Editor's Pick: Big Release of Electromagnetic Simulation Software

Dear DE Reader:

Old Nikki Tesla would get a charge out of the electromechanical systems that are key to modern society: the internet of things, electric-powered cars bearing his name, electric motors of all kinds, those beeping instruments in hospitals, computers and all that communications gear, to name a few. Wonder what he would have if he had his hands on the electromagnetic (EM) toolsets that are part of Altair's HyperWorks multidisciplinary, multiphysics simulation platform?

The 2018 versions of the HyperWorks EM suite are out. The suite is made up of FEKO for EM simulation, WinProp for wave propagation modeling and radio network planning, Flux for EM and thermal simulations as well as FluxMotor, the standalone application for the pre-design of electric rotating machines. The broad-stroke description of the 2018 release are enhanced functionalities, simplified workflows and a better user experience intended to help you develop and deploy new or improved e-mobility, communications and electric products.

The FEKO EM solution offers a bunch of frequency and time-domain EM solvers that are especially useful for analyzing antennas, microstrip circuits, RF (radio frequency) components and biomedical systems. Its 2018 version implements what Altair calls a novel workflow that makes it easier to characterize multilayered dielectrics. It also introduces a number of improvements for cable modeling and a new cable cross-section mesh library.

The big enchilada within the FEKO HyperWorks installation is that it now includes WinProp wave propagation modeling. A new FEKO and WinProp launcher utility declutters your screen yet contains options to launch the various FEKO and WinProp components. This also makes things like importing FEKO far-field analyses easier, enables multiple concurrent WinProp installations and eliminates the need for administrator privileges.

New capabilities for CAD geometry simplification and meshing are among the Flux 2018 highlights. This should make for snappy workflows. New HPC (high-performance computing) resources should provide faster 3D solvers. Other notable improvements focus on large 3D models with eddy currents, while new mathematical formulations to help with non-linear convergence debut.

That's a taste of what's new in HyperWorks EM simulation suite 2018. Links at the end of today's Editor's Pick of the Week write-up take you to landing pages covering the individual toolsets where you'll find full details, videos and other neat information. You'll also find linked at the end of the write-up an on-demand series of four webinars introducing the key enhancements in version 2018.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood, Editor at Large, DE