Quartus II simulator OR recommended simulation software?

[Elecomputer]

Hello,

I'm learning digital logic and design, I was told that I should use Quartus II, which so far works very well for me. Unfortunately, I noticed that simulating was eliminated on recent versions of Quartus II on the web edition.

So, while new versions are better and I still prefer the simulator, does anyone know the latest version of Quartus II Web Edition that still includes the simulator?

Additionally, on the building blocks schematic, is it possible to place toggles and LEDs into the circuit so that I can simulate the entire circuit visually? As far as I know, the simulator on Quartus at least supports waveform time-graphs, but can it also do that? Otherwise, can anyone recommend a program that can do that, perhaps with VHDL support to?

 

[MisterX]

For the course I took we were using ModelSim along with Quartus II. I wasn't exactly a huge fan of ModelSim (although it is recommended on the Altera website). You can get Altera-Modelsim starter edition for free from the Altera website
https://www.altera.com/download/software/modelsim-starter

You might want to have a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Verilog_simulators

In addition to Modelsim, there is Cadence Incisive and Synopsys VCS.

 

[Floid]

I have used quite a few different VHDL simulation programs and I like Quartus II the best (have used ModelSim, ActiveHDL, Xilinx ISE, and Actel's software). I really like the Quartus waveform editor and how easily you can generate test input waveforms and the ease of mixing VHDL code and block diagrams.

Why would you need to simulate toggles/LEDs? That is more cumbersome and has less information than using waveforms for testing i.e. a high input is a toggle set and a high on the output is an LED illuminated. Using that you can generate a test case that exercises all your possible combinations and is perfectly repeatable.

The closest I have seen to what you want might be LabView. It has a bunch of widgets like LEDs and switches used to make GUIs that look like actual hardware and I think their is an option to it that can processes VHDL. Of course it is quite expensive and I don't know if they offer free or trial versions.