might be easier when using the same software for drawings, schematics and diagrams.

Any suggestions are welcome, I'm still looking for a Labview replacement , there are many lists of "best N" software on the net where N seems to be a multiple of 5, but most of the time it's just another list based on other lists. I think that any addition to this list should be based on actual hands-on experience, not on anything else.

Electronics simulation; LTSpice: http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice (free, Windows and Linux+wine)

Electronics CAD; Eagle: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/ (Eagle light is 62,- euro, Windows and Linux)

Finite element solver; Elmer: http://www.csc.fi/english/pages/elmer/ (free, Windows and Linux)

2D drawing; DraftSight: http://www.3ds.com/products-services/dr ... /overview/ (free, Windows and Linux)

3D drawing; MEDUSA4: http://www.cad-schroer.com/products/med ... sonal.html (free with "not for commercial use" watermark, Windows and Linux)

Symbolic calculator; Maxima: http://maxima.sourceforge.net/ (free, Windows, Linux and OSX)

Linear algebra (MATLAB clone); GNU Octave + QtOctave: http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ (free, Windows, Linux and OSX)

Computer interface; Arduino, http://www.arduino.cc/ (hardware... but the software is free, Windows, Linux and OSX)

Report writing; Lyx: http://www.lyx.org/ (free, Windows, Linux and OSX)

Diagrams (including pneumatic and chemical engineering); Dia: http://dia-installer.de/ (Free, Windows, Linux and OSX)
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Werner Engel
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Re: List of useful software

Post by Werner Engel »

Why do you want to replace LabView?
Because of the price?

There are books available wich include free fully functional Student versions of LabView.
I'm using: http://www.amazon.de/dp/3446423869

It works extremly good. And you dont have to buy their DAQs. You can use almost every A/D converter or device with at least a serial bus Interface.
Although I'm using the NI USB-6211 DAQ, which is fine and fast enough for my purpose.

Werner
Jeroen Vriesman
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Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:08 pm
Real name: Jeroen Vriesman
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Re: List of useful software

Post by Jeroen Vriesman »

Sounds good, I didn't know that the version which comes with the book was different from the "free student edition".

The "free student edition" is only free for 6 months, to continue working with it a license is needed which is only available through an educational institute.
Should be possible to get a new 6-month version every 6 months, so indeed it's about the same as free.

The non-student full version starts at €2,630
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