Release Notes: Altair Feko 2025.1.1

Altair Feko 2025.1.1 is available with new features, corrections and improvements. This version (2025.1.1) is a patch release that should be applied to an existing 2025 installation.

Feko is a powerful and comprehensive 3D simulation package intended for the analysis of a wide range of electromagnetic radiation and scattering problems. Applications include antenna design, antenna placement, microstrip antennas and circuits, dielectric media, scattering analysis, electromagnetic compatibility studies including cable harness modelling and many more.

WinProp is the most complete suite of tools in the domain of wireless propagation and radio network planning. With applications ranging from satellite to terrestrial, from rural via urban to indoor radio links, WinProp’s innovative wave propagation models combine accuracy with short computation times.

WRAP is a comprehensive tool for electromagnetic propagation, antenna collocation and spectrum management. WRAP combines propagation analysis, often over large areas with many transmitters and receivers, with system analysis to include complex non-linear equipment properties.

Feko 2025.1.1 Release Notes

The most notable extensions and improvements to Feko are listed by component.

CADFEKO

Features

  • KBL import now supports different cable definitions, core dimensions and cable material properties. This requires that information is included in the KBL file and in some cases that custom installation instructions or settings are included in the KBL file with the relevant information when the KBL file is generated. The extended KBL processing needs to be activated be setting an environment variable as described in the Feko User Guide.
  • Added the ability to import mesh using either Import or ImportFile on the Lua API.

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed the following recent regressions (present only in Feko 2025.1):
    • Wire ports would be at the incorrect position when the parts have been transformed to a different position. The wire ports were displayed at the intended positions in CADFEKO, but would appear incorrect in POSTFEKO and were incorrect in the simulated model.
    • Corrected .cfm file writing for faces bounding FEM PEC regions that caused the Solver to terminate with the error message ERROR 2794: Inconsistent definition of a dielectric region (ME card) even though the model was set up correctly.
    • Resolved an issue where the application could hang or crash when running an application macro from the ribbon menu.
    • Corrected a problem that could have caused a hang when running a script with forms or that would bring up message dialogs.
    • Resolved a bug that could result in a hang when running scripts that modified cable schematic items.
    • Fixed a problem where the application would hang (dead-lock) after certain GUI actions while auto meshing is active.
    • Fixed the normals when loading a simulation mesh with symmetry applied from a model that was saved using CADFEKO 2025.
  • Fixed a regression with the 3D view scaling of cable paths that got introduced in the Feko 2025 release. The cable path size was incorrectly calculated for the rendering of cable paths when the model unit was not metres and also when applying scale transforms to cable paths.
  • Updated shipped model files for which a warning would be shown upon opening. These models contained wire meshes that could not be loaded and had to be re-meshed in the latest CADFEKO. This avoids a hang that could be encountered when running some of the Example Guide and Getting Started Guide models from the application macro library.
  • Made the Generate Antenna Array application macro more robust against non-alphanumeric characters which may be present in text .csv files when using the Custom Array option. Previously, a coordinate error would be issued indicating the problematic line in the file.

POSTFEKO

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed a regression that got introduced in Feko 2025.1 where changing the selection on a Lua form combobox with a callback function assigned to it did not activate the assigned callback function. This regression prevented various Lua scripts and application macros using combobox elements from functioning correctly.
  • Corrected an issue with zoom to area on the 3D view where the zoom area was offset relative to the mouse cursor position when using the application on a screen with a display scale setting larger than 100%.
  • Corrected an issue with the aspect ratio of trace icons when using the application on a screen with a display scale setting larger than 100%.

Solver

Resolved Issue

  • Computing near field requests with large numbers of points in a parallel MLFMM solution may require a chunking approach to be used in the near field calculation. The memory usage and management of memory when doing this chunk-based calculation has been improved to avoid excessive memory usage and runtime.