Limiting the results to save time

Unless you say otherwise, Symbulator gives you the whole set of answers: the voltage at every node, and the voltage drop, current and power in every element. That is usually what you want, and for a direct current or an alternating current analysis it costs almost nothing.

Transient analysis is the exception. Each TR answer is found by inverting a Laplace transform, and that is the slow step. A circuit with a dozen elements has several dozen answers, and you are very often after one of them.

Asking for a few answers

Choose tr in the analysis menu, and a question appears under the menus:

Do you want to limit the results to save time?

Tick it, and a field opens. List the answers you want, separated by commas:

v2

Every answer name Symbulator knows is allowed here — v2 for the voltage at node 2, ir1 for the current through r1, pr3 for the power in r3.

Ask for one answer instead of a dozen and you skip a dozen inverse transforms. On a small circuit the difference is not worth the tick; on a large one, or a symbolic one, it is the easiest speed-up there is.

When not to bother

If you are exploring, leave it alone. The whole answer set is the point of Symbulator: you run a circuit and read what happened everywhere in it, which is exactly what you cannot do on paper. Reach for this when a particular run is slow enough to interrupt you, and not before.