Feko 2017.1 Release Notes

Feko 2017.1 is a feature and bug-fix update that includes the features, enhancements and bug fixes documented below.

Note: Feko 2017.1 is a cumulative update that contains changes from all previous releases. It can be applied as an update to an existing installation of Feko 2017 or it can be installed without first installing Feko 2017.

CADFEKO

Features

  • A new output file option on the "Solver settings" dialog allows cable per-unit-length parameters to be read from or saved to a .pul file. (2017.1)
  • The meshing library is upgraded to the latest version. (2017.1)
  • The parameter sweep plugin is updated to benefit from the relaxed limit on the number of "DataSet" object axes, allowing more variables to be swept. "DataSet" objects were extended in Feko 2017 to allow up to a maximum of 12 axes. The plugin can now be used for certain problem types that were not supported in the past due to this restriction. (2017.1)

Resolved Issues

  • The performance of dialogs accepting NASTRAN point import is improved. A noticeable speed up will be experienced when working with large numbers of points to define polylines, polygons, fitted splines, imprinted points, cable paths or polyline refinement meshing rules. An import that could have taken several minutes to process will now finish in seconds. (2017.1)
  • A problem with STEP import is resolved. An error will be given if the imported geometry falls outside of the model extents. Scaling is applied correctly to take the model unit into account. (2017.1)
  • The 3D mouse sensitivity setting is fixed to be applied correctly. (2017.1)
  • Geometry vertices were sometimes incorrectly removed during a union operation. (2017.1)
  • Mesh wire segments crossing multilayer substrate layers were sometimes created during meshing. It was necessary to imprint points on the wires where they crossed the boundaries of the different layers to obtain a valid mesh. The mesh engine now takes care of this automatically. (2017.1)
  • The error feedback for KBL cable harness import is improved. If some elements fail during KBL import, instead of giving an error that the import failed, warnings will be given for the failed elements. (2017.1)
  • The following issues relating to the "Replace mesh" feature released in Feko 2017 are resolved:
    • An assertion that could fail with "m_pMeshModel != NULL" during meshing when a valid location for a mesh segment port could not be found on the replacement mesh is resolved. (2017.1)
    • An assertion that failed with "cf_MeshSegmentPort.cpp (1075): Assertion failed: found" is resolved. This could happen when incorrectly attempting to replace a mesh with wire ports applied to it with a mesh that does not contain wire segments. An error will now be given that a valid port segment must be specified. (2017.1)
    • An assertion failed with "cf_Application.cpp (729): Assertion failed: 0" when replacing a mesh containing straight wire segments with a mesh containing curvilinear wire segments or vice versa. (2017.1)
    • A rollback error is resolved that caused an assertion to fail with a message referring to "gaia_DefaultModelUndoAction.cpp (34)". This could occur during mesh replacement when a valid location for a mesh segment port could not be found on the replacement mesh. (2017.1)
    • The "Use model mesh" state (that determines whether a model mesh can be re-meshed, or if the model mesh is used as simulation mesh) from the original mesh is now used, instead of that of the replacement mesh. (2017.1)

EDITFEKO

Features

  • The PS card (data structure output control) is extended to allow cable per-unit-length parameters to be read from or saved to a .pul file. (2017.1)

POSTFEKO

Features

  • Extensions to the API: New methods are added for exporting .mat files. Matrices, complex matrices, datasets and tables (that may contain numbers or strings) can be exported to .mat file. (2017.1)
  • Extensions to the API: The name of a dataset axis can now be modified in addition to its unit and values. (2017.1)

Resolved Issues

  • Cut planes are corrected to cut through RL-GO PEC and metal surfaces. (2017.1)
  • The speed of working with time signals that are specified by a large number of points is improved by not always showing the table of points. The user can select to show the values for viewing and modification. The import dialog for manually specifying time signals is extended to filter based on .csv files when browsing for a file to import. (2017.1)
  • Cut planes is corrected to cut through windscreen layers (for the layer visualisation introduced in Feko 2017). (2017.1)
  • The preferences "Round off legend range and step size" setting was not correctly applied to new 3D views, resulting in the rounding of all 3D view legend entries. The setting would apply when any change was made to the settings affecting the 3D view legend range. The setting can now successfully be disabled as a default preference. (2017.1)
  • The sampling for calculating the power in the spectrum of time signals now uses the sampling value specified by the user instead of automatically determining the number of samples to use. It is less likely that users will encounter "Warning 17782: The defined time signal has rapid value changes. Limiting upper frequency domain content to 100GHz." and "Error 17173: The defined signal requires too many samples for an accurate representation." (2017.1)
  • Extensions to the API: Improved options are available to read data from .mat file and to manipulate the imported data. (2017.1)
  • An assertion failed with "common_RangeOf.hxx (70): Assertion failed: min < m_maxValue" when opening a POSTFEKO session containing a 3D view with wire currents plotted in dB is resolved. (2017.1)
  • An assertion failed with "common_AxisSet.h (232): Assertion failed: 0" when storing a near field dataset containing non-numeric values in one of its first three axes. (2017.1)
  • Validation is added to prevent the entries of a DataSet axis that has a unit to be populated with string values. If an axis has a unit, only numeric values are accepted. Attempting to plot a DataSet with string axis entries on a Cartesian surface graph or 3D view could have led to an empty graph or an assertion failing. (2017.1)
  • POSTFEKO froze when time analysis near field potential results were loaded. (2017.1)
  • Error messages that displayed hashes (#####) are corrected to display the applicable error number. (2017.1)

Solver

Features

  • A new cache file for cable per unit length parameters is added to speed up continuous (ADAPTFEKO) calculations by preventing the recalculation of the parameters for each frequency. (2017.1)
  • Aperture source optimisation is allowed for PO/LE-PO except for the iterative hybrid MLFMM-PO/LE-PO method. (2017.1)
  • Network voltage sources are supported with the RL-GO. (2017.1)
  • Each request for currents and charges is stored to a separate .os and .ol file. The file naming convention is the same as for other requests stored per request basis:<FEKO_base_filename>_<requestname>(k).<extension>. (2017.1)

Resolved Issues

  • Memory usage is improved for large MoM and MLFMM models. (2017.1)
  • Memory usage is improved for large MLFMM problems solved in parallel. (2017.1)
  • Memory consumption and allocation reporting are improved for fast far field calculations for the MLFMM. (2017.1)
  • The robustness for FEM modal port eigenmode calculations is improved. (2017.1)
  • The robustness of cable handling when detecting nearby geometry is improved.
  • The criteria used for geometry requirements at cable terminations are slightly relaxed. (2017.1)
  • Geometry checking failed when a model contained a wire consisting of a single segment connecting to a face. (2017.1)
  • An internal error given when multiple configurations used sources with the same field data (such as point sources with defined radiation patterns) is resolved. (2017.1)
  • A segmentation violation was triggered for models with multiple configurations where sources are moved between configurations. (2017.1)
  • A bug is fixed that caused an error state when anisotropic material is used for the FEM region in some FEM/MoM hybrid models. (2017.1)
  • Incorrect results were obtained when using the FDTD to solve an anisotropic material defined using the complex tensor definition type. (2017.1)
  • An internal error given for parallel FDTD examples where a perpendicular PEC boundary condition is used with a far field request is resolved. (2017.1)
  • The megacells per second (MCPS) calculation for FDTD results computed on a GPU is corrected. (2017.1)
  • A bug that resulted in small errors for multilayer isotropic thin dielectric sheets is fixed. (2017.1)
  • An issue is resolved that caused incorrect near fields to be calculated when 2D anisotropic thin dielectric sheets (TDS) are used with the RL-GO. (2017.1)
  • A bug is fixed that resulted in an internal error state for certain RL-GO examples. (2017.1)
  • An issue causing slight inaccuracies for curvilinear RL-GO is resolved. (2017.1)
  • Suppressed warnings about the spherical cut-off region that were incorrectly generated for internal spherical mode transformations. (2017.1)
  • An internal error is resolved that occurred when solving certain low frequency ACA problems. (2017.1)
  • A bug is resolved that could have been triggered on the second solution frequency causing the ACA to fail. (2017.1)
  • An issue is resolved for some Linux systems such as Ubuntu where parallel runs would hang. (2017.1)
  • A bug is fixed that caused problems when writing binary .lud or .mat files in parallel when the number of unknowns are small compared to the number of processes used. (2017.1)
  • I/O errors that were triggered sporadically when running problems in parallel are resolved. (2017.1)
  • Incorrect transmission and reflection coefficients were calculated for periodic boundary examples rotated and shifted using a coordinate transformation. (2017.1)

Shared Interface Changes

Resolved Issue

  • An issue with the termination of sequential iterative solutions is resolved. Pressing the "Stop" button in the GUI or Ctrl+C in the console when a iterative run has passed the threshold (the square root of the target residuum) will cause Feko to use the current solution and continue with the rest of the simulation. (2017.1)

Support Components

Features

  • The CADFEKO Student Edition now allows the importing of Parasolid CAD geometry. (2017.1)
  • HyperWorks licensing is updated to use the Altair License Management System 13.1. Components using ALM 13.1 are compatible with servers running Altair License Server 13.0. (2017.1)