Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

SPRING 2023

Experiment No. 0: Introduction to Circuit Simulation Software

Aim: To simulate simple electric Circuits using MULTISIM 14.1

Objectives: On completion of this experiment, student should be able to:

a. Install MULTISIM 14.1 circuit simulation software
b. Build and simulate a simple electric circuit using MULTISIM 14.1 and make voltage and current
measurements

Introduction:
Multisim is a schematic capture and simulation application that assists in carrying out the major steps in
the circuit design flow. Multisim is the schematic capture and simulation application of National
Instruments Circuit Design Suite, a suite of EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools. Multisim can be
used for both analog and digital circuits and also includes mixed analog/digital simulation capability,
and microcontroller co-simulation. Simulating the circuits before building them, catches errors early in
the design flow, saving time and money.
Circuit analysis using Multisim allows the user to observe the circuit behavior before the actual
manufacturing, use ideal components to isolate design and circuit limitations, make measurements that
are hard to make in the real circuit because they might damage the circuit, they are affected by electric
noise, not possible because of a lack of proper measurement equipment, perform repeated simulations
with parametric values for a component, observe temperature dependence of the circuit behavior,
observe circuit behavior under parasitic elements due to real components. These are only a few of the
many advantages of using circuit simulation. Multisim is an easy-to-use schematic capture and
simulation environment that engineers, students, and professors can use to define and simulate circuits.
The Multisim 14.1 user interface and its main elements can be seen in Figure 1.
 Figure 1: MULTISIM 14.1 USER INTERFACE

Task 1: Software Installation

For Windows Users:

Create NI user account and Download Student Version of MULTISIM 14.1 using the Link:

https://www.ni.com/en-lb/shop/electronic-test-instrumentation/application-software-for-electronic-test-and-
instrumentation-category/what-is-multisim/multisim-education.html

Instructions to run Windows from macOS to download

MULTISIM:
Downloading and installing the virtual machine:
We will use VirtualBox application as our virtual machine to run Windows from macOS, as per the
following instructions:
1. To download VirtualBox, go to the following link:
 https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
2. Click “OS X hosts” to download the version compatible with your macOS
3. Click on the downloaded file and follow the instructions to complete the installation
Downloading Windows:
To install Windows on the virtual machine, please download Windows ISO file as follows:
1. To download windows on VirtualBox, go to the following link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
2. Select Windows 10 edition and click “confirm”
3. Select “English” as the product language and click “confirm”
4. Click on “64-bit Download”
Creating Windows 10 virtual machine:
1. Run VirtualBox from the application folder
2. Click “New” to create a new virtual machine
3. Type Windows 10 in the “Name” field
4. Follow the instructions, and keep all settings as default
Loading Windows 10 on the virtual machine:
1. From VirtualBox, click on “Settings” to go to the virtual machine settings
2. The storage window will show two storage medias: Windows 10.vdi and an empty
CD. Click on the empty CD
3. In the “Attributes” section, click on the CD icon next to “SATA Port 1”
4. Select “Choose/Create a Virtual Optical Disk…”
5. Click on “Add”
6. Locate the Windows ISO file downloaded previously, and open it.
7. Click “Choose”
8. Click “OK” to exit the settings

Now, Windows 10 is ready to run in your virtual machine, click “Start”, and follow the instructions
to complete Windows setup. If you were prompted to activate Windows, you can click on “I don’t
have a product key”. After completing the setup, you will be ready to use it in order to run any
software that is compatible with windows.

Create NI User Account and Download Student Version of MULTISIM 14.1 using the Link:

https://www.ni.com/en-lb/shop/electronic-test-instrumentation/application-software-for-electronic-test-and-
instrumentation-category/what-is-multisim/multisim-education.html
Click on Get Student Download. Extract files (create a new folder “National Instruments” in Program files (x86)
folder in C drive).

From the folder, select autorun.exe and press enter. The following dialog box appears
Select Install NI Circuit Design Suite 14.1 and press Enter. Allow the application to make changes on your
computer.

Click Next>>. The following dialog box appears

Enter your name and Organization. Enter the product serial number as M77X07985. Click on Next>> The
following dialog box appears.

Leave this option as default to install Multisim in your Program Files directory. Select Next >>. The following
dialog box opens.
The Installation Features page will ask you to select features to install. Select NI Circuit Design Suite 14.1
Education and choose “Do not install NI ELVISmx”. Click on Next>>

Click on Next>>.
Click on  Next >> 

Select I accept the above 2 License Agreements and click Next>>

Wait for the installation process to complete.

After the installation is complete select Next >> .

The NI update service dialog box checks for updates. Click Yes.

Restart your computer.

Select the circuit design Suite 14.1 folder from the Program Files(x86) folder.

Launch the MULTISIM 14.1 Application

Task 2: Build and Simulate a simple electric Circuit

Consider a simple electric circuit as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: Simple Electric Circuit

1) Open Multisim by clicking on Start -> Programs -> National Instruments -> Circuit Design
Suite 14.1 -> Multisim 14.1 .

2) Create a new file with File-> New-> Blank->Design. Multisim opens with a default new design file,
named “Design1”, which contains a default blank schematic sheet, also called “Design1” that has
been opened for editing. A blank design as shown in Figure 1 is seen.

3) Select File-> Save As to display a standard Windows Save dialog. Save the design with a file name
in a new folder. To open an existing file, click on File ->Open.

4) To place Components, click on Place-> Components. On the Select Component Window click on
Group to select the components needed for the circuit. Alternately the Component toolbar contains
buttons that let you select components from the Multisim databases for placement in your schematic.
For example , as shown in figures 3 and 4 :
 Select Group ->Basic-> Resistor. Choose a resistor and place on the schematic.
 Select Group ->Sources; Family ->Power Sources for DC power and Ground.
 Click OK->Close. The values of these components can be changed by double clicking in the
component and entering the values in the dialog box as shown in figure 5

Figure 3: Place component _Resistor

Figure 4: Place component Power Source

5) To
rotate
the components; right click on the component ->Rotate 90֠ clockwise as shown in figure 6. Right
click on a component to modify its orientation.

Figure 7: Rotate component

Figure 6: Rotate Component

6) To wire the circuit, click on a pin on a component to start the connection (your pointer turns into
a crosshair) and move the mouse. A wire appears, attached to your cursor. Click on a pin on the
second component to finish the connection.
Multisim automatically places the wire, which conveniently snaps to an appropriate
configuration. You can also control the flow of the wire by clicking on points as you move the
mouse. Each click “fixes” the wire to that point as shown in figure7.
7) Multisim offers multiple ways to analyze the circuit using:
 Virtual instruments from Instruments tool bar
 Probes

8) The simple instrument to measure AC or DC voltage or current, and resistance or decibel loss
between two nodes in a circuit is the Multimeter. To use the Multimeter click on the Multimeter
button in the Instruments toolbar and click to place its icon on the workspace. Double-click on
the icon to open the instrument face, which is used to enter settings and view measurements.

To measure “voltage” place multimeter in parallel with the component. To measure

“current” place the multimeter in series with the component. This is shown in figure 8.
Figure 8: Multimeter used to measure voltage and current
9) To measure power, Wattmeter can be connected as shown in figure 9.

Figure 9: Wattmeter to measure power

10) Alternately, MULTISIM 14.1 has Voltage, Current, Power, and Digital probes which
provide measurements. They are placed as shown in figure 10.

Figure 10: Probes for measurements

11) The differential voltage probe measures the voltage between two points. Click once to
place a voltage probe and again to place a reference probe. Please note that voltage probe
measures voltage with reference as ground. This is shown in figure 11.

igure 11: Voltage Differential probe

12) The displayed parameters can be configured locally on each probe or globally using
the Probe Settings dialog box (Simulate->Probe settings->Instantaneous only) as
shown in figure12.

Figure 12: Probe settings

13) To simulate the completed circuit, Click on Run or F5. This feature is accessed from
the toolbar as shown in figure 13.

Figure 13: Simulation toolbar

14) The final simulated circuit is as shown in figure 14.

Figure 14: Simulated Circuit

Task 3: Circuit Simulation Practice

Build and simulate the circuit shown in figure 15 and obtain the following values using
probes. Record the values in Table 1 given below. (Clearly mark the polarity of voltages and
currents)

Figure 15: Simulate this circuit

Table 1:
VAB VBC VAD VDC VBD

Voltage (V) VA VB VC VD VE
Current (mA) IAB ICB IAD ICD IFA