# PLECS Reviews **Vendor:** Plexim **Category:** [Simulation & CAE Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/simulation-cae) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 26 ## About PLECS PLECS is a tool for system-level simulations of electrical circuits. ## PLECS Reviews ### 1. PLECS simulation tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yuba Raj K. | Lecturer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 04, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Fastest and accurate simulation. I like the sample examples given in the PLECS. The good thing about the PLECS is that we can use as a standalone tool as well as use with other tools like MATLAB. I was using MATLAB during my master's program. For the complex simulation, its bit slow so my supervisor refer me to use PLECS and we bought a PLECS license and I started using it. Its really fast and I can run complex simulation so within a few seconds using PLECS. PLESC has a lot of built-in models and we can use them for the power electronics simulation thereby reducing the time to develop the model.PLECS is overall a good software has a lots of features and functionalities such as integration with MATLAB, Add-on PLECS Coder, Add-on PLECS PIL, Hardware for Real-Time Simulations. Apart from that the webinar and PLECS model of the moths are amazing. I would definitely recommend PLECS to the one who is aspirant to simulate any power electronics product **What do you dislike about PLECS?** There is nothing about dislikes. I've not aware of the DSP code generation using PLECS. It would be great if it can do that as well. Also, controller design could be added. -I think its more expensive for a normal user to use it. -others are fine. I've talked about PLECS RT box during my conference visit and its a wonderful product, however, for students who want to use the systems is a bit expensive. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** PLECS is a powerful tool to simulate power electronics circuits. I definitely recommend PLECS **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've used PLESC to build SST during my PhD. There are many example models that have helped me to build my project simulation. I am still using as a simulation tool for power electronics. This us a fastest simulation tools I've experienced so far. One important benefits of using PLECS is that it can be embedded in MATLAB/Simulink. -So far I've not come across any problem during my simulation using PLECS. ### 2. Simple, Fast Modelling of Complex Systems **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joe H. | Project Engineer (HV Electronics), Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 02, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Simple drag and drop blocks, all components are idealised, and basic loss parameters can be inserted. Else, you can build your circuit/system models by manual adding discrete components to simulate your parasitic elements, ensuring that you are defining every part of your simulation in as much detail as you require. This makes PLECS far quicker to get results than a traditional SPICE simulator if you are not concerned with device-physical behaviours. The software also features the ability to quickly and intuitive build sub-systems within your simulations by masking a prebuilt circuit create a functional block - for example, you may model a multilevel converter, but have it masked under a sub-system block with only the gate signals and power inputs/output available in the main simulation. This keeps your working area nice and tidy and also means you can easily reuse circuit elements across simulations. The software also possess the ability to do simple thermal analysis by use of thermal resistance/capacitance analogies. By no means as effective as FEA for thermal analysis, but a good starting point for early systems development. There are also mechanical domain simulation elements included, but I have not tired those in my line of work. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** The nature of PLECS means that switches are always assumed to be idealised, therefore control and gate signals aren't simulated in the same domain as the rest of the circuit. Therefore It can be difficult to quantify the effects of less than ideal gate edges in fast switching applications with high dv/dt and di/dt. But this is largely besides the point of the software, as it is not a SPICE type simulator. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** For fast modelling of power electronic systems, this software is a must. I don't think it can ever fully replace a true circuit simulator (SPICE, SABER, etc), but is an essential companion in the electronic's engineers CAE toolkit. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Rapid prototyping of large industrial converters (25 kW - 1 MW). Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing of control platforms in realtime. Pulsed power applications of Silicon Carbide. ### 3. I have been using PLECS in academic purpose only. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** I like that PLECS has Standalone and Blockset version. Blockset can be used as matlab toolbox and is used inside Simulink. This capability offers great modelling tool and flexibilty using with other matlab toolboxes and easy parameter setting from m-script. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** For my needs so far PLECS was great choice compared to some other similar programs which i tried and i can't find thing that I dislike due to lack of experience. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am have been doing control algorithms for DC-DC converters and PLECS is very simple and intuitive to use to build a power electronic system on a high, schematic level instead of building block diagram. Because it can be used with matlab, prototyping of different controllers and circuits is very easy. It also has a good component lirary which can be easily extended with custom user components. ### 4. A true friend to every Power Electronics Engineer! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rohit J. | Associate Director - Customer Success, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2021 **What do you like best about PLECS?** The ease of use, the level of flexibility and the vast array of objects to add to any and every simulation. I was especially happy with the experience of creating and training models, and with the quick result computation. We used MATLAB earlier, but my seniors at Bombardier suggested we move to PLECS and it was a breeze to use. The simulations were much faster, and the over all experience was a notch or two up. I wrote to the team back then and requested for a particular feature which wasn't part of the plan we used and they gladly upgraded us. Really appreciate the kind gesture. The best part about the experience was the fact that this was in line with other tools available in the market, and migrating to this wasn't a task at all. We, while migrating from MATLAB to PLECS could do so in less than a 2 days, with all our simulations up and running. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** PLECS has everything going for it, apart from a higher cost, and some libraries weren't easier to navigate. If the team is able to solve this particular issue, their product has a lot going for it and this can be the go to product prescribed by university's left and right. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were designing components for a Metro Car, and where we had limitations using MATLAB, PLECS came to the rescue and helped us power through. ### 5. PLECS for power converter simulations **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Prabhat Ranjan T. | Research Scholar, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Thermal analysis for semiconductor losses. The best part is most of the manufacturers like CREE provide a PLECS model for their semiconductors to analyze the effect of switching frequency, conduction current, on junction temperature rise. This helps in designing a proper heatsink interface for hardware development. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** I would like to see more hardware support for DSPs. Although PLECS has introduced hardware support for the C2000 product family from TI, there needs to be more support and tutorials for the hardware integration. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** A must-have if you are in the power converters domain. It will definitely help you analyze new control strategies on your designed topologies. The magnetics support provided in simulations is awesome and is better than many simulation software out there. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used PLECS as a simulation tool for designing my power converter topologies and better understand the semiconductor requirements like switching frequency, peak current, voltage, and current stress. Results from PLECS simulation are trustworthy and translate to a practical application if high fidelity models for simulation are used. ### 6. User friendly and very good comparability with matlab.and more accurate than simuink **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kiran B. | Drive control engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Drag and drop of library files are easier. And i find it more helpful in simulation and comparison with the matlab mcode and checking the accuracy. I used for my master degree project and also using for some electrical stimulation for my office work. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Can improve the accuracy with respect to other simalation software like saber. And most of the time i used hard license not sure about availability if soft licence. Because soft licence is more easier and it will be not be lost. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Good and i felt better than simuink. Can prefer **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I simulated synchronous machine model and compared the response of the Synchronous machine model with mcode. Reason was to futher develop the code which had more accurate. And find plex helpful. And also modeled medium voltage inverter to test control alogithm ### 7. Learn and research power electronics using PLECS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2021 **What do you like best about PLECS?** It has Minimalist design. It can do electrical simulation, thermal simulation, magnetic simulation, electro-mechanical simulation, solar power simulation, wind energy simulation, electric vehicle charging simulation. It can also implement complex scripts using simple C-language and can allow flashing of codes into micro-controllers. It also helps in identifying transfer functions, loop gains, AC sweep analysis, impulse responses, multi-tone analyses, etc. I always use PLECS simulation before executing on hardware. I will reserve high praise for the small signal analysis tools, along with demo models given in the PLECS library. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Not much to dislike in PLECS. It is a great software. Possibly an additional item to add will be parallel processing. It can really speed up complex multi-domain simulations to achieve faster results. There is no forum for PLECS users to discuss and/or resolve problems. There are small issues such as the start-up from a non-zero time and a stored initial state does not result in steady state start. Rather, it creates a transient. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Power electronics circuit simulation to verify design before implementing on hardware. I use it for projects related to electrical simulation, thermal simulation, magnetic simulation, electro-mechanical simulation, solar power simulation, wind energy simulation, electric vehicle charging simulation. I use it for about 4-8 hours a week. I also use it for teaching purposes, such as teaching under graduate or graduate students. ### 8. A very user-friendly software for circuit simulation, which can be integrated to Simulink **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ettore S. | Electrical Designer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Its easy to use interface and the possibility to simulate thermal aspects of power electronic devices such that different heat sink models can be compared. Another aspect of the product is that it is very convenient to integrate with Simulink in Matlab. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** I cannot think of an aspect of Plecs which I dislike. It is an easy to use software with a friendly interface and fast processing. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Compared with other similar power electronics software, PLECS excelled when considering how easy it is to use and to integrate with software such as MATLAB. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I personally use PLECS for thermal management applications in resonant converters. I have used Plecs with Simulink such that I could also use the software while running a MATLAB script. ### 9. Best Engineering Friend **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** User friendly, flexible, sample models available, well organized, thermal modeling facility available. It's an amazing package, have been using it for years and haven't thought of anything else for this. It also makes it easy to use components, integrate code from C into the simulation. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** It's a bit costly, wish there was a limited free version. That's why I use the demo which is 60 min version. Even a few node simulations with all features would be good for trials. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Its a must have for design engineers and hands-on engineers, the simulations give a really good insight into the equipment. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have come to conclusions of real-life troubleshooting with power electronic converters, sizing of components, etc. ### 10. Great tool for power electronic simulation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Balachandra H. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 20, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** 1. Simple but elegant UI 2. Readily available all most all the elements/blocks for power electronics simulation 3. Ability to model the magnetic saturation with simplified model. 4. Possibility to integrate the thermal modeling. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Limitations in the control implementation **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Highly recommend for the power electronics simulations **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** DC-DC converter modeling ### 11. Best tool for power electronics converter level simulation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hao T. | Research Assistant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Fast simulation speed and very easy-to-use and versatile scope **What do you dislike about PLECS?** not very suitable for large system and hardware in the loop tools are not very powerful compared to other products **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** power converter simulation ### 12. Plecs review based on a development of a control model for PMSM drives **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2021 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Modelling techniques and GUI oriented control designs **What do you dislike about PLECS?** The compatibility With Simulink can be improved and more. Demo models and packages can be introduced for PIL and HIL apart form Texas **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** As mentioned in the title is mainly used for the development of PMSM drives for electric vehicles and it’s easy for me to test my new model variants quickly in the form of both offline and online simulation ### 13. Easy for primary use. Love frequency sweep functionality. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** I liked the Frequency sweep and its options. I found scope is easy to use and very interactive. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** I found difficult to use it for high fidelity plant simulation or switch loss calculations. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** When I used plecs, I found average modelling is simpler. I am excited with the frequency sweep functionality and it uncovers limitations in my tasks. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used plecs for Plant modelling with average fidelity level. For average modelling, plecs is very user friendly. ### 14. PLECS review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Arsham G. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** PLECS has a very user friendly environment **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Simulations running time takes too long sometimes **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Use the version stand alone **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designing a multi-level converter A very reach library ### 15. Good software for PE simulations. Specially good in thermal modelling **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Best thing about PLECS is therm modelling allowing you to get a good approximation to real results and different operation points. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Missing a little bit of data management from simulation. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Good for getting results before implementing in real life. Easy to use and good solvers allow you to get results easily. PIL is a good feature that have been using to test real software without any risk. ### 16. This is a great software for poer electronic simulation and thermal simulation. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nura A. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Graphics, library funtions, demo projects **What do you dislike about PLECS?** More add ons could be added for versatility **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Highly recommend **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Power electronics, thermal simulation. Simulation environment ### 17. PLECS review **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** The simplicity of setting up basic calculations **What do you dislike about PLECS?** From when I've seen, the inability to use vendor specific models. I've transferred to PSPICE instead. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** I think you should analyze your companys requirements first. If they need simple systems, PLECS will work fine, but for more detailed calculations, I do not think it will suffice. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Just some basic modelling of DC-DC converters, but it is no longer relevant. ### 18. A great simulation tool for power electronics **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 20, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** I was using PLECS to simulate the losses and control algorithms in power converters. PLECS so far is one of the best tools I have used for power electronic simulations. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** The user interface sometimes is small for me to use **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** The switching and conduction losses in power converters. Also, fast simulation is a plus to PLECS ### 19. Easy to use and very useful to gain insight to circuits **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 20, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Very easy to use. I used it first in my Masters and immediately was able to get the hang of it. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** I believe some things like finding the right circuit components could be organised better. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used PLECS to design amplifiers. I was very easily able to see waveforms to see results. ### 20. Please for control design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** It is simple and there are plenty of demo **What do you dislike about PLECS?** 1. Documentation for microcontroller integration can be improved 2. Calculation of switching losses and dealing with non ideal passive components is difficult. Would be nice if it was similar to Lt spice where one can choose real components and switches **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** It is the best software for controller design **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Controller design for power converters ### 21. Used it in an academic setting for a power electronics design project. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Ease of use, interface is pretty intuitive and the help section is extremely well written **What do you dislike about PLECS?** I did not find any issues with PLECS that I was unhappy with. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** N/A **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have not used PLECS since I finished grad school, but it is an extremely powerful tool to create, simulate and analyze designs. ### 22. Powerful software for design electronic system.It is possible to have interface with other softwares **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 27, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Interface with Matlab/Simulink and easy to design electronic circuit. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Sometimes it is slow for high frequency system. **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Easy access to library and information **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy to design electric motors which close to real model. Control model with interface Matlab and Simulink. ### 23. Very nice and simple software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 25, 2020 **What do you like best about PLECS?** - simple gui - ease of use - execution time is very fast **What do you dislike about PLECS?** - Transient simulation can be improved - More component to be added to the libraries **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** Use it as a first step simulation of your circuit. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Switched Mode Power Supplies Simulation. I could use it very efficiently to simulate multiple topologies. ### 24. PLECS standalone is the only power electronics simulator I need **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tony O. | Lead System Engineer, Oil & Energy, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2018 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Speed of model simulation with mixed continuous, discrete and switching blocks Scope navigation, FFT, trace saving, exporting The graphic design of all the symbols are a nice touch that make me want to draw all my draft schematics in a simulation tool Multi-domain simulation (thermal, linear mechanics, rotational mechanics, magnetic) **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Network licensing for multiple users is on FlexLM, which doesn't have a good way to support a remote-first team **Recommendations to others considering PLECS:** I recommend going with the Standalone edition. The value of using PLECS from within MATLAB Simulink was fairly limited after all of the controls blocks that Plexim has added to the product over the years. Standalone simplifies licensing and overall cost. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** PLECS allows us to verify all power electronics controls and operations before having to write a single line of C or Verilog. Exploring corner cases and new business opportunities is similarly easy. The savings in engineering time and material cost when corner cases are vetted in real hardware are many times worth the cost. ### 25. system level simulations for electric circuits perfect software to learn and implement **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 17, 2017 **What do you like best about PLECS?** User friendly, easy to understand good amount of shortcuts provided to understand the tool **What do you dislike about PLECS?** The libraries are very much confusing and complex. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Used it in the starting projects for basic electronic circuit provided at work and yield systems that are piecewise-linear across switching instants also for handling discontinuities at the switching instants. ### 26. I have been using PLECS since 1 year for education purpose. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 18, 2017 **What do you like best about PLECS?** Software is user friendly and it is a great tool for engineering purpose. **What do you dislike about PLECS?** Especially I don't like the software graphic. **What problems is PLECS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am doing electronic circuit simulation. ## PLECS Discussions - [Reg. Promotion and license](https://www.g2.com/discussions/34960-reg-promotion-and-license) - 1 upvote - [View PLECS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/plecs/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-17+01%3A06%3A06+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=67ab2356-333e-45e3-9e6c-13c8ca44fa03&secure%5Btoken%5D=eaf4d172816cd7fc46a1f4ace7c03c5c0a86881d2b919f0566884fa1f5a5dc8f&format=llm_user) ## PLECS Features **Design** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Rendering tools **Tools** - Fluid analysis - Finite element analysis - Multibody dynamics **Work** - Discrete event modeling - Continuous event modeling - Mechanical event simulation - Manufacturing process simulation - Integrate **Environment** - Hardware support - Task - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity ## Top PLECS Alternatives - [MATLAB](https://www.g2.com/products/matlab/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (749 reviews) - [PSIM](https://www.g2.com/products/psim/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (26 reviews) - [Simulink](https://www.g2.com/products/simulink/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (95 reviews)