5 Reasons to use PartQuest Explore

1. PartQuest Explore gives you a single environment where you can model and simulate complete systems

Imagine – a single environment where you can model analog, digital, and power electronics, transfer functions and math-based blocks, sensors and actuators, and physical environments. Pick symbols from a rich selection of elements, drop them onto a diagram, wire them together, and simulate the multi-discipline performance of the system.

PartQuest Explore is powered by a formidable Mentor simulation engine, proven in the crucible of the most demanding design work on the planet. This time-tested engine, now available on the cloud, provides you with unprecedented modeling and simulation capabilities.

Unlike traditional circuit simulation tools, which provide a limited set of base models, or popular block diagram tools, which can only handle transfer function modeling, PartQuest Explore makes it trivially easy to combine any mix of electronic model (analog, digital, power, etc.) with conceptual models (transfer functions or math-based blocks), sensors and actuators (such as motion control sensors, motors, solenoids, etc.), and models of the real-world context (such as the dynamics of a mechanical load). With this rich set of capabilities, a full closed-loop system can be designed, starting with transfer function blocks and then verified as a hardware implementation, all in a single environment.

2. PartQuest Explore makes it really easy to get a component model

Everyone likes the idea of using simulation – why suffer the costs and delays to build a system when you don’t yet know if it’s going to work? Simulation makes it cheap and easy to iterate, improve the design quickly, and make your mistakes in private. But the biggest barrier to simulation is models.

With PartQuest Explore, you have access to a powerful simulation engine that is built around a comprehensive, standardized (IEEE/IEC) modeling language – VHDL-AMS. Most other tools are limited to a predefined set of models that seriously limit what you can do. The VHDL-AMS language makes it possible for a large range of models to be readily available:

• A generous pre-defined library provided out-of-the-box with PartQuest Explore
• Component models that are automatically created by filling out a datasheet
• Models that you create or Import directly using VHDL-AMS model code
• Models from special component suppliers, such as Triad Semiconductor

Whether you use one of the hundreds of pre-defined models in our library, create a new model from a datasheet, create one from "first principles" of the underlying technology, or leverage a model from one of our partner suppliers, you will be able to find the models that you need to make simulation effective and practical.

3. PartQuest Explore provides a simple environment for sharing models and designs with the rest of the community

The world has changed. Everything is moving faster and faster. Lifelong learning is a required skill. You don’t have the luxury of starting with a clean sheet of paper on each project. PartQuest Explore is a place where you can go to leverage the work of your peers, add value, and share what you have learned. It’s a place where you can find multi-discipline designs of all types as well as the components that comprise these designs. You can dig into these designs and really understand how they work, which is always the first step to the next innovation. With PartQuest Explore, everything is modeled using industry standards so everything that you find can be simulated. PartQuest Explore sponsors design and model source code sharing. This promotes a natural, community-driven growth of functionality, with the healthy feedback that comes from open-source collaboration.

PartQuest Explore is a place where you can share your expertise and make connections with the people who are smart enough to appreciate what you have done. As the community responds to your work, you get feedback on how you are doing and encouragement to go to the next level. Design and model ratings, provided by the community, tell you whose work you should follow and leverage.

4. PartQuest Explore is entirely online

All you need to use PartQuest Explore is a web browser. Everything that you need is on the cloud – schematic tools, simulation engines, waveform viewers, and a place to store your work. No need to fuss with installing software, managing licenses, and keeping everything up-to-date. You can access your work from anywhere at any time. It is trivially easy for you to leverage the work of others and to share your ideas with colleagues.

5. PartQuest Explore is free

PartQuest Explore sponsors education, teamwork, and innovation with a commitment to free access for students, educators, and self-learners. This isn’t limited to organized education and institutions. We think that individuals at every stage of life or employment want to have a place where they can go to learn and find tools that help them to express ideas. PartQuest Explore is such a place. We will also offer subscriptions, to help pay the bills, but if you are willing to share, so are we.