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College of Engineering
Capstone

Software

Software Resources

A number of software packages are available to help you complete the engineering work on your project. These include:

  • CAD: A number of CAD programs are available, including ProEngineer, CATIA, PTC Creo, Siemens NX, Solidworks, AutoCAD, Revit, and Autodesk Inventor.
  • FEA: FEA Software includes Abaqus, ANSYS, Adams, COMSOL, HyperWorks, STAR-CCM+, as well as integrated FEA with most of the CAD programs.
  • Calculations: Software used to support engineering calculations includes JMP (for statistics); MathCAD, Mathematica, and Maple (for symbolic and numerical calculations); and Matlab (for numerical calculations).
  • Circuit Simulation: Circuit simulation software includes Cadence Allegro PSpice Simulator and LTspice.
  • Circuit Board Design: Board design software available on CAEDM includes Eagle (both Free and Professional versions) and Cadence OrCAD Capture. A limited number of Altium licenses are available to be shared among all the students in the College. To get access to these licenses, please contact the CSR for the ECE Department (https://eceticket.byu.edu/). When using these shared licenses, be sure to log out when you are not actively working to make the license available for others.
  • Graphics: Graphic software comes in two forms: Bitmap and Vector. For anything other than editing an existing bitmap image, you should use vector programs. Bitmap graphics programs include Adobe Photoshop and Paint. Vector graphics programs include Adobe Illustrator, PowerPoint, and Visio. There is an open-source vector graphics program called Inkscape that is freely available to download and install for all users of Linux, OSX, and Windows.
  • Project Management: There are many options for project management software. Check with your sponsor to see if they have a preference. If not, use what works best for your project.
  • BYU Cloud Apps: BYU provides students free access to many commercial programs by means of the BYU Cloud App platform. This includes the Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Acrobat Professional. Get connected to BYU Cloud Apps at https://cloudapps.byu.edu
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS): Amazon Web Services provides cloud-based servers for performing distributed calculations. If you wish to use AWS for your project, you should be aware that BYU has a prepaid contract with AWS that provides a 15% to 40% discount compared to the price you would pay if you signed up with AWS. To request a BYU AWS account, visit https://cloud.byu.edu .
  • Box: When opening Office documents on Box from the web interface, you have the option of using Office Online or Office on your desktop. Office Online allows multiple users to work on the document simultaneously, which is helpful for collaborative work. Office on the desktop allows much more control of advanced formatting. We recommend that you create and finalize your Office documents on the desktop, and use Office Online to handle collaboration if you desire. BYU Cloud Apps can be configured to use Box as its default storage space.