Changes

The 2D output data include real or complex quantities like various port, radiation, scattering and periodic characteristics. At the end of an analysis, most .CPX and .DAT data files have a single complex or real value, respectively. in other words, there are no curves to plot. Exceptions are Cartesian 2D radiation pattern or RCS data files along the principal and user define phi-cut planes, as well as polar 2D radiation pattern or RCS data files of angular type with a "'''.ANG'''" file extension. These files contain the radiation pattern or RCS data as a function of some relevant angle in the specified plane. At the end of a sweep simulation of one of the many types available (frequency, angular, parametric, etc.), the ASCII output data files are populated with rows that correspond to the samples of the sweep variable(s). You can plot graphs of the 2D output data files that contain more than one row in '''EM.Grid'''. Each data file has a default graph type. Real data are plotted on EM.Grid's Cartesian graphs. Complex data files with a "'''.CPX'''" extension are plotted on double Cartesian graphs of "'''Magnitude-Phase'''" type, showing the magnitude in dB and phase in radians. You can change the complex data's graph type to the "'''Real-Imaginary'''" or "'''Smith Chart'''" by selecting its entry in the Data Manager and clicking the '''Edit'''button to open the "Edit File Properties Dialog". Angular data files like polar 2D radiation patterns or RCS, by default, are plotted on EM.Grid's "'''Polar'''" graphs. Note that real data can be graphed on bar charts, too, just as angular can alternatively be graphed on polar stem charts.

Figure 1: A 2D radiation pattern polar graph in EM.Grid.

EM.Cube's 3D output simulation data usually have a vectorial nature and are defined as functions of the Cartesian or spherical space coordinates. At the end of a planar MoM simulation, you can view 3D visualizations of the vectorial output data such as current distributions, near-field field distributions, far-field radiation patterns and RCS in EM.Cube's project workspace by clicking on the corresponding observable entries in the Navigation Tree. When you run a sweep simulation of some sort, multiple 3D plots appear on the Navigation Tree representing all the sweep variable samples. You can animate these 3D visualization plots very conveniently from the Navigation Tree. To do so, right click on an observable's name in the Navigation Tree and select the '''Animation''' item from the contextual menu. Make sure that you right click on the observable's parent node, not on one of its child components corresponding to the sweep variable samples. The 3D plot in the project workspace starts to animate and continues forever until to stop it. A new window called "''' Animation Controls Dialog'''" opens up at the lower right corner of the EM.Cube desktop. This dialog allows you to control the animation speed using a box labeled '''Rate''', whose value multiplied by 100 milliseconds indeed gives the frame duration. You can speed up the animation or slow it down from the default rate of one frame per 300ms. The box labeled '''Sample''' show the current frame's plot label at any time. You can pause the animation, rewind it to the first frame, fast-forward it to the last frame or manually step it through back and forth using the movement buttons marked with the symbols |<, <<, ||, >>,>|.

Figure 1: Animating 3D radiation patterns as the send of a frequency sweep.