Welcome to CST !

CST STUDIO SUITE

Training Class

Core Module

About CST
Founded in 1992
170 employees
World-wide distribution network
Focus on 3D EM simulation

CST Worldwide

CST West Coast

CST of America

CST Europe

CST China

CST of Korea

AET Japan

CST Products

CST MICROWAVE

Common Easy-To-Use Preand Post-processing Engine

STUDIO

CST CABLE STUDIO

CST PCB STUDIO

Our Flagship Product

for RF Simulations

CST MICROSTRIPES

RF Simulations
for Special
Applications

CST STUDIO SUITE

CST DESIGN STUDIO

Circuit Simulator
Allows Coupling of 3D Models

CST PARTICLE STUDIO

Interaction of EM Fields with
Free Moving Charges
5

CST MPHYSICS STUDIO

Thermal and Mechanical
Effects of EM Fields

CST EM STUDIO
Simulations of Static or
Low-Frequency Fields

Built-In Help
Mechanisms

Documentation
<CST_INSTALLATION_DIR>\Documentation\

The introductory books are a good starting

point to learn the workflow of the CST
STUDIO SUITE products.

All books are available as pdf documents

in the "Documentation" subfolder of your
CST installation.

Tutorials
Step-by-Step tutorials are available for CST MICROWAVE STUDIO
and CST EM STUDIO.

Examples Overview
Many pre-calculated examples are available.

Antenna Calculation Examples

9

Online Help (I)

10

Online Help (II)

- Links to Online Help -

In almost all dialogs there is a link to the online help documents

which provides you with extensive help for all settings.

Linked page of the online help

Transient solver main dialog

11

CST Webpage

www.cst.com
12

CST Support Site

Tutorial Videos

FAQ Section

13

CST User Forum

Ask your questions. Answers are provided by other users or CST engineers.
14

CST Customer Support

CST Malaysia
Phone: +60 (3) 7731 5595
Fax:
+60 (3) 7722 5595
Email: info@sea.cst.com
Support available from
9am 5pm

15

CST Training Courses

The training courses for CST STUDIO SUITE provide you with the
knowledge needed for an efficient start with the software.
Currently the following trainings are offered on a regular basis. All
upcoming courses are announced on the CST webpage.
CST STUDIO SUITE
MW & Antenna Training
2 full days

CST PARTICLE STUDIO

Charged Particle
Dynamics Training
1 full day

EMC / SI / PI Training

2 full days
Performance Training
1 full day

16

CST EM STUDIO
LF Applications Training
1 full day

CST MICROSTRIPES
CST MICROSTRIPES
Training
1-2 full day(s)
CST CABLE STUDIO
CST PCB STUDIO
Training on Demand

Basic and Advanced

Modeling

19

Common User Interface

Menu Bar
Tool Bars

Primary
Window

Navigation
Tree

Message
Parameter List
20

Window

Customize Your Environment

E.g., define a shortcut key
to call your favorite macro.

21

View Options
Rectangle zoom

allows to zoom in a rectangular domain.

Change the view by dragging the mouse while pressing the left
button and a key.

ctrl - rotation
shift - in-plane rotation
ctrl+shift - panning

Some other useful options are:

spacebar - reset view to structure,
ctrl+f - reset view,

shift+spacebar - zoom into selected shape,

mouse wheel - dynamic zoom to mouse pointer.

22

Primitives
Cylinder

Torus

Cone

Sphere

Rotation

Brick

Elliptical

Hints:

Cylinder

Press the tab-key to enter

a point numerically.
Press backspace to delete
a previously picked point.

Extrusion
23

Picks
Pick a point, an edge, or a face in the structure.

Hints:
Picked Edge

Picked Point

Pick circle
center (c)
Pick corner

Press "s" to activate all pick tools.

Picked Face

To pick a point by given coordinates, press p and the tab-key.

2nd time picking an element
unselects it.

Pick face

Pick face (f)

center (a)

Clear picked elements (d)

point (p)
Pick edge
center (m)
Pick point
24

on circle (r)

Edge from
coordinates
Pick edge (e)

Working Coordinate System

The working coordinate system (WCS) allows the use of context
dependent coordinates.
Use

to switch on/off the WCS.

Use

to rotate the WCS.

Use

to move the WCS.

25

Working Coordinate System

The WCS can be aligned, e.g., with a point, an edge, or a face.
Align the WCS
with a point

Align the WCS

with an edge

Align the WCS

with a face

Press w to align the WCS with the currently selected object.

26

Working Coordinate System

The position of a WCS can be stored for later use.

27

Boolean Operations
Boolean operations can be applied to two or more shapes to
create more complex structures.
Sphere

Brick

Intersect
Brick * Sphere
28

Add

Subtract

Brick + Sphere

Brick - Sphere

Boolean insert
Sphere / Brick

Brick / Sphere

Curve Modeling Tools Overview (I)

Curves can be used for
structure generation,
thin wire generation,
integration path in post-processing,
healing CAD data.

Basic Curves
Generation
Create new curve
29

Curve Modeling Tools Overview (II)

Solids can be created from curves.
Creation of a
Sheet from a
Planar Curve

Extrusion of a
Planar Curve

Sweep Curve

30

Curve Modeling Tools Overview (III)

Solids can be created from curves.

Creation of a
Trace

Creation of
Loft from two
Curves

31

Rotation of Profile
Rotation Axis

Draw the profile.

Press backspace to delete
the last selected point.

32

Specify rotation angle,

material properties, etc.
Double click on any corner
point to change its position.

Analytical Modeling (I)

3D curves and faces can be created using analytical expressions.

Enter parameterization
33

Analytical Modeling (II)

3D curves and faces can be created using analytical expressions.

34

Loft Operation
Two picked faces can be used to create a new shape by a loft
operation.

Pick two faces.

Choose the properties

of the loft operation.

Preview

35

Bending
It is possible to bend a sheet on a solid object.
Example:
Creation of a Helix
Sheet

Solid
The solid and the sheet must touch each other.

36

Blend and Chamfer Edges

Specify angle and width.

Select edges.

Specify radius.

37

Shell Operation
A solid object can be shelled.
Example:
A waveguide bend consisting of three shapes is shelled.
solid2

solid3
solid1

Create a single shape

by a Boolean add.

Picked faces will be open

after the operation.
38

Transform Operation
Existing objects can be translated, rotated, mirrored, and scaled.

Translate

Scale

Rotate

Use the mouse to translate, rotate, or scale objects interactively.

Perform several transformations to the same shape using the Apply
button.
Selecting more than one solid will turn the shape center into the
common center.

39

Local Modifications Face Modifications

Offset Face: Interactively

move the face of a solid in
its normal direction.

Move Face: Interactively

move the face of a solid in
a coordinate direction.

Local Modifications are especially helpful

when you are working with an imported
CAD model for which the model history is
not available. The "Local Modification"
tools help you to modify such geometries.
40

Local Modifications Remove Feature

Feature to be removed

Remove the feature

41

Pick the feature

View Options
Several options are available to gain better insight into the structure.

Cutting Plane

Wireframe Mode

42

View Options
Several options are available to gain better insight into the structure.

Working Plane

Coordinate Axes

43

Copy / Paste Structure Parts

Ctrl+C stores the selected solids on the active working coordinate
system (WCS) to the clipboard. Ctrl+V pastes the clipboard into the
active working coordinate system.
Copy and paste of structure parts works even between different CST
projects.

Paste the objects in

the new WCS.

Press ctrl+c to copy

objects to clipboard.

Move the WCS.

44

Align Objects
Copied or imported objects can be aligned with the current model.

Select shape and

choose Align

Select faces to
align with.

Choose angle.

Final Result

For copied and imported objects, the alignment is started

automatically.
For shapes selected in the Navigation Tree start by choosing Align
from the Objects menu.

45

Interactive CAD Modeling Using the Mouse

1. Adjust the Snap width according to the raster of your structure.

2. Use the pick tools, whenever geometrical information is already available.
Pick points to define new shapes / height of extrusion / transform.
Pick edges for rotation axis / to adjust WCS.
Pick face for extrude / rotate / transform / to adjust WCS.
3. Use the local working coordinate system (WCS).
4. Use the keyboard only for new (independent) geometric information
(e.g. points which cannot be picked and do not fit into the snapping raster).
Relative construction via picks and WCS avoids redundant information.
Parameters/Values are entered once and are later referenced via picks.
46

Solver Overview
Which solver is best suited to my application?

49

Which Solver is the Best?

Unique answer to this question is not easily possible as the
performance and accuracy depend on many parameters:
Electrical size and geometry of the problem,
Material models and material parameters used,
Resonant behavior of the model,
Type of the mesh and the boundary conditions,
Architecture of the workstation used for the simulation,
etc.
BUT: Some helpful rules of thumb are available.
The application engineers of CST are available to
discuss the solver choice and the model setup.
50

Transient Simulation - Behind the Scenes

Output Time Signal

Excitation Time Signal

Numerical time integration

of 3D Maxwell equations

Port 1

Port 2

The simulation duration depends on:

1. Duration of input signal (determined by frequency range selected)

2. Duration of output signal (determined mainly by the size and the

resonances of the model under study)
3. Time step width for numerical time integration (determined by the
mesh used to discretize your model)
51

Frequency Domain Simulation

Behind the Scenes
The steady state behavior of a model is calculated at different
frequency points.

For each frequency

point a linear
equation system
has to be solved.

The intermediate points in broadband results are calculated by an

interpolation.
52

Time Domain + Frequency Domain

in out

in out
Time Domain

Frequency Domain Calculation

in

in

out

out

TDR
53

Frequency Domain

S-parameter

S-parameter

Solver Choice (I) - Overview

General Purpose Solver (3D-Volume)
Solver
Transient

Frequency
Domain

Area of Application (Rule of Thumb)

Electrically medium and large sized problems
Broadband
Arbitrary time signals
Narrow band / Single frequency
Electrically small to medium sized problems
Periodic structures with Floquet port modes

Special Solver (3D-Volume): Closed Resonant Structures

Eigenmode
FD Resonant

Strongly resonant structures, narrow band (e.g. cavities)

Strongly resonant, non radiating structures (e.g. filters)

Special Solver (3D-Surface): Large Open Metallic Structures

54

Integral Equation
(based on MLFMM)

Electrically large structures

Dominated by metal

Asymptotic Solver

RCS calculations for electrically very large objects

Solver Choice (II) - Resonances

The following rules of thumb apply:
Weak Resonances

Strong Resonances

General Purpose
+AR-Filter
for S-parameter
calculation only

Resonant Fast

F-solver is better suited to strongly resonant applications than T-solver.

55

Solver Choice (III) - Electrical Size

The following rules of thumb apply:

Structure under study

Electrically Small

Electrically Large

With MPI also very large

problems can be solved.

RCS calculations for electrically

very large structures

For electrically very small structures the quasistatic solvers provided in

CST EM STUDIO might be a good choice.
56

Solver Choice (IV) - Bandwidth

The following rules of thumb apply:
Narrowband

Broadband

F-solver and I-solver are better suited to narrowband applications,

while the T-solver is better suited to broadband applications.
57

Specialized Products
In addition to the general purpose solvers of CST MICROWAVE STUDIO
CST offers solvers specialized to certain classes of applications.

CST PCB STUDIO

Specialized solvers for the
simulation of PCB boards.
CST CABLE STUDIO

CST MICROSTRIPES
Efficient solvers based on the
Transmission Line Matrix (TLM)
method. Contains special
algorithms for EMC analysis.
58

Specialized solvers for the

simulation of complete cable
harnesses for all kind of EMC
investigations.

Optional Workflow Example

Patch Antenna Array

Purpose 1: Design a single patch using

a parameter sweep & optimization.

Purpose 2: Create a dual patch array

using
a farfield array combination
3D array creation

a beam-forming feeding network

60

Single Patch

61

Single Patch Design

Frequency range: 3 8 GHz
Port size:

2*width in y-direction

Copper
Substrate (Rogers RT 5880)

5*height in z-direction

40mm

20mm

0.5mm

0.035mm

h = 0.787mm

7.5mm
20mm
w = 2.38mm
40mm
Copper groundplane,
thickness = 0.035 mm
62

Construction (i)
Choose template:

63

Load materials:

Construction (ii)
Construct the substrate:

Load substrate material

64

Construction (iii)
Construct the patch:

65

Construction (iv)

Align WCS with picked

point
Select edge centre

66

Construction (v)
Construct the feed line
Press Shift-Tab

67

Select edge centre

Construction (vi)
Pick point

Align WCS with picked point

68

Construction (vii)
Construct the feed
gaps

69

Construction (viii)
Pick two points to form a
translation vector
Select solid1 by doubleclicking it

70

Construction (ix)
Transform solid1 to make a copy

71

Construction (x)
Select component patch

Select component solid1

Hit ENTER to substract

solid1 from patch

72

Construction (xi)
Pick bottom face of
substrate

Extrude face to make

ground plane

73

Construct Port
Pick face of feed line

74

Construct Port
Construct waveguide port

75

Simulation Settings
Set freq. range

76

Exploit symmetry plane

Simulation
Define monitors (E-, H-, Farfield @ 5.25 GHz)
Start transient solver

77

Visualize Results
Farfield result

E-field result
78

Parameter Sweep

79

Parameter Sweep Results: S11

80

Optimization of Single Patch

Optimizer Parameters

Optimizer Goal

81

Optimizer Results (iii)

83

Farfield Efficiency

Before optimization:
84

Patch Array

85

Combine Farfields (1)

86

Phaseshift = -45 (1R)

87

Phaseshift = 135 (2L)

88

Combine Farfields (2)

Transform component1 to make
a copy

Combine ground and

substrate components

89

Combine Farfields (2)

Construct second port and run transient simulation
without symmetry.

90

Combine Farfields (2)

91

Farfield Results (L)

92

Farfield Results (R)

93

Feeding Network Design (DS)

lg/4

lg/4
Z0

Z0/sqrt(2)

94

DS MWS co-simulation

3D MWS model fed with

DS circuit network

95

Definition of Ports

98

Available Port Types

Ports for S-Parameter Computation

Discrete Ports

Waveguide Ports

(Lumped Element)

(2D Eigenmode Solver)

Input: Knowledge of TEM Mode and

line impedance is required.
Output: Voltage and current

Input: Area for eigenmode solution

Output: Pattern of E- and H-field,
line impedance,
Propagation constant

Discrete ports can be used for TEM-like modes, not for higher order
modes (cutoff frequency > 0).
99

Waveguide ports provide a better match to the mode pattern as well

as higher accuracy for the S-parameters.

Discrete Ports
S-Parameter Port

Current Port

Voltage Port

Voltage or current source with

internal resistance

Coaxial

100

Microstrip

Stripline

Coplanar waveguide

Discrete Edge Port Definition

Pick two points,

or

pick one point and a face,

or enter coordinates directly (not recommended).

Select port type

and impedance.

101

Discrete Face Port Definition

Pick two edges

Select port type

and impedance.

102

or

one edge and a face.

Available Port Types

Ports for S-Parameter Computation

Discrete Ports

Waveguide Ports

(Lumped Element)

(2D Eigenmode Solver)

Input: Knowledge of TEM Mode and

line impedance is required.
Output: Voltage and current

Input: Area for eigenmode solution

Output: Pattern of E- and H-field,
line impedance,
propagation constant

Discrete ports can be used for TEM-like modes, not for higher order
modes (cutoff frequency > 0).
103

Waveguide ports provide a better match to the mode pattern as well

as higher accuracy for the S-parameters.

Port Definition (I) Closed Structures

Typically, waveguide ports are defined based on a geometric object. Use the
pick tools to select a unique port plane.

The port size is equal to the smallest rectangular area which includes all picked objects.

104

Port Definition (II) Open Structures

1. Pick three points.

2. Enter port menu
3. Adjust additional
port space.

105

Port Definition (III) - Backing

For the I-solver and the F-solver waveguide ports must be backed with
a PEC solid (or by electric boundaries).
Pick port using
the pick tools.

Port backed with PEC solid.

106

Extrude the port plane.

Materials
&
Boundary Conditions

108

Basic Materials
Define a new material or load materials from the large material database.

Material Types
PEC = Perfect Electrical Conductor (

Normal: General material model. This is

typically used for dielectric materials.

Anisotropic: Permittivity and permeability

depend upon the spatial direction.
Lossy Metal: Model for conductors with

Corrugated Wall: Surface impedance model.

Ohmic Sheet: Surface impedance model.

109

Material Database

Loaded materials are available

for the creation of new shapes.

110

Lossy Metal
Why is it required?

Sampling of skin depth would require very fine mesh steps at

the metal surface when defining conductor as a normal material
(skin depth for copper at 1 GHz approx. 2 m).

This results in a very small time step, which leads to a very long
simulation time.
Solution:
1D model which takes skin depth into account without spatial
sampling.

111

Boundaries
CST MWS uses a rectangular grid system, therefore, also the complete calculation
domain is of rectangular shape 6 boundary surfaces have to be defined at the
minimum and maximum position in each coordinate direction (xmin, xmax, ymin,
ymax, zmin, zmax).
Example: T-Splitter
ymax

xmin
zmin

zmax
ymin
xmax
112

Boundary Settings (I)

Seven different settings are available.

113

Boundary Settings (II)

Electric Boundaries (default setting): No tangential electric field at surface.

Magnetic Boundaries: No tangential magnetic field at surface. Default

setting for waveguide port boundaries.

Open Boundaries: Operates like free space Waves can pass this boundary
with minimal reflections. Perfectly matched layer (PML) condition.
Open (add space) Boundaries: Same as open, but adds some extra space for
far field calculation (automatically adapted to center frequency of desired
bandwidth). This option is recommended for antenna problems.
Conducting Wall: Electric conducting wall with finite conductivity (defined
in Siemens/meter).

114

Boundary Settings (III)

Periodic Boundaries: Connects two opposite boundaries where the calculation
domain is simulated to be periodically expanded in the corresponding direction.
Thus, it is necessary that facing boundaries are defined as periodic.
The resulting structure represents an infinitely expanded antenna pattern,
phased array antennas. F! (hexahedral mesh), T! + 0 phase shift

Unit Cell: Used with F! solver, tetrahedral mesh, similar to F! periodic

boundary with hexahedral mesh. A two dimensional periodicity other than
in direction of the coordinate axes can be defined. If there are open
boundaries perpendicular to the unit cell boundaries, they are realized by
Floquet modes, similar to modes of a waveguide port .

115

Boundaries: Symmetry Planes

Three different settings are available.
Three possible symmetry planes.

116

Meshing Basics

119

How to Get a Proper Mesh?

Question: How does a proper mesh look like and what are the
best settings to get it?
Answer: This depends on your problem under study as well as
the type of result you are interested in.
However, there are some rules of thumb:
For several classes of application (e.g. antennas, PCB boards
etc.) there are some common properties a "good" mesh
possesses (project templates make use of this fact).
It is known that the results become more accurate when the
mesh is refined (automatic mesh refinement is based on this
knowledge).
Geometry and material of the model influences the behavior of
the EM fields (fixpoints, material based meshing, and other
special techniques are based on this knowledge).
120

Hierarchy of Mesh Settings

Global Mesh Properties

General settings usually done by project

template. Global settings for mesh controls of
automatic meshing algorithms.

Local Mesh Properties

Special settings (fine-tuning) to adjust the

global mesh better to the model under study.
Defined per shape or per material.

Local mesh properties have precedence over global mesh properties.

121

Mesh Generation - A Typical Workflow

Select Project Template

Global Mesh Settings

122

This adjusts the global mesh properties to

values which we found to be a good starting
point for a certain area of application.

Optimize the global mesh settings for the

geometry of your model.

Local Mesh Settings

Fine tune the mesh (if necessary) to meet the

really specific requirements of your model.

Perform Simulation

Start the solver and perform a convergence

study (e.g. using adaptive mesh refinement).

Results

Simulations and mesh studies provide insight

about the dependency of the results on the
mesh settings.

Project Templates
A project template makes some basic settings for a new project. A
project template can be applied to an already existing project.
Information about the
settings the template
will apply.

Template Title
(Area of Application)

123

Initial Mesh Settings

Automatic Mesh Refinement (I)

It is known that the numerical solution calculated by the solvers converges to
the analytical solution if the grid is sufficiently refined.
The automatic mesh refinement in CST tries to refine the initial mesh in a
clever way such that the results are accurate.

124

Automatic Mesh Refinement (II)

The results for different meshes during an adaptive mesh

refinement are shown in the "Navigation Tree".
125

Hexahedral Meshing for

Transient Simulations

126

Hexahedral Meshing - Overview

1. Hexahedral Mesh Configuration Options

2. Some Meshing Guidelines

2.1 Some Representative Meshes for Common Structures
2.2 Meshing Pitfalls
3. Influence of the Mesh on Simulation Performance

127

Hexahedral Mesh (I) - Mesh View

Mesh lines in one
mesh plane are shown
in the 3D view.
View mesh.
Mesh controls are
displayed in the mesh
view.

Information about mesh plane.

The total number of mesh

cells is displayed in status bar.
128

Corner
Correction

Fixpoints

Hexahedral Mesh (II) - Global Settings

Absolute and frequency

dependent setting to
determine the largest
mesh step.

Settings to limit the

size of the smallest
mesh step.

129

Automatically create
and use mesh controls.
Strongly recommended!

Hexahedral Mesh (III) - Global Settings

Largest Mesh Step - "Lines per Wavelength"

"Lines per wavelength" is based on the

upper limit of the frequency range.
130

Thus, increasing the upper frequency limit

usually leads to a finer mesh.

Hexahedral Mesh (IV) - Global Settings

Largest Mesh Step - "Lower Mesh Limit"

"Lower Mesh Limit" is based on the

dimensions of the computational domain.

131

The diagonal of the smallest boundary

face of the comp. domain is divided by
this number. Result is used as the max.
mesh step width allowed in the model

Hexahedral Mesh (V) - Global Settings

Smallest Mesh Step - "Mesh Line Ratio Limit"
The time needed to complete a time domain simulation heavily depends on the size
of the smallest mesh step (see later in section "Performance Aspects of Meshing").
The size of the minimum mesh step can be
limited using the "Mesh Line Ratio Limit" or the
"Smallest Mesh Step" setting.

Mesh lines are

inserted at
fixpoints.

Mesh Line Ratio Limit

The "Mesh Line Ratio Limit" specifies the

maximum value allowed for the ratio of the
maximum mesh step width to the minimum
mesh step width.
132

Hexahedral Mesh (V) - Global Settings

Smallest Mesh Step - "Smallest Mesh Step"
The time needed to complete a time domain simulation heavily depends on the size
of the smallest mesh step (see later in section "Performance Aspects of Meshing").

Smallest Mesh Step

The "Smallest Mesh Step" specifies the minimum

value allowed for the minimum mesh step
width in terms of the units defined in your
project.
Note: If the settings for "Steps per Wavelength"
or "Lower Mesh Limit" lead to a smaller
then the "Smallest Mesh Step" setting is
ignored.
133

Hexahedral Meshing - Overview

1. Hexahedral Mesh Configuration Options
2. Some Meshing Guidelines
2.1 Some Representative Meshes for Common Structures
2.2 Meshing Pitfalls
3. Influence of the Mesh on Simulation Performance

134

Representative Meshes (I) - Minimal Requirements

The gap between inner and outer conductor
should be resolved by at least one mesh cell.
Partially filled cells are handled with PBA/FPBA
technique.

Coaxial Line
1-2 mesh lines

2-3 mesh lines

(depends on thickness)

Microstrip Line
135

Depending on the thickness and the

permittivity of the substrate the number
of mesh lines should be at least as shown
in the picture.
It is NOT necessary to resolve the
thickness of the microstrip line by the
mesh.

Representative Meshes (II) - Minimal Requirements

The gap between multiple strip lines should be
resolved by at least one or two mesh cells.

Parallel Microstrip Lines

A discrete port must be discretized by at least
one mesh cell.

Discrete Ports
136

Meshing Pitfalls - Staircase Cells (I)

Cells which contain more than two metallic
material boundaries are completely filled
with PEC (staircase cells).

A warning is shown by the

solver to inform you of this
modification.

Staircase cells are shown in the

mesh view.

137

Meshing Pitfalls - Staircase Cells (II)

Staircase cells must be avoided if
they influence the electrical
behavior of the model, i.e. if they
introduce shortcuts.
Example: Shortcut between two
microstrip lines is introduced by a
staircase cell.

Staircase cells which do not change

the electrical behavior of a model
are usually OK.

138

Example: Staircase cell at

a wire in free space.

Online Help - PBA and TST

PBA

139

TST

Whenever a mesh cell cuts more than two metallic material

boundaries the cell is filled with PEC material (staircase cell).
Quite often such cells do not influence the simulation result
much, but if they introduce shortcuts (as shown on the previous
slide) this might be critical.

Hexahedral Meshing - Overview

1. Hexahedral Mesh Configuration Options
2. Some Meshing Guidelines
2.1 Some Representative Meshes for Common Structures
2.1 Meshing Pitfalls
3. Influence of the Mesh on Simulation Performance

140

Hexahedral Meshing Performance (I)

For stability, the time step of the numerical quadrature is determined by the
smallest mesh step. Increasing the smallest mesh step will increase the
time step.

Smallest Mesh Step

tiny t: slow

big t: fast

The smaller the smallest mesh step width, the smaller the time
step for the numerical time integration.
141

Hexahedral Meshing Performance (II)

The smallest mesh step in a model can be visualized in the mesh
view.

142

Hexahedral Meshing Guidelines - Summary

Select a proper project template for your application to get good
initial mesh settings.
Perform an adaptive mesh refinement to find a good mesh.
Fine tune the mesh if necessary using the local mesh settings.
Try to avoid critical cells. Quite often they are an indicator that the
mesh is too coarse at least in some regions.
Try to avoid to use a mesh with a very high mesh line ratio limit.
Consider using subgrids for models which require a very fine mesh at
localized positions.

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Transient Simulation - Memory Consumption

- Memory-Consumption versus Mesh Size -

Some rules of thumb are:

A structure with open boundaries and material losses requires
about 1 GB RAM to handle 3-4 million mesh cells.
A structure with closed boundaries and without material losses
requires about 1 GB RAM to handle 5 million mesh cells.
Subgridding:
The subgridding feature starts to be efficient when the mesh
cell reduction factor is larger than 3.
(Macros Calculate Subgridding Meshcell Factor)

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Tetrahedral and Surface Meshing

for Frequency Domain Simulations

145

Global Mesh Properties

Steps per wavelength: This value refers to the
highest frequency of the simulation. It defines the
minimum number of mesh cells that are used for a
distance equal to this wavelength.
Minimum number of steps: This value controls the
global relative mesh size and defines a lower bound
for the number of mesh cells independently of the
wavelength. It specifies the minimum number of
mesh edges to be used for the diagonal of the model
bounding box.

Note: A tetrahedral mesh requires a valid ACIS model.

(HEX mesh even works with INVALID ACIS model...)
146

Tetrahedral / Surface Mesh (I)

-Global Mesh Settings -

"Steps per wavelength" is based on the

upper limit of the frequency range.
147

Thus, increasing the upper frequency limit

usually leads to a finer mesh.

Tetrahedral / Surface Mesh (II)

-Global Mesh Settings -

"Min. number of steps" allows to refine

the mesh globally independently of the
frequency range settings.

148

It specifies the minimum number of

mesh edges to be used for the diagonal
of the model bounding box.

Mesh Generation Method

The method for surface and volume meshing can be chosen.
General purpose: A simple surface mesh
generation which is adequate in most cases.

Fast (for complex structures): Especially suited

to meshing large or complex structures. If used
together with (tetrahedral) volume mesh
generation, this method can be combined only
with Delaunay volume mesh generation.
Delaunay: Fast tetrahedral volume meshing
method (recommended).

Geometry accuracy: If the defined

or imported geometry is less
accurate than the default tolerance
1e-6, it is recommended to select a
larger tolerance. Otherwise artificial
shapes might arise or the model
preparation might fail.
149

Advancing Front: An alternative method to

generate a volume mesh. Advantageous in some
cases (like thin layers), because the surface
mesh can be generated more flexible than with
Delaunay, that is, it can be altered during the
mesh generation if necessary. This method is
available only in combination with the general
purpose surface mesh generation.

Curvature Refinement (I)

30

100

default = 100
If cylinders are
still not well
discretized,
increase it
to, e.g., 200-300.

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Curvature Refinement (II)

The Curvature refinement ratio specifies the ratio of

the maximum deviation (d) of the surface mesh from the
actual shape of the structure divided by the edge length
(h) of the surface triangle (as shown in the picture above).
Smaller values lead to better approximation of curved
objects.

Volume optimization: If this field is checked

(recommended), the mesh connectivity of the
preliminary volume mesh is changed to improve the
mesh quality.

Volume smoothing: If this field is checked

(recommended), the position of mesh vertices will
be changed in order to enhance the mesh quality.
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Adaptive Mesh Refinement

Multi-frequency adaptive mesh refinement
The adaptation frequency samples are sequentially processed before
the broadband sweep.
Example: Diplexer

Mesh adaptation at 75.1 GHz and 77 GHz.

Initial mesh
152

Optimized mesh

Open Discussion

153