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I use Labcenter Proteus Circuit simulation - you create circuit design, then apply current and see simulation in action - for example leds are blinking, or motor is rotating. If there is microcontroller - say AVR, you just load compiled hex file for it and see simulation live - again, if it was programmed to blink led, and there is one on pin, it will blink, or you can simulate button pressing and see what happens, etc.

Now, I know SolidWorks have SolidWorks Electric, SolidWorks Simulation, SolidWorks CircuitWorks (are those all?), is there any way to have such functionality in it? I mean, if I have added motor to project, then created circuit with avr microcontroller in SolidWorks electrical, is there a way to somehow combine those two, set .hex file for avr and run simulation to see how motor moves? Or Any alternative, how do engineers do such things?

Chris Mueller
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sandric
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CircuitWorks doesn't simulate the electronics; it just integrates between some common PCB design software formats and SolidWorks for mechanical information. For example, maximum component height, location of heat sinks and mounting holes, keep-out areas, etc.

It sounds like what you want is a plug-in that drives the mechanical constraints in SolidWorks (motor torque, etc) based on electronics simulation output. I haven't seen this particular thing done, but what generally happens in these kinds of integrations is that some product is found, or some in-house tool is written, that takes the output of one of the simulations, and converts it to the right kind of input for the other simulation. Often, the tools aren't set up to do real-time feed-back, and thus you have to go to batch-based interchange, where you provide some specific stimuli at specific times, and "render it out" in a batch, and then go back over it and verify that the right thing happened at the right time.

Or, perhaps more common in more mundane projects, the mechanical guys and electronics guys agree on some particulars (shape, size, etc) and each build their own thing, meeting every once in a while to verify assumptions, and the first integration test is run in the first actually-built prototype, rather than inside computers. Experience will tell you what things actually matter in the interface specified between the two systems, and may provide a checklist to go through to make sure you don't forget anything. ("Your batteries develop HOW much heat when charging !?")

Jon Watte
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