Skip to main content

Quick Tutorial: The NEW PSpice Model Search

Published Date
Author Team EMA

 

PSpice comes with 10’s of thousands of library parts from many different vendors and regions. The sheer volume of parts that you are presented with can make it hard to find the kind of part that you’re looking for. If you know the exact number of the part you’re looking for that certainly makes it easier, but what if you just want to find something more generic without knowing the exact part number?

With the free PSpice Model Search App (available for users of 16.6 with hotfix 016 or higher) you can browse all the installed libraries by the Library or by the Category that the part falls in to. You can also search on a specific category or on all categories for any piece of text that lies in the name or description field. Once you’ve found a part that you want, simply double click on it to place it on your Capture schematic.

 

 

 

Browsing by category groups similar components across different libraries together and allows you to drill into and find a certain type of component without knowing a specific part number. There are 17 main categories to choose parts from:

 

  • Amplifiers and Linear IC's (Filters, Buffers, etc.)                                      
  • Analog Behavioral Models Data Converters (ADC, DAC)
  • Discrete (Transistor, Diode, FETs, etc.)
  • ElectroMechanical (Motors, Relays)
  • Ideal Devices (Digital, Discrete, Passive)
  • Logic (Adders, Counters, Delay, etc.)
  • Magnetics (Ferrite Core, Powdered Core)
  • Memory (RAM, ROM)
  • OptoElectronics (LEDs, OptoCouplers, etc.)
  • Passive (R, L, C, Coupling etc.)
  • Power Management (Controllers, DC-DC, PWM etc.)
  • Programmable Devices (PAL, PLD)
  • Simulator Command (Output, Setup)
  • Source (Batteries, Digital, PWL, Stimulus)
  • Special Function (Hall Effect Sensor, etc.)
  • Switches (Multiplexer, Switch Arrays, etc.)

 

 

 

 

You can open up a category to see what lies inside and continue descending until you find the type of part that you’d like to add. Once you’ve arrived at the correct level, the Description section at the bottom will populate with the contents of the category that you’ve selected allowing you to choose and eventually double click on the part that you’d like to place it in the schematic window.

 

 

In the top section of the window, you can also click on the Library tab to browse all the parts divided up by the library that they come installed in but this doesn’t add much that you can’t already get from the regular Place > Part dialog in Capture so it probably won’t be used that often.

 

 

Besides browsing categories which is a great way of finding parts, the search field in the center is an excellent way of trimming down the results to find what you’d like to very quickly. It’s normally a good idea to change the default search scope from “Search Selected Category” to “Search All Categories” to allow you to search every part in the library instead of only the ones in the current category (unless that’s what you want!)

 

 

Type in anything that you’re interested in finding and the parts below will be filtered to show only the ones matching your query.

 

 

 

Note: that you can use the name: desc: and lib: operators to limit the search to specific libraries or columns of data – click on the Help icon  for examples of how to use these operators.

 

Where you previously had to know the name of the part to find and use it, finding PSpice simulate-able parts by browsing through categories or searching on the parts description using the PSpice Model Search App for V16.6 has made it easier than ever to take advantage of the vast selection of parts available in the default PSpice installation.

 

You can download the PSpice Model Search App for Free here at the OrCAD Marketplace

 

Quick Video