Analyst Features

Analyst is an analysis product for designing microwave and accelerator components. Our goal in developing Analyst has been to create a design analysis tool that sets a new standard in automation and ease-of-use. Our mission in this development is to create a tool so highly optimized for design that it is a joy to use, and one that replaces the drudgery of a design exercise with the thrill of discovery and insight. Optimal design is extremely challenging - our aim is not to trivialize it, but rather to free the design engineer to focus on the creative aspects of the problem rather than on the mechanical use of an analysis tool.

Our staff, and collaborators that are contributing to Analyst development, are a diverse and talented team of scientists and engineers that collectively have many years experience in all aspects of design analysis software, from its creation, sales and support to its use on mission critical design activities. We excel at turning customer feedback and priorities into product improvements, and with a relatively short release cycle we look forward to rapidly advancing the utility and capabilities of the tool.

The Analyst user interface and solvers run on Microsoft Windows operating systems (2000, XP, and Vista). Selected solvers will also run on Linux machines/clusters. The following is a listing and discussion of the basic features of the Analyst. Hopefully the text will answer your questions regarding the functionality of the product. If not, we will be happy to answer your questions directly (e-mail us at info@staarinc.com, or phone (262) 240-0291 x102).

• Native parametric ACIS®-based geometry via ObjectCAD.
  • Parameterized solid primitives, including boxes, cylinder, and spheres.
  • Parameterized sketches for extrusions, revolutions, and sweeps.
  • Parameterized scripted solids (solids that are defined by Python scripts).
  • Geometric operations including translation, scaling, and solid booleans.
  • Import of geometry in a variety of formats, including ACIS and IGES.
  • Geometry "healing", which cleans up minor geometric defects that are sometimes introduced in translation or come from imprecise CAD modelers.
  • Support for various combinations of local and remote lighting.
  • Face blanking and face coloring.
  • Cut & paste images into MS Word and MS PowerPoint.
    
    
• Automated triangle and tetrahedral meshing via ObjectMesh.
  • Global element size and curvature-based scaling (CVS) targets.
  • Local element sizes and CVs for edges, faces, and volumes (overrides global values).
  • Advanced 3-D mesh visualization, including solid and wireframe views, coloring/blanking by boundary condition and material, and translucency.
  • Cut & paste images into MS Word and MS PowerPoint.
    
    
• 3-D driven frequency analysis (using RF3P server):
  • Runs in single processor, multiprocessor, or Linux cluster configurations.
  • Automatic port mode extraction.
  • S-matrix calculation for multiple ports.
  • Multiple modes per port are supported.
  • Ports-only analysis option.
  • Adaptive mesh-refinement.
  • User-selectable element interpolation level.
  • Dielectric, permeable, and lossy materials.
  • Perfect electric conductor (PEC), perfect magnetic conductor (PMC), and impedance boundary conditions.
  • Direct and efficient iterative solvers.