Advanced connectivity for NI's Multisim, LabVIEW

AUSTIN, USA: National Instruments announced further integration of the NI Multisim and LabVIEW platforms. By integrating the recently released Multisim 10.1 and LabVIEW, engineers can better identify and analyze design behavior and detect errors at the earliest stages of design. Additionally, with the beta version of the NI LabVIEW Multisim Connectivity Toolkit, engineers now can enhance circuit design.

Multisim makes it possible to interactively build circuit schematics and simulate circuit behavior in a highly graphical environment. As Multisim abstracts the complexity of SPICE simulation, engineers do not need in-depth SPICE expertise to quickly capture, simulate and analyze new designs. With enhanced simulation, engineers experience fewer design errors and achieve a quicker prototype turnaround with fewer iterations.

"The continued integration between Multisim and LabVIEW is providing an increased and unparalleled level of productivity for the professional design engineer," said Vincent Accardi, general manager of National Instruments Electronics Workbench Group. "By bridging the gap between design and test, we are addressing the gap between software and hardware and, in turn, reducing design errors and iterations to the final product to provide engineers with the tools to innovate and be successful."

Multisim 10.1 introduced professional design features including a focus on enhanced simulation capabilities, increased compatibility with PSpice models and a database of 300 new components from leading vendors, such as Analog Devices and Texas Instruments. Multisim 10.1 also features the Multisim Automation API to help engineers automate simulation with COM-aware programming languages.

The beta version of the LabVIEW Multisim Connectivity Toolkit, which builds on Multisim 10.1, further integrates the capabilities of Multisim circuit design with the LabVIEW measurement platform. With the new toolkit, engineers can increase productivity in circuit designs by automating circuit simulation and correlating simulation behavior to physical prototype measurements.

These productivity increases help overcome timely and costly validation inaccuracies. The new LabVIEW Multisim Connectivity Toolkit combines these automation capabilities and makes it possible for LabVIEW to provide rapid connectivity to both simulation and real-world measurements of circuits. Within a single test environment, engineers can acquire both real and simulated circuit measurements to correlate and analyze circuits to reduce cost and development time with an improved, methodical approach to benchmarking prototype behavior.

With over 80 new functions in the connectivity toolkit, engineers have the ability to run, pause and stop simulation as well as view circuit schematics in LabVIEW and change the component values. The integration between Multisim and LabVIEW in this toolkit also can reduce development time by automating the file transfer between Multisim and LabVIEW required previously when integrating the two software platforms.

Multisim 10.1 can be purchased as a complete, integrated design and test platform that includes the board layout and routing of the NI Ultiboard 10.1 environment. Multisim 10.1 is currently shipped in English, German and Japanese versions. Readers can download a beta version of the connectivity toolkit for free at http://www.ni.com/labs