Release Notes: Altair Feko 2022.1.2

Altair Feko 2022.1.2 is available with new features, corrections and improvements. This version (2022.1.2) is a patch release that should be applied to an existing 2022 or 2022.1 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.

newFASANT complements Altair’s high frequency electromagnetic software tool (Altair Feko) for general 3D EM field calculations, including, among others, special design tools tailored for specific applications like complex radomes including FSS, automated design of reflectarrays and ultra-conformed reflector antennas, analysis of Doppler effects, ultrasound systems including automotive or complex RCS, and antenna placement problems. Advanced solver technologies like the MoM combined with the characteristic basis functions (CBFS), PO/GO/PTD, GTD/PO and MLFMM parallelised through MPI/OpenMP, being some of them especially efficient for the analysis of electrically very large problems.

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 2022.1.2 Release Notes

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

CADFEKO

Features

  • Added rendering previews for the copy and translate and copy and rotate operators to show all copies about to be created.
  • Added an option to toggle snapping to mesh vertices on the Modify Snap Settings dialog.
  • Added an option to the project filter to include only parts that are set to use the selected predefined local mesh settings.
  • Restored nineteen antennas to the component library that were previously only available in CADFEKO [LEGACY].

Resolved Issues

  • Resolved an issue where the wrong number of cable connector pins were written out to .pre file in some cable models, causing the Solver to terminate with ERROR 23085: Wrong number of continuation lines when specifying cable connector details.
  • Fixed an intermittent bug where the cable bundle dialog would open in a broken state.
  • Fixed the geometry export problem which prevented large models from being exported successfully.
  • Resolved a problem with the tool for finding distorted mesh elements where only distorted elements found in model meshes were reported and not those present in simulation meshes.
  • Fixed an issue converting legacy CADFEKO models where the nets in the schematic would not be correctly connected.
  • Changed the CopyAndMirror API method to return a single entity rather than a list.
  • Fixed an assertion that failed when adding a FEM modal mesh port to an S-parameter configuration.
  • Relaxed the validation for converting legacy models to the new CADFEKO format to allow subtract operators that do not subtract any parts. The same validation relaxation is present from the API. In the graphical user interface, geometry to subtract is required when creating subtracted geometry, but teh resulting geometry can be modified to contain only the original target for subtraction.
  • Parts with faults that are due to extremely small edges will correctly mesh. Before, a bug in the meshing phase could cause an assertion failure upon meshing (or opening a model containing such parts with auto-meshing enabled).
  • Resolved a problem where legacy model conversion failed for models containing dielectric media with empty entries in the frequency list table.
  • Corrected the FEM line port validation when checking if the wire, which the port is located on, is in a FEM dielectric region. The problem could have caused a solver error if a port was defined on a child part.
  • Fixed a bug that could have resulted in crashes when running a script as a application macro, while the same script would work correctly when running it directly from the script editor.
  • Resolved an issue where setting the Suppression of small features advanced mesh setting to Ignore was not affecting the mesh.
  • Fixed an assertion that could fail when opening and closing the project filter after having created a new project.
  • Resolved a problem where meshing failed on undo after changing the frequency for a model containing a wire port.
  • Resolved a problem with the handling of inactive waveguide ports that could lead to the solver terminating with ERROR 36393: Incomplete specification of a waveguide port on the surface of a dielectric.
  • Reloading a protected model would leave CADFEKO in an unstable state. After the protected model was reloaded, an assert or crash would be triggered when interacting with the 3D view, creating a 3D view or exposing the model.
  • Resolved an issue where drop-down lists referencing entities could rarely change to the first created entity of that type instead of the selected option.
  • Near fields with a start and end point differing by more than 360 could have resulted in a Range too big warning being shown in error.
  • Made various improvements to ensure the correct the handling of protected models.
  • Resolved an issue where model-specific variables could not be evaluated using EvaluateExpression from API automation.
  • Updated SPICE file browser options to include *.asc, *.txt and *.*.
  • Removed lower case, upper case file type repetition from file browsers on various dialogs (browsing for near field data, SPICE circuits or Touchstone files or exporting an image).
  • Fixed a crash that could have been triggered when undoing.
  • Resolved a crash when attempting to open a Lua script via the API (from another Lua script).
  • Resolved an issue where the application would crash when deleting a duplicated model mesh.
  • Resolved a crash that could be encountered when adding a schematic view.
  • Fixed view anchoring for rotating geometry while on Model View display mode.
  • Fixed an assert that occured when wires were unioned inside a PEC region.
  • Fixed a problem with the application macro library script for Example Guide (EG) F2 that failed to execute.
  • Resolved the issue that the reference impedance could not be set for edge mesh ports on the S-parameter configuration dialog. The solver terminated with an error that no EG card (end of geometry) was found in the .pre file when edge mesh ports were used in an S-parameter configuration.
  • Resolved an issue where a near field receiving antenna request with multiple faces specified to be combined were incorrectly passed to the solver as individual faces.
  • Added CEM verification for near field receiving antenna requests. A model status error is triggered when the request contains Cartesian apertures that cannot be combined or when more than six Cartesian apertures are specified to be combined.
  • CADFEKO_BATCH now correctly checks that the directory specified by the FEKO_USER_HOME environment variable (where user settings are stored) exists and if it does not, creates it to avoid a problem later relying on the existence of the directory.
  • Improved memory usage for 3D view visualisation.
  • The CO card (for coatings) was incorrectly written to .pre file for faces that at some point had a layered dielectric coating applied and were then updated to have the face medium set to layered dielectric. This could lead to a solver error that a triangle cannot be a coated conductor and a thin dielectric sheet at the same time. Layered dielectric face media and coatings are not supported together and the CO card .pre file writing rules have been corrected.
  • Added missing API documentation and scripting auto-complete for the cf.Application.GetInstance() method.
  • Fixed a bug where clicking the OK button more than once while importing sometimes caused an assertion failure.
  • Fixed a problem where attempting to open a model by dragging and dropping it into the application could leave CADFEKO in an inconsistent state (with an empty tree) if the model failed to load.
  • Resolved the issue that no previews were shown when transforming model meshes.
  • Resolved an issue where snapping to zero while creating or modifying a cone could cause an assertion failure.
  • Fixed a mapping bug where wires (free edges) and edges (bounding faces) were not mapped correctly to root level wires and edges. This could result in ports that go suspect.
  • Corrected cutplanes to affect geometry vertex visualisation.
  • Error feedback will now be given when media defined in .inc files fail validation during import.
  • Improved the performance for operations involving incremental changes to large collections. This includes a general performance improvement when updating changes for large models.
  • Corrected a bug relating to edge ports and the faces defining the edge port. The bug may have caused an error stating that a face is not allowed on a dielectric body.
  • Corrected the simplify operation to remove edges between faces if they have local mesh settings that match.
  • Resolved a problem that could result in an assert failing while working on the Constrained Surface dialog.
  • Resolved an assertion failure that could be triggered when dragging an item out of a path sweep in the model tree. An appropriate error message is now shown and the invalid action prevented.
  • Multi-selecting a layered dielectric and anisotropic dielectric and editing their properties does not result in an assert anymore. The two types are incompatible and an appropriate error message is displayed.
  • Resolved an assertion failure that could be triggered when deleting a line from a union.
  • Resolved an issue where the application would crash when undoing changes for voxel meshes.
  • Resolved an issue where results would not be generated for protected models without any requests.
  • Resolved an issue where the application would crash when replacing one model mesh with a duplicate of that model mesh instance.
  • Re-executing a transform tool which fails will no longer crash.
  • Changed cable connector path terminal labels back to Start and End. The labels StartTerminal and EndTerminal were used in CADFEKO 2022.1 and CADFEKO 2022.1.1.
  • Resolved an issue where removing all the ports that an S-parameter configuration depended on did not remove the S-parameter configuration.
  • Fixed the problem that locked geometry could be separated.
  • Fixed the problem that locked geometry could be exploded or converted to primitive.
  • Fixed a bug where the POSTFEKO session file, if it exists, did not get loaded when launching POSTFEKO from CADFEKO.
  • Corrected a bug where the repair and sew faces operation could fail an assertion.
  • Improved the error message that gets issued when setting a variable to an invalid expression using the SetExpressions method.
  • Corrected the near field rendering points while editing a near field request.
  • Improved far field and near field rendering and made these more consistent.
  • Corrected point entry snapping when setting the reference vector of a waveguide port to calculate from the face centre to the point selected.
  • Added Create Port to the model mesh face context menu.
  • Added Reverse Normals to the context menu for model mesh curvilinear face.
  • The run dialog, shown when running the solver and other non-GUI components, could have repeated output lines.
  • Resolved the issue that enabling the named points snap setting did not enable snapping to named points.
  • Resolved an issue where pressing F1 on some dialogs did not open the web help.

CADFEKO [LEGACY]

Feature

  • Added the Create Impedance Sheet for Layered Metals application macro. The application macro creates an effective surface impedance from a stacked metal definition.

POSTFEKO

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed assertion failing when opening an older POSTFEKO session file (.pfs) containing a 3D view of a model with a FEM modal port.
  • Prevented an assertion failure when opening a fek file with a large number of mesh elements.

Solver

Resolved Issues

  • Resolved a bug, due an increased usage of MPI tags after a recent upgrade of the Intel MPI runtime, during the factorisation of the ACA matrix.
  • Resolved inaccuracies in computing currents through a load of a model solved with the numerical Green's function where the LU decomposition of the static interaction matrix is read from an existing .ngf file.
  • Resolved an issue that may have incorrectly resulted in divergence during the MLFMM solution of a configuration included in a simulation containing multiple configurations and media.
  • Improved the performance of the matrix fill stage of a simulation of models using VEP with low frequency stabilisation.
  • Improved memory-related feedback messages.

Shared Interface Changes

Resolved Issue

  • Resolved an issue where launching CADFEKO from POSTFEKO did not open the current model loaded in POSTFEKO.

Support Components

Resolved Issue

  • Corrected the Get to Know the New CADFEKO Interface to state that the location of temporary files generated during the import process of geometry and meshes has changed to %FEKO_TMPDIR%. The log files are still located at %FEKO_USER_HOME%.

WinProp 2022.1.2 Release Notes

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

ProMan

Features

  • The orientation of the receiving antenna, in point mode, is now displayed on the point and updated as different time-steps are visualised.
  • The number of threads used in a simulation is now reported to the log file.

Resolved Issues

  • Resolved a regression in the computation of LOS results of indoor projects in point mode.
  • Resolved inaccuracies due to duplicated rays from the same walls/wedges in urban IRT predictions. This fix may result in slight changes in computed results.
  • Fixed an incorrect behavior in the display of ray paths computed with the Dominant Path Model. The computation of the power and delay time were always correct, just the ray path display could be incorrect.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the display of rays computed via the WinPropCLI RunMS for all but the first time step.
  • Aligned header and syntax of trajectory files to display in GUI. The new order for the angles in trajectory files is: Yaw Pitch Roll.
  • Resolved an issue related to duplicate rays in CNP projects, with the transmitter inside the CNP building, simulated with IRT with post-processing.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur in case a result folder could not be created.
  • Resolved a display issue of buildings in 3D view in urban projects with topography.
  • The receiving angle, in cases where an interaction point coincides with a receiving pixel, is now correctly computed for ray tracing based propagation models.
  • Resolved a visualisation bug, in 3D view, that resulted in buildings being shifted to an incorrect topographical height.

WallMan

Resolved Issues

  • Align header and syntax of trajectory files to display in GUI. The new order for the angles in trajectory files is: Yaw Pitch Roll.
  • Fixed a case where the speed along a trajectory is not imported/exported as part of the trajectory import/export operation.
  • Fixed a crash that might occur when trying to convert a corrupted file. Instead, a proper message will be issued.

AMan

Resolved Issue

  • Resolved a bug that resulted in artificially high gains due to violations of interpolation conditions when using antenna patterns from .msi files. Interpolation conditions are now strictly enforced.

Application Programming Interface

Features

  • Added support for the combination of Urban IRT with Rural Knife Edge Diffraction model to the WinPropCLI.
  • Added support for repeaters in the WinProp API.

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the display of rays computed via the WinPropCLI RunMS for all but the first time step.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur in case a result folder could not be created.

newFASANT 2022.1.2 Release Notes

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

GUI

Resolved Issue

  • Resolved an issue with updating surfaces that caused an unexpected Doppler spectrum in the Ultrasound module (US module).

WRAP 2022.1.2 Release Notes

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

General

Features

  • Area mode is now the default when the Longley Rice model is used in the Spectrum Viewer.
  • Added an Example Guide to the documentation.
  • Improved the interaction speed with large databases via the API.
  • The required distance between antennas in the Separation Distance Calculator can now be specified up to a one meter resolution. The previous minimum limit was 10 meters.

Resolved Issues

  • Starting WRAP from the command line, with user name and password, now uses the saved password. Previously, this resulted in an error.
  • Resolved an issue preventing creation, modification and deletion of equipment from API for a user with password.
  • Streamlined the modification of a station via the API by taking out an unnecessary step.