Proteus Professional

About this release

Proteus covers the whole path from a circuit idea to a manufacturable board, and its distinguishing feature is that the simulation actually runs the firmware. Draw a schematic around a microcontroller, load the compiled program into the part, press play and watch the display update, the motor turn and the serial output scroll while probing any node in the circuit as though it were on the bench.

That co simulation is why it became standard in electronics teaching and in a great many small hardware teams. Debugging firmware against a virtual board removes the wait for hardware entirely, and a fault that would take an afternoon to find with an oscilloscope on a real prototype is often obvious in a few minutes with a virtual instrument attached to the schematic. Popular microcontroller families are modelled along with the peripherals normally hung off them.

The board layout side is a full printed circuit editor rather than an afterthought. Multi layer boards, design rule checking, autorouting alongside manual routing, copper pour, differential pairs and length matching, three dimensional board visualisation and the standard manufacturing outputs are all present, and the schematic and layout stay linked so a change in one is reflected in the other.

The parts library is very large and covers the components most designs are actually built from, with footprints attached. New parts are created from a template when something is missing, and the simulation model can be written or imported so a custom part behaves correctly in the virtual circuit as well as on the board.

What it does

Firmware co simulation

Load compiled code into a virtual microcontroller and run the whole circuit, peripherals included.

Virtual instruments

Oscilloscope, logic analyser, signal generator, protocol analysers and meters attach to any node in the schematic.

Full board layout

Multi layer routing with design rules, copper pour, length matching and standard manufacturing output.

Three dimensional board view

See the assembled board with component models before anything is ordered.

Large parts library

Components with footprints and simulation models covering most common designs.

Linked schematic and layout

Changes on either side propagate, so the netlist and the board never drift apart.

Changed in this version

• Additional microcontroller families supported in co simulation.
• Autorouter improved on dense multi layer boards.
• Three dimensional viewer renders large boards much faster.
• Design rule checking gains clearer error reporting.
• Library expanded with recent component families and footprints.

System requirements

Install order

1. Unpack the archive to a path without accented characters.
2. Run the installer and select the libraries you want installed.
3. Start the schematic editor once to let the parts index build.
4. Set the project and output folders before starting a board.

Worth knowing before you start

File details