HFSS

3D Components
HFSS models are growing in complexity and delity as compute resources become more readily
available. For example, HFSS is being used to model installed antenna performance including
things like feeding networks and reector systems, rather than simply modeling the antenna in free
space. Managing these multi-part models can become very complex if not impossible, especially
when the engineer who is modeling the full system isnt the one necessarily designing each individ-
ual part. 3D Components facilitate the design process by providing an infrastructure to eciently
manage complex models and freely share parts among collaborators, customers and/or vendors.

3D Components
HFSS models are growing in complexity and delity as compute resources become more
readily available. For example, HFSS is being used to model installed antenna perfor-
mance including things like feeding networks and reector systems, rather than simply
modeling the antenna in free space. Managing these multi-part models can become very
complex if not impossible, especially when the engineer who is modeling the full system
isnt the one necessarily designing each individual part. 3D Components facilitate the
design process by providing an infrastructure to eciently manage complex models and
freely share parts among collaborators, customers and/or vendors.

What are 3D Components?

3D components are self-contained HFSS
models. They may contain any or all of the
following: geometries, material properties,
excitations, boundary conditions, mesh
operations, relative coordinate systems
and variables. The le format for a 3D
component is .a3dcomp.

Figure 1. From circuit components and connectors
to antennas and waveguides, any HFSS model can
be saved as a fully parametric 3D component
When 3D components are brought into a design, they appear at the top of the History
Tree. Each component has its own Solids, Sheets, Coordinate Systems and Planes lists.
When the same component is used multiple times, the instances are grouped together as
seen in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. History Tree for a model with 3D components

Before components, HFSS had two variable types: Project
Variables and Design Variables. Project Variables can be used
in all designs within a given project and Design Variables
are local to one design within a project. 3D Components may
contain their own parameters, and those parameters will not
conict with any existing Project or Design variables because
they are dened at the component level. In fact, two instances
of the same component will have the same parameter X, but
may be set up to have two dierent values for X. Note: to run
Optimetrics analyses with component parameters, a user must
rst bring the parameter up to the design level by setting the
value of a component parameter to a Design Variable this
Design Variable, like any other, can then be used for Optimet- Figure 3. Built-in 3D Component Library
rics analyses.

3D Component Libraries
Many ready-made 3D components are available for use in the
Electronics Desktop. To insert a 3D component into your design,
select the menu item Draw>>3D Component Library and choose a
component from the built-in Antenna or Rectangular Waveguide
libraries. To access a component that you created yourself or one
obtained from a vendor or collaborator, from the same menu item
you may instead choose the option to Browse and locate your
.a3dcomp le. You can expand the built-in libraries or create your
own library by saving your .a3dcomp les in the 3DComponents
folder located in the syslib directory.

Creating 3D Components
Creating 3D Components
ANSYS HFSS provides the ability to create a 3D component. First select all objects for the
component in the modeler window. Then right-mouse-click and select Create 3D Compo-
nent. You will be asked to select which features to include in the 3D component (i.e., which
geometries, boundary conditions, parameters, coordinate systems, etc.) and where to save the
.a3dcomp le.

Editing 3D Components
In ANSYS HFSS, a 3D component that has been inserted into a design can be attened to a new
design for further editing. The only case in which this statement doesnt hold true is for encrypt-
ed 3D components. The next section provides additional details about encrypted components.

Encrypted 3D Components
Sharing HFSS models with collaborators or customers may sometimes be impossible due to
restrictions related to intellectual property. In R16, we introduced the ability to encrypt 3D
component les and apply password protection. However, once the component is inserted into
the design, every aspect of it is revealed to the user. In R17, we introduce the ability to hide
various geometries in a 3D component so users now have a method by which they can freely
share their models without revealing any condential information.

Password Protection
When encrypting a component, the creator can enable password protection or simply encrypt
the le with an internal key. If a password is dened, then a component user will also be
prompted to enter it in upon component insertion and project re-open.
 Use
WhatANSYS SpaceClaim
are Encrypted to:
3D Components?

If you open an .a3dcomp le in a text editor, you will nd information about the component con-
tained within. Component creators have the option to save the le with 128-bit encryption.

(a) .a3dcomp file in text editor (b) encrypted .a3dcomp file in text editor

Sharing 3D Components with Hidden Features

When creating a 3D component, you may select objects that will be hidden to the end-user. The
3D component will behave as though those objects are still in the model but the end user will
not be able to see anything related to the geometry, including its material properties, electro-
magnetic elds or mesh.
It is very common to nd S parameters for a given electrical component on the component
vendors website. S parameters can be used in circuit simulations to help design multi-com-
ponent systems. They are safely shared because they contain no IP information. As compute
resources become more readily available, multi-component systems can be design using 3D full
wave simulations. With the advent of hidden elements in 3D components, designers can exploit
this feature by requesting fully detailed 3D parts from their vendors to better predict system
performance with multi-part models.

Assemblies of 3D Components
3D components facilitate the management of complex multi-part models as well as provide a
method by which to collaborate with others to better predict performance of systems where not
every part is created by engineer running the simulation. We refer to multi-component models
as assemblies. For example, in HFSS, one may draw a horn antenna along with a reector Password protection during 3D Component creation
call this a attened design. To create an assembly, the design should be created out of two process
or more 3D components in this case, the horn would be one 3D component and the reector
would be another 3D component. There are advantages to modeling the horn-fed reector as
an assembly of components rather than as a attened design. To learn more, please read the
Application Note titled Assemblies of 3D Components.
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