SAC
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
The results are really only as good as the model, and the types of things that you are looking to model can have somewhat complex models at the circuit element level (if you are looking to actually model VFDs, motors, etc...). It is important to have enough comfort with the modeling and expected behaviors that you can spot when the results are bogus so that you can look for what may be lacking in the models. One trick is to determine what system aspects are important to model in order to see the desired behavior, and what isn't important and can be left out in the interest of model simplicity. Start with something simple, like an ideal AC voltage source and some kind of RC circuit. Then you can add additional loads, source impedance, switches, rectifiers, etc..., until you start to have a model that is like the system you want to analyze and is showing the behaviors you are looking for. Once you are familiar with all this, you can skip the incremental approach and go right to the end - though sometimes that doesn't work out well. It isn't always apparent to exactly what level of detail something needs to be modeled in order to see the important behaviors. The more complex the system, the harder it becomes to know ahead of time what level of detail is required. It all gets easier with experience.