Internal voids in HeatWave

A customer recently reported strange behavior of HeatWave thermal solutions involving internal voids. A void material is one that has zero thermal conductivity. Therefore, it acts as an ideal thermal insulator. Voids are also used in solutions where objects emit thermal radiation. In this case, void elements act as an infinite vacuum. The intersections with voids [...]

Transparent electrodes in OmniTrak

There are occasions in OmniTrak simulations when charged particles should pass through fixed potential surfaces. One example is the passage of high-energy electrons through a thin foil. Another example suggested by a customer are trajectories in the vicinity of the plasma column of a cyclotron ion source. Here, the plasma acts as a fixed-potential volumetric body [...]

Non-recursive directory tree assembly in RealBasic

Recursion is the crystal meth of computer programing. It may seem terrific the first time you try it, but generally leads to negative long-term consequences. A good general rule is never use recursion if there is any alternative. Finding all the subdirectories and files in a parent directory is a task where recursion is often invoked [...]

Building a rounded box with MetaMesh

The standard method for building objects in MetaMesh is to piece them together from one or more parts. A part is a basic geometric shape defined by a parametric model (e.g., the radius and length of a cylinder, the side lengths of a box,…). Sometimes it’s easy to make the shape you want, and sometimes it’s [...]

Short circuit near a gas transmission line

I can help out with consulting support if a potential customer is unsure which of our programs to use for an application and what is the best computational strategy. On occasion, I will do a courtesy analysis if an application is particularly interesting.

A trial user posed the problem related to the system of Fig. 1. A [...]