  We compare the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and inferred physical
properties for simulated and observed galaxies at low redshift. We exploit
UV-submillimetre mock fluxes of ~7000 z=0 galaxies from the EAGLE suite of
cosmological simulations, derived using the radiative transfer code SKIRT. We
compare these to ~800 observed galaxies in the UV-submillimetre range, from the
DustPedia sample of nearby galaxies. To derive global properties, we apply the
SED fitting code CIGALE consistently to both data sets, using the same set of
~80 million models. The results of this comparison reveal overall agreement
between the simulations and observations, both in the SEDs and in the derived
physical properties, with a number of discrepancies. The optical and
far-infrared regimes, and the scaling relations based upon the global emission,
diffuse dust and stellar mass, show high levels of agreement. However, the
mid-infrared fluxes of the EAGLE galaxies are overestimated while the far-UV
domain is not attenuated enough, compared to the observations. We attribute
these discrepancies to a combination of galaxy population differences between
the samples, and limitations in the subgrid treatment of star-forming regions
in the EAGLE-SKIRT post-processing recipe. Our findings show the importance of
detailed radiative transfer calculations and consistent comparison, and provide
suggestions for improved numerical models.
