Motion Design:
Boise State University

"We have used the VisSim Embedded Control Developer for one year. With this software, we can easily program a TI EzdspF2812 without writing a single line of code. It takes little effort to implement the algorithms using the blocks offered in VisSim. The technical support is very responsive and helpful. We are extremely happy with our choice of VisSim for rapid prototyping of motion control algorithms."

Yishan Zhao, Boise State University

Robotics:
Stanford University

"The VisSim product is a fabulous piece of software that allows the complex modeling and simulation using block diagram notation. I have been using this product to produce the control algorithms for a small robot using a TI 2406A DSP. The real advantage of the VisSim product over MATLAB's Simulink is in the code that it produces. The code that VisSim produces is tight, readable, and fast. By contrast, the Simulink code is virtually unreadable, making even small modifications somewhat impossible.In the rapid prototyping space, VisSim really shines as an enabler of quick turn-arounds and trade-off studies. After having used this product, I really do not see hand coding for any target for which VisSim is available."

Gabriel Elkaim, Ph.D. Stanford University GPS  Lab

Automotive:
Daimler Chrysler

"VisSim is truly a breakthrough in simulation software. Its extensive tool kit, model library, interface capability and ease of use make it clearly a powerful software development tool."

Dave Perugini, Daimler Chrysler

Motion Design:
Segway

"When we developed the wheel motor drives for the Segway Human Transporter,VisSim was a great tool for simulating control algorithm behavior, tuning loop gains, and verifying that what we built was behaving as expected."

John David Heinzmann, Lead Engineer,Motor Drive Development,Segway LLC

Communication Design:
ERICSSON

"Using VisSim/Comm, we designed a new modulation synthesizer much faster than if we had followed the conventional hardware proof-of-concept. We were able to validate our approach in a matter of days as opposed to the several weeks required to design, assemble and test a breadboard."

Charles Gore, R&D Engineer

Medical Equipment:
Mallinckrodt Inc.

"Discovering VisSim has been a major turning point in my career as a control engineer. VisSim allows me to solve problems ten times faster than with tools conventionally adopted by industry."

Mike Borrello, Senior Controls Engineer

Aerospace:
Northrop-Grumman

"For high-level simulation of complex systems, VisSim gets the job done faster. Period."

Steve Morrison, Advisory Engineer

Process Control:
Union Camp

"Process control designs that have been validated using VisSim result in smoother start-ups and better designs. VisSim paid for itself the first time I used it."

Fred Thommasson, Senior Engineer

Emerson/EnTech Control Engineering

"High fidelity modeling of large scale projects can be done with VisSim. From a financial standpoint, it’s extremely worthwhile to the process control community. There are tremendous cost savings in reduced downtime due to offline tuning and control design as well as operator training."

Andy Waite, Senior Designer

HVAC:
Carrier Electronics Division of United Technologies

"Due to its power, flexibility, ease of use, and low cost, VisSim has been Carrier’s choice for system modeling, simulation, data acquisition, and rapid prototyping for each of the past five years. Carrier uses VisSim to develop and test all of its electronic controls and depends on the resulting shortened development times to continually merge new technology into its products. Products, which would have taken two to three years to develop in the past, are now routinely completed using VisSim in less than one year."

Richard Kolk, Senior Simulation & Control Scientist

Embedded System Design:
Energy Sciences Inc.

"I originally purchased VisSim about a year ago, with the idea that I would use it exclusively as a graphical programming environment to program Texas Instruments C2000 family of DSPs.  I'm the only engineer doing circuit board design at a small company, and I don't have time for hand coding and debugging 16 bit fixed point programs.  For my current project, VisSim has allowed me to collapse my firmware development time from months down to about a week.  It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of VisSim to my development time-table.

As a completely incidental and unanticipated benefit, I've begun using the using the pure simulation (non-DSP) blocks.  We had an unstable power supply that was giving us trouble.  We were able to model the circuit and find a fix.  For this problem, I actually preferred using VisSim to PSpice. The Simulation portion has the look and feel of a mature product.  I found it very intuitive.  The DSP coder is also excellent. The few snags that I've run into have demonstrated another virtue of Visual Solutions.  Whenever I report a problem or a bug, I generally get a fixed version in two days or less.  The company is very responsive in general, and eagerly accepts and implements feedback in their continuing releases.  Overall, I consider the VisSim product an invaluable tool, and the people at Visual Solutions a pleasure to work with."

Greg Gottshalk, Electrical Engineer

Mallinckrodt Inc.

"I consider VisSim/DSP* to be the easiest, fastest method available for designing and implementing embedded DSP controls. It’s a well integrated and automated solution that frees the designer from having to deal with any programming at all."

Mike Borrello, Senior Controls Engineer

[* VisSim/DSP was an earlier version of the product now known as VisSim/Embedded Controls Developer]

Motion Control/Machine Design:
Universal Instruments

"Based on the success of the GSM1 Z-axis application, we use VisSim on every new servo system design. In fact, modeling the system in VisSim is a required point on our development checklist… The software is helpful not only in designing new products, but in making improvements to existing ones. Over the years, our machines frequently undergo changes to the mechanical and servo systems. To test a proposed change, we simply call up that machine’s VisSim model and run a quick simulation."

Jim York, Motion Control Engineer

Servo Motor Controller Design:
Rexroth Indramat / Mannesmann Rexroth Corporation

"VisSim’s easy-to-use interface and sophisticated simulation engine not only boosts the productivity and quality of control system design, but also minimizes costs for everyone. VisSim is intuitive and visual, with a block diagram approach that closely emulates the way a control engineer looks at the world."

Bill Erickson, Staff Engineer

McDonald Observatory, H.E.T.

"I have found VisSim to be an indispensible tool for motion control. I used it while working at the Baylor College of Medicine, Artificial Organs group to model the behavior and control of a Back EMF commutated Brushless DC motor.  The rotor of this brushless DC motor was integrated into the impeller of an axial flow blood pump designed as a Left Ventricular Assist device.  This heart pump presented some unique problems.  The time constant of the mechanical pump system was very close to the time constant of the electrical system of the brushless DC motor.  VisSim has a variety of tools which enabled me to model the complex control system of the Back EMF commutated brushless DC motor.  I am currently using VisSim to visualize large amount of encoder data at one of the McDonald Observatory's telescopes here in west Texas. The variety of tools provides solutions that are unavailable in other software packages.  ForIntermedics, a pacemaker/defibrillator company, I used captured data from an oscilloscope to calculate the efficiency of a high voltage defibrillator charging system.  This system converted 6 volts to 760 volts.  System efficiency was critical to device longevity because the device was implanted. VisSim's functions provided an easy was to integrate the product of voltage in and current in to determine system efficiency.

George Damm, Electrical Engineer

System Modeling and Simulation:
Remic N.V.

"I like VisSim because it is so easy to learn and use. You don't have to spend days reading a manual to get a simulation done. I use it every few months, and I come up to speed right away, with no time wasted relearning obscure commands. I recommend this tool highly."

Dr. Luc Lasoen, Director of R & D 

Scimitar Associates, Inc.

"I haven’t cussed at this new-to-me software even once. When I don’t know how to do something and look in the manual, I can find it and I can understand it. Even better: when I try it, it works. I went from ’training wheels’ to serious work in less than two hours with VisSim, and I count myself among the ’software challenged’.

This has to be some kind of world record in terms of ease-of-use. I'm reasonably facile with several other analytical and simulation software tools, but that facility did not come without some blistered paint in my workspace and responsive reproach from my gentle wife. I’ve even cussed with serious vigor at Microsoft now and then, but who hasn’t? I’m a hardware designer, definitely not a software wizard.

Being an independent consultant, I don’t have a ’training budget’ to spend learning software tools. I need new tools to become productive immediately or sooner, or I don’t need them at all.
I’ve had VisSim for about two days, have run about 100 sims of the system I need to design, and I know exactly where the sticking point is. Figuring out how to deal with that is my problem, but I now know where the problem is and I have a sim with which to evaluate possible solutions very quickly. VisSim has done a very nice job. Thanks! "

Don Foreman, President

Product Reviews