Nigel Goodwin said:
I'm a big anti-simulator fan! - electronics is about wires and components, NOT playing a computer game!. A simulator isn't the real world, and doesn't work like the real world does - they obviously have their uses, but you often have to modify the circuit to make it simulate correctly - whereas the original circuit would work perfectly.
A simulator isn't a game, it's a tool. Hammers are incredibly handy, but you can definitely smash the crap out of your thumb with one.
I do agree with you to some extent, but I also have to point out that I have designed and simulated, but not built and tested, a lot of circuits for some of the members here and on other forums. I have been thanked many times for providing working solutions this way. The simulator obviously does not design the circuit - I do. But the simulator saves a huge amount of time, and gives me access to virtual hardware that I otherwise would not bother to test.
When I design something for myself, I build it and test it, but, unless it's very simple, I simulate it first.
A few months ago, I was wondering what audio sounded like after passing through a (very simple) sigma-delta A/D and then back to analog (the D/A is just a lowpass filter). I downloaded some WAV files and used them as inputs to a simple sigma-delta A/D in SwitcherCAD III, converted the output of the filter back to a WAV file, and listened to before and after on my computer.
It may not have been a totally realistic simulation, but it allowed me to play with 1st and 2nd order S-D conversion, and the sample rate, and the lowpass filter, without having to obtain or assemble the hardware. It also sounded good enough that I will probably build it at some time.
As you said, Nigel, simulators have their uses.
As I implied in my previous post, garbage in=garbage out.