Analysis of Circuit Simulation
Multisim offers many analyses, all of which
utilize simulation to generate the data for the desired analysis.
These analyses range from quite basic to extremely sophisticated,
and often require one analysis to be performed as part of another.
To configure and begin an analysis, select Simulate/Analyses, and
choose the desired analysis. Figure 1 lists all available Multisim
analyses. For each analysis, you configure the settings that tell
Multisim how to exactly perform the desired analysis. In addition
to the analyses provided by Multisim, user-defined analyses can be
created based on user-entered SPICE commands.
To prepare an analysis, configure the
analysis-specific parameters, such as frequency range for an AC
analysis. Output traces must also be selected here. It is
especially important to name nets appropriately to avoid confusion
when analyzing results. The results are displayed on a plot in
Multisim’s Grapher and saved for use in the Postprocessor. Some
results are also written to an audit trail, which can be
viewed.
Grapher
The Grapher is the primary tool used to view
the results of simulations. Users can view the Grapher by clicking
View/Grapher. Additionally, the Grapher opens automatically
displayed upon when running an analysis. Elements of the Grapher
window are detailed in Figure 3.
The display shows both graphs and charts. In
a graph, data are displayed as one or more traces along vertical
and horizontal axes. In a chart, text data are displayed in rows
and columns. The window is made up of several tabbed pages,
depending on how many analyses, etc. have been run.
Each page has two possible active areas which
will be indicated by a red arrow: the entire page indicated with
the arrow in the left margin near the page name or the chart/graph
indicated with the arrow in the left margin near the active
chart/graph. Some functions, such as cut/copy/paste, affect only
the active area, so be sure the desired area has been selected
before performing a function.
Through the properties pages, the Grapher
provides extensive customization. Axes scales, ranges, titles,
colors, line styles, and many more options can be modified. To
access the page or standard properties pages, click Edit/Page
Propertiesor Edit/Properties (Figure 4 and Figure 5).
Cursors can be moved by clicking and dragging
them with the mouse. Additionally, right-clicking on a cursor, will
display cursor movement options. Users can move the cursor to a
particular X-Value, Y-Value, and local Maxima or Minima in either
direction (Figure 6). Cursors, legends and graph lines can be
toggled on or off by clicking the corresponding toolbar buttons
(Figure 7).
Results can also be exported to NI LabVIEW,
Excel, or MathCAD. Graph data can also be saved to a variety of
formats including NI LabVIEW Data (either .LVM or .TDM), comma
separated values (.CSV), and plain text. To save results from the
Grapher select File/Save As,and choose the desired file
format.
"This course introduces National Instruments Multisim through instructional modules and hands-on exercises. Multisim is an interactive, graphical schematic capture tool and SPICE simulator that […]"