* Set the units of your project and the frequency of operation. Note that the default project unit is '''millimeter'''.
* Define you background structure and its layer properties and trace types.
* Construct your planar structure using [[Building_Geometrical_Constructions_in_CubeCAD | CubeCAD]]'s drawing tools to create all the finite-sized metal and slot trace objects and possibly embedded metal or dielectric objects that are interspersed among the substrate layers.
* Define an excitation source and observables for your project.
* Examine the planar mesh, verify its integrity and change the mesh density if necessary.