Repetition of a geometrical entity like a linear array in CADFEKO

Altair Forum User

Hi,

My model consists of a geometrical cylinder, with some dielectric properties, and with atleast ten instances along X- and Y- directions each. Then I will add a dipole and measure directivity, gain, and transmission/reflectivity. I know CAD softwares let create a linear/circular array of geometrical entity. Popular CAD software SolidWorks uses linear pattern to achieve the same.

 

Is it possible to achieve similar result in CADFEKO? How can I create these ten instances in CADFEKO?

Thank you.

JIF

Hello FieldForcer,

 

There are a couple of options in CADFEKO. I don't have a good mental picture of what your structure looks like, but your options are:

• Copy and translate: The 'copy and translate' or 'copy and rotate' feature allows one CAD part to be duplicated and moved / rotated. It allows multiple copies to be created at the same time.
• Scripting: The scripting features in CADFEKO are quite powerful. Almost anything that a user can do manually in CADFEKO, can be done via scripting. Scripting then allows the user to add FOR loops and conditional statements so that complex models can be created that would have been tedious to create without scripting. CADFEKO also has a script recording feature that makes script creation quick and easy. Simply activate script recording, perform the action that you want to perform once, stop script recording and then customize the recorded script by adding loops and conditional statements.

I hope one of these options provide you with the functionality that you are looking for.

Altair Forum User

Hi JIF,

 

Thank you for suggestions. Now 'Copy and Translate' produces several copies at same position. This is not directly useful in creating a geometrical array of size 10x10. I will try tinkering with FEKO scripting, and see if it gets me where I want to be.

 

Thanks.

JIF

Hello FieldForcer,

 

If you don't define any transform, then the copies will all be at the same place. The idea is to use a translate / rotate transform that moves the objects. See the gif below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

If you are trying to model an array (only an array with no other geometry), you sould also look at the finite array capabilities (see screenshot below) that allows linear, cylindrical and custom arrays to be created and allows faster simulation using the finite array modelling feature. When using that feature to construct the model, you can also perform a solution without using the finite array feature (then performing the simulation using standard solution methods such as MLFMM or MoM). When using this feature, you create only one element of the array and the other copies are created by the array definition.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

Altair Forum User

Hi JIF,

 

Your gif animation is extremely helpful. I got answer to my question, and that closes current question.

 

Thank you very much.