June 18, 2024: The content below helps navigate the new features in this release. A full list of updates is available in the Reference Manual's Appendix.
XF 7.11.0 upgrades several third-party libraries, adding support for Linux RHEL8 and dropping support for RHEL6, and requiring CUDA 11.4 for use with GPU acceleration. XF 7.11.0 upgrades FLEXlm licensing libraries to version v11.19.1-TRL from v11.16.2-TRL. Customers using a floating license must update their floating license server.
Schematic Subcircuits
XF's schematic editor supports subcircuits with a user defined number of terminals and properties. Contents of the subcircuit are defined using built-in component types—including capacitors, inductors, and phase shifters—as well as imported data types, such as SnP files. A subcircuit's scripted properties allow extensive flexibility and enable impedance tuners with tune codes for cellular applications and repetitive matching networks in MRI applications.
Users can also create a custom symbol and apply it to a subcircuit.
Active S-Parameters
The active S-parameters macro provides output for phased array and active antenna applications.
HAC 2019
The HAC2019 macro enables users to post-process E-field results in compliance with the 2019 standard. The macro utilizes the existing HAC sensor to define the location where electric-fields are computed and view the electric-field distribution through the specified plane.
Additional Capabilities
This version introduces over 50 usability, performance, scripting, and other updates.
Here is a select list of modifications:
- Improved the AC circuit solver to use direct solver, which is faster and more resilient for linear simulations. Included an option to revert to iterative solver.
- Added on-screen display for schematic hotkeys.
- Added support for high DPI displays. If necessary, the removed cleanlooks and plastique themes are available via command line option.
- Improved load time of circuit superposition results.
- Updated CAD import to support PTC Creo 9 files.
- Added project-specific settings for External Queue Integration (EQI).
- Enabled copying and pasting of graph regions between graphs.
- Added an option to maintain color when replacing materials.
- Changed the default 3-D mesh setting to 3D-off in order to allow setting of bounds prior to display.
- Updated the circuit element optimizer (CEO) simulation summary tab to use correct preference units.
- Improved the CEO goal window to remember location.
- Fixed the layout of CEO's tuner tables.
- Added preference to not display band text in XY graphs.
- Improved script editor with user-defined font size and color.
- Changed the axial ratio to use linear units.
- Reintroduced the data-saving option for far zone post-processing in order to reduce data and runtime.
- Included a bitrate specification when exporting movies of fields.
- Added the port name to the miscellaneous information of additional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) results.
- Changed user-defined antenna (UAN) file export availability to gain results only.
- Removed FDTD engine output text wrapping from the simulation output tab.
- Changed S-parameter notation in order for the schematic to match the project results.
- Improved the schematic analysis workbench to copy the original line style to the tuned components plot.
- Improved the dispersive material calculator, libraries name column, and PCB import window to remember size.
- Changed mesh operations to be invalidated rather than removed when a constitute part is deleted.
- Updated licensing usage on Windows to report only physical MAC IDs.
- Improved consistency of y-axis and graph titles between FDTD and schematic results.
- Corrected the text tooltip for the scripting window's execution tools.
- Improved repositioning of open workspace windows on screen for increased visibility.
- Added right-click menu option to assign a circuit component definition.
- Improved the system sensor's result table for dissipated power per-material to not display materials not found in the mesh.
- Fixed a bug where running a simulation with a TFSF planewave excitation using XStream introduced an incorrect time delay—either positive or negative—to the excitation. This caused time domain results to shift in time, and frequency domain results to shift in phase. The issue occurred only when the planewave propagation direction was not perpendicular to the x-axis.
- Fixed a bug causing xfsolver to either crash or produce incorrect results when more than 201 electric materials were defined.
- Fixed launching RDQS.
- Fixed the naming convention for XF block results in the schematic.
- Fixed the terminal renderings when tightly zoomed.
- Fixed dielectric volume averaging in waveguides at the simulation space boundary.
- Fixed ineffective loft smoothness sliders.
- Fixed shear notation.
- Improved dielectric volume averaging and XACT part intersection representation.
- Fixed the loft between parts with different parent assembly orientations.
- Improved superposition simulations for use with Huygens sensors.
- Fixed Huygens export when using waveguides.
- Removed component rendering when mesh rendering is set as 3D-Off.
- Prevents simulation creation when more materials are in use than are supported by XFsolver.
- Fixed center of face selection in a circular pattern.
- Fixed an issue involving a material not present in the mesh being written to the XFsolver input files, potentially causing the number of materials to exceed the upper limit.
- A schematic’s disabled operating modes are not given as options when creating a circuit simulation. Additionally, all of a schematic's required operating modes must be enabled when pushing that schematic to a circuit post-processing simulation.
- Fixed a bug causing either an expression or a parameter dependent on another parameter with a value of NaN, inf, or -inf to produce an unexpected result.
- [Scripting API] Added API to get schematic's result selection.
- [Scripting API] Fixed exportRotatedGainAndPhaseToUANFile for superposition results.
- [Scripting API] Added missing scripting documentation in ResultQuery