9/29/20

This is the manual for

atlc2

Arbitrary Transmission Line Calculator

Current version:  1.04  9/29/20

 

This program was inspired by the atlc program written by Dr. David Kirkby, G8WRB.

 

You submit a drawing showing the cross-section of a transmission line with any geometry.  From that, the program will use numerical methods to find Z0 and the other transmission line parameters.  Atlc2 is entirely free.

 

Download atlc2 for Win32 now      (2.61M bytes)

Download atlc2 for Win64 now      (4.36M bytes)

 

(The Win32 version will run on a 64-bit Windows system.  The only advantage of the Win64 version is it allows more than 13500 equations.)

 

 

Differences between atlc and atlc2

 

1.    Atlc2 applies Faraday’s Law to determine the current distribution inside the conductors.  From that it calculates the inductance and skin effect resistance.  Atlc used only the laws of electrostatics.

2.    Atlc2 is well thought out for unshielded lines, solving them rapidly and accurately.  (Surrounding them with a ground shield just slows down the program.)

3.    The size of the simulation is not related to the size of the drawing.  The E field simulation is always 3200 x 3200 pixels.

4.    If there is a third conductor, it can either be pinned to ground potential or it can float to an unforced voltage level.

5.    Atlc2 is a Windows program.  Atlc was a Unix program, not especially user friendly.

6.    Atlc2 can internally generate some simple geometries.  In such cases no drawing file is necessary.

 

Atlc2 will accept drawing files created for atlc.

 

 

General description

Atlc2 computes Z0, vf, L, C, Rs, Gp, and VO for any geometry.  (VO is the offset voltage necessary for no radiation.)

 

There are formulas for Z0 for simple geometries, but they are not always accurate.  If the geometry is extreme or complicated, has regions with dielectrics, or if the skin-effect resistance is wanted, then a program like this one is your best hope.

 

If used properly, atlc2 results are accurate to 1% or better.  But it is not fast.  It is compute intensive.  Some speedups are employed that work well for some geometries, but not others.  It can be hard to predict whether a run will take seconds or hours.  Run atlc2 on your fastest computer.

 

Microsoft Paint is a good program for creating the drawing, but any such bitmap editor will work.  There must be no de-aliasing, so Photoshop is out and JPEG files will not work.  BMP format is assumed but TIFF and PNG files will also work.

 

Normally red, green, blue, and cyan are conductors and all other colors are insulators.  The line conductors can be any 2 of the 3 primary colors, but if all 3 appear then green is assumed to be ground.

 

But other color schemes are allowed.  Color definitions can be changed at the keyboard or they can be loaded from a file.  Most commonly red is +1 volt (actually +sin ωt), blue is –1, green is 0, and cyan is varying (floating).

 

Unlike atlc, atlc2 requires a frequency, a definite size, and a conductor resistivity.  But you can specify anything if they have little effect on the results.  Full red, green, and blue (x0000FF, x00FF00, and xFF0000) are now copper.  But slight off-shades are defined for other common metals.  Atlc2 has 45 predefined colors for the common materials.

 

 

Installing atlc2

 

Atlc2 is a Windows program.  It will run on Window 2000 and newer.  The 64-bit version is required if you need more than 13,500 equations (unlikely).

 

Tryouts:  atlc2 can be executed directly upon download.  It does not have to be saved to disk.

 

There is no formal installation procedure.  It is a single .exe file and does not require any other files.  It is not a registering program and does not show up in the Windows list of installed programs.

 

You probably should create a new folder and put atlc2.exe in that folder.  We shall call it the “execution folder”.  It can have any name but should not be read-only.  Atlc2 will record the results of any run that takes longer than 1 minute.  Those results go into a file called altc2 log.txt in the execution folder.

 

Drawing files and any files produced by atlc2 can reside in any folder, but the open and save dialogs will always start at the execution folder.  So it is most convenient to keep your atlc2 files there.

 

You may want to create a file that declares colors as conductors or insulators, and assigns physical characteristics to them.  This file must be called MoreColors.txt and it must be in the execution folder.

 

 

Usermap:  Preparing the drawing

 

(De-aliasing is a blurring of edges that makes them less jagged.  But it creates unintended colors that atlc2 will not recognize.  So you must use an editor that avoids that.)

 

Commonly red and green are used for fully shielded lines, such as coaxial cable.  Otherwise use red and blue.  When red and blue are both present, they are adjusted by adding VO to both, maintaining the 2–Volt difference.  (The program searches for a VO that produces no radiation.)  Green is always kept at exactly 0 volts.

 

The drawing can be in any folder and have any name.  But finding the file is easier if you put it in the execution folder and give it the name Usermap YYY ppp.bmp, where “ YYY” is a phrase describing the drawing.  YYY can be a mix of upper and lower case and can contain spaces, but “Usermap” should be as shown.  (The open dialog will initially filter out other files.)  “ ppp” is optional.  If it is a string enclosed in parentheses, the string will be moved to the pixel width edit box.

      Example:  Usermap Example 1   (.1mm).bmp

 

When the checkbox “Restrict to skin depth” is checked, the program automatically blackens out conductor pixels more than 3δ from the surface, where δ is the predicted skin effect depth.  (So setting the frequency too low makes the program run longer.)  (Using this feature causes a decrease in accuracy of less than 1%.)

 

The pixels at the edge of the Usermap are special.  They are replicated outward until the map is 3200 x 3200.  (The four corner pixels are doubly special.  They are replicated in two dimensions.)

 

Floating wires cannot carry a net current, but they can carry local currents (eddy currents).  That is, there will be return currents in other floating pixels (so that they sum to zero).

 

All +1 pixels (usually red) are electrically connected to a voltage source.  Thus they are connected to each other.  The same is true for -1 wires (usually blue) and ground wires (usually green).  But floating wires are connected to each other only if they are exactly the same color.  So eddy currents will not link floating wires of different color.

 

A grounded third wire (usually green) can carry a net current.  But if it does then the stated impedance is not a true characteristic impedance.  If the ground current is more than a few % then the impedance the program reports should be disregarded.

 

The standard (internally defined) colors are:

 

           Red       Green   Blue                           use          resistivity   permittivity   tanδ   permeability   name

███   255   0     0     x0000FF   +1      1.7241    1              1   copper

███   0     255   0     x00FF00   0       1.7241    1              1   copper

███   0     0     255   xFF0000   -1      1.7241    1              1   copper

███   0     255   255   xFFFF00   float   1.7241    1              1   copper

███   224   31    31    x1F1FE0   +1      2.62      1              1   aluminum

███   31    224   31    x1FE01F   0       2.62      1              1   aluminum

███   31    31    224   xE01F1F   -1      2.62      1              1   aluminum

███   31    224   224   xE0E01F   float   2.62      1              1   aluminum

███   224   31    0     x001FE0   +1      1.62      1              1   silver

███   31    224   0     x00E01F   0       1.62      1              1   silver

███   31    0     224   xE0001F   -1      1.62      1              1   silver

███   31    255   224   xE0FF1F   float   1.62      1              1   silver

███   224   0     31    x1F00E0   +1      2.44      1              1   gold

███   0     224   31    x1FE000   0       2.44      1              1   gold

███   0     31    224   xE01F00   -1      2.44      1              1   gold

███   0     224   224   xE0E000   float   2.44      1              1   gold

███   224   63    63    x3F3FE0   +1      9.71      1              1 * steel

███   63    224   63    x3FE03F   0       9.71      1              1 * steel

███   63    63    224   xE03F3F   -1      9.71      1              1 * steel

███   63    224   224   xE0E03F   float   9.71      1              1 * steel

███   224   0     63    x3F00E0   +1      11.4      1              1   tin

███   0     224   63    x3FE000   0       11.4      1              1   tin

███   0     63    224   xE03F00   -1      11.4      1              1   tin

███   0     255   224   xE0FF00   float   11.4      1              1   tin

███   24    63    0     x003FE0   +1      14.5      1              1   60/40 PbSn solder

███   63    224   0     x00E03F   0       14.5      1              1   60/40 PbSn solder

███   63    0     224   xE0003F   -1      14.5      1              1   60/40 PbSn solder

███   63    255   224   xE0FF3F   float   14.5      1              1   60/40 PbSn solder

                                                          tanδ

███   0     0     0     x000000   insul   1000000   1      0       1   vacuum

███   255   255   255   xFFFFFF   insul   1000000   1      0       1   vacuum

███   255   202   202   xCACAFF   insul   1000000   1.0006 0       1   air

███   130   53    239   xEF3582   insul   1000000   2.07   0.00020 1   teflon

███   255   0     255   xFF00FF   insul   1000000   2.26   0.00064 1   polyethylene

███   255   255   0     x00FFFF   insul   1000000   2.5    0.00033 1   polystyrene

███   239   204   26    x1ACCEF   insul   1000000   4.5    0.011   1   polyvinylchloride

███   188   127   96    x607FBC   insul   1000000   3.3350 0.03    1   epoxy resin

███   26    239   179   xB3EF1A   insul   1000000   4.8    0.018   1   fiberglass/epoxy PCB

███   223   247   136   x88F7DF   insul   1000000   3.7    0.018   1   FR4 PCB

███   142   142   142   x8E8E8E   insul   1000000   2.2    0.00090 1   duroid 5880

███   105   105   105   x696969   insul   1000000   6.15   0.00270 1   duroid 6006

███   220   220   220   xDCDCDC   insul   1000000   10.2   0.00230 1   duroid 6010

███   213   160   77    x4DA0D5   insul   1000000   100    0       1   Er=100

███   100   200   255   xFFC864   insul   1000000   75     0.157   1   distilled water

███   176   224   200   xC8E0B0   insul   1000000   3.78   0.00006 1   quartz

███   153   255   153   x99FF99   insul   1000000   5.0    0.00540 1   glass (varies a lot)

 

* Atlc2 cannot presently handle ferromagnetic materials.

 

The tanδ values above are rough typical values.  The program assumes tanδ is constant.  But for most materials, tanδ varies slightly with frequency and manufacturer.  (Tanδ specifies the dielectric loss.  It is used only for the calculation of Gp.)

 

 

Best practices

 

The Usermap can have any dimensions.  A larger Usermap (a map with more pixels per conductor) will run slower, but a smaller map will not represent fields or curved surfaces as well.  The gap between conductors must never be less than 2 pixels, and accurate results usually require a gap of at least 5 pixels.

 

There is no need or benefit to having empty space around the transmission line.  (This is true for shielded and unshielded lines.)  The Usermap can be the smallest map that describes the line.

 

Usually the overriding goal is a Usermap with 1000 to 3000 conductor pixels, which will solve for L and Rs in a couple minutes.  Execution time rises dramatically with the conductor pixel total (roughly the cube of the equation total).  Solving for L and Rs takes:

200 conductor pixels -         1 second                                on a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4

400 conductor pixels -         4 seconds                              on a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4

800 conductor pixels -         1.4 minutes                           on a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4

1600 conductor pixels -       13.0 minutes                         on a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4

3200 conductor pixels -       100.6 minutes                      on a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4

3200 conductor pixels -       7.0 minutes                           on a 3.33 GHz Xeon, 1 thread

3200 conductor pixels -       1.2 minutes                           on a 3.33 GHz dual Xeon, 12 threads

6400 conductor pixels -       9.0 minutes                           on a 3.33 GHz dual Xeon, 12 threads

12800 conductor pixels -     90.0 minutes                         on a 3.33 GHz dual Xeon, 12 threads

25600 conductor pixels -     14 hours                                on a 3.33 GHz dual Xeon, 12 threads   (64-bit version)

So it is best to let the “pixels per inch” be determined by whatever scale gets a reasonable execution time.  Execution times to solve for C and Gp are more variable, but runs can be ended early if convergence is seen.

 

C and Gp finds the capacitance (and Gp) by summing the energy in the field, so some capacitance is missed if a considerable field extends beyond the 3200 x 3200 area.  Thus while Usermaps as large as 3200 x 3200 are allowed, C and Gp becomes inaccurate if the conductors are not confined to the central 1600 x 1600 region.  Ground planes and fully shielded lines are exceptions to that.

 

Getting an accurate Rs

Rs will be accurate to ±1% when the skin depth is at least 30 times the pixel width.  In other cases, atlc2 estimates the A.C. resistance of each pixel.  In these cases, Rs is generally accurate to ±5%.  But this is true only if the conductors are not too close.  The following diagram shows the minimum spacing if you want Rs accurate to 5%.  A corner pixel must be at least 16 pixels from another corner pixel of different voltage, or 8 pixels from a flat or curved surface of different voltage.

 

 

If you violate this, atlc2 will report the Rs value using a red font as a warning.  To work around that, you will need to make a larger model (with more conductor pixels) and then hollow it out to reduce the pixel count.

 

Atlc2 might be the only program anywhere that can predict Rs within 5% for any wires with any cross-sections.

 

 

Running atlc2

 

Atlc2 begins by showing one of its internally generated examples.  The normal procedure is to click File>Open and select the BMP file that you have prepared.  You must provide a “Pixel width” when using an external bit map.  Then click Solve>Solve fully.  Or File>New will select a different internal example.

 

Wherever atlc2 asks for a numerical value, the entered value can be an integer or floating point number.  The numerical value can be followed by a power-of-ten suffix in “e” form.  For example, 13e-3 would be 13 thousandths of an inch.  Additional suffixes are allowed:

in               (inches)

m               (meters)

cm             (centimeters)

mm            (millimeters)

AWG         (American wire gauge)

Inches are assumed if there is no suffix.

 

Some keyboard command keys are available:

U                     Show without E or V field

V                     Show the V field intensity

E                     Show the E field intensity

D                     Show the D field intensity  (where D is εE)

T                      Show the loss distribution  (where loss is εEtanδ)

L                      Show the V field as a lines plot.  (These lines are often perfect circles.)

N                     Show the E field as a lines plot  (lines of force direction)

B                     Show both the E and V field lines

J                      Show J-field, not the Usermap  (The Usermap substitutes when the J-field is not yet found.)

H                     Show all fields high intensity (employs a square root function)

S                     Stop solving                            

+ or =              Zoom in                                                           

-                       Zoom out

] or PgUp       Rescale larger

[ or PgDn       Rescale smaller

> or Insert      denser lines

< or Delete    sparser lines

Enter              redraw plot

&J                   Write the entire current map to a text file

&V                   Write the entire voltage map to a text file

                                 (The &L, &T, &K, and &G commands are undocumented.  They are not of general interest.)

 

Color definitions can be modified using the keyboard.  If the “Show all standard colors” box is checked, the changes are to the internal color table and persist until the program terminates.  Otherwise the changes persist only until the Usermap is changed.

 

 

MoreColors.txt

 

This file does not have to exist.  Any text editor can be used to create it.

 

A sample MoreColors.txt file:

|red:  green:   blue:   use:    Ohms:    Er:     tanDelta:  Mu:  name:

250     20       20      +1       7.3     1       0          1    Cadmium

30      255      30      0        20.6    1       0          1    Lead

180     180      120     insul    0       6.0     0.0007     1    Mica

30      30       30      insul    0       3.5     0.0040     1    Hard rubber

100     140      170     insul    0       4       0.0030     1    Silicone

 

Each line in the file declares and defines one color.  All parameters must appear in order.  The parameters are:

1.    Red value.     (0 to 255)

2.    Green value. (0 to 255)

3.    Blue value.    (0 to 255)

4.    Function.  (must be +1, –1, 0, float, or insul)

5.    Resistivity in Ohm-Centimeters.  (ignored for insulators)

6.    Relative permittivity (ignored for conductors)

7.    Loss tangent tanδ.  (dielectric loss, ignored for conductors)

8.    Relative permeability.  (for future use)

9.    Material name.  (Everything remaining on the line is part of this comment.  It may contain blanks.)

 

If a color duplicates an existing color, the new definition prevails.  Atlc2 loads MoreColors.txt only once, when it begins.  Then the user can use the keyboard to further redefine colors.  The program will hold up to 500 colors, but only 256 can appear in a Usermap.

 

All parameters in this file are delimited by blanks.  A tab is treated as a blank.  Consecutive blanks are treated as one blank.  A “|” character denotes a comment, and all further characters on the line are ignored.  Blank lines are allowed.

 

 

Implementation details

 

Atlc2 is written in Delphi XE10 Pascal (about 8000 lines).  It uses 64-bit floating point for all calculations.  The source code will be made public in the future.

 

Atlc2 uses multiple threads (cores) during E field prediction and relaxation (C and Gp), and equation solving (L and Rs).  It assumes all of the computer’s processors are idle.  The program can manage up to 64 threads.  One "master" thread parcels out work for the others, which sit in infinite loops when they have nothing to do.  So the Task Manager graphs do not necessarily show actual work being done.  Any interruption that slows down any thread slows down them all.  You should reduce the atlc2 thread count if your system does a lot of other concurrent work.  On the author's dual-Xeon workstation, running 12 threads is about 6 times as fast as a single thread with the other 11 cores idle.

 

 

L and Rs

This part of the program works by solving equations, one equation per conductor pixel.  The equations force the total net current to equal zero.  But there are transmission lines in which this is not true.  Some geometries (including coaxial cable) encourage an unbalanced current, which produces an excess charge that is balanced by a virtual charge infinitely far away.  Such lines will radiate radio waves at all frequencies if nothing is done about this.  Grounding the offending conductor might be sufficient to fix this.  A driver circuit that implements VO will certainly fix it.

 

If there is a grounded third wire (green) then “Ignd” gives the ground current compared to the red current.  Analytically this number is not very useful.  It is provided as a convenience.  If Ignd is below 4% then it might be safely ignored.  Otherwise maybe your whole approach should be reconsidered.

 

Infinite plane extensions are ignored during L and Rs.  Only the conductor pixels in the Usermap contribute toward the solution.

 

The math used in L and Rs is described at LandRs.html.  Atlc2 correctly models eddy current loss and low frequency dispersion.

 

                                          Low frequency dispersion

           

Low frequency dispersion occurs because L changes with frequency but C does not.

 

C and Gp

A frequency and pixel size are not required when solving for C and Gp.  The method used is the same as in atlc.  So C is a D.C. surface capacitance.  The A.C. capacitance is generally the same at all frequencies.

 

C and Gp can be thought of as a soap-film-stretching program.  Imagine high structures (high voltage) and low structures (low voltage) with a fabric or soapy film stretched between them.  The white V-lines (often circles) are elevation lines, like those on a topographical map.

 

The method is a “relaxation algorithm” that continuously sets the voltage at each pixel to the average of its four closest neighbors.  This will eventually stabilize and will be a perfect solution to Gauss’s Law.  How long it takes depends on how the program initializes the array.  The better the program can predict the final field, the quicker the relaxation algorithm will finish.  Prediction uses the formula   after distributing the surface charge.

 

Surface charge distribution is by successive approximations.  The E field at each surface pixel is found by summing the contributions from the charges at all the pixels.  The field component normal to the surface predicts a new value for the charge at that pixel.  About 20 iterations seems to work well. 

 

Presently the prediction cannot guess the effects of dielectrics.  So examples with dielectrics take longer for an accurate result.  Most other examples finish quickly.  Another slow example is any transmission line with a net charge.  This will be the case if you use green instead of blue for unshielded lines.  Such lines will radiate, and the reported Z0 is not a true characteristic impedance.  Almost certainly you are making a mistake.  If you want to design an antenna, you need a very different kind of program.

 

For unshielded lines, the Usermap is extended outward by adding pixels.  These pixels are of two different sizes.  Usually the Usermap is extended outward by 100 pixels that are the same size as the Usermap pixels.  Then the map is further extended using pixels that are 8 times larger (256 times larger in area), until the size of the map is equivalent to 3200 x 3200 of the Usermap pixels.  Note that if you surround the conductors with a lot of empty space (rather than use a smaller Usermap) then more of the smaller pixels are employed, slowing down the run with probably no improvement in the accuracy.  (The region with smaller pixels is never smaller than the Usermap.)

 

L and Rs versus C and Gp

Atlc2 is essentially two programs bundled together.  They do roughly the same thing by two different methods.  Sometimes you need to run both, but for other cases, one is sufficient.  L and Rs tends to be more accurate, but its execution time rises with the cube of the conductor pixel total, which can be prohibitive.  L and Rs cannot handle multiple dielectrics.  C and Gp loses accuracy when the conductors are close together.  (Close conductors will spike the capacitance, which a coarse grid portrays poorly, but the inductance remains well behaved.)

 

C and Gp is itself two programs bundled together:  A charge-shifting program and a relaxation program.  Either could do the whole job.  The former is usually faster, but the latter is more accurate.  So C and Gp employs both.  In cases where charge-shifting is slower, you might want to skip it, which is done by checking the box “Skip E prediction”.  Execution time for prediction rises with the cube of the model size, while relaxation is roughly the square.

 

If you must use a map too large for L and Rs, try this trick:  Run C and Gp a second time but with all permittivities set to 1, and use the L that it reports.  Z0 = sqrt(L/C)

 

 

A discussion of 3-wire transmission lines

 

Multi-wire transmission lines have multiple characteristic impedances, none of which truly correspond to that of a 2-wire transmission line.

 

Any 3-terminal linear network can be modeled as 3 impedances in either a “Y” or “delta” configuration.  We shall use a “Y” to describe a 3-wire line as seen from the end.

 

If the green wire is made to float, it will carry no current.  Upon running atlc2, let’s designate the resulting impedance ZoGCZ (green current zero).  Two more runs of atlc2 will give us ZoRCZ and ZoBCZ.  It is evident that:

 

    ZoRCZ = ZoB + ZoG       ZoGCZ = ZoR + ZoB       ZoBCZ = ZoR + ZoG

 

These can be solved for ZoR, ZoG, and ZoB:

 

    ZoR = (ZoGCZ + ZoBCZ – ZoRCZ)/2     ZoG = (ZoRCZ + ZoBCZ – ZoGCZ)/2     ZoB = (ZoRCZ + ZoGCZ – ZoBCZ)/2

________________________________________________________________________

 

A quarter-wave directional coupler is a common 3-wire transmission line:

 

If the green wire is made to float then there is no green current.  Whatever float voltage atlc2 reports will be equal to the center voltage, VC.  Thus:

 

    ZoB = ZoGCZ * (Vfloat+1) / 2      ZoR = ZoGCZ – ZoB      ZoG = ZoR      ZoODD = 2 * ZoR      ZoEVEN = ZoR / 2 + ZoB

 

So it is possible to get a complete characterization with a single run of atlc2.  In theory this works.  In practice, the results are often off by more than 5%.  The problem is that the asymmetry results in an unbalanced charge.  The resulting radiation for this partial result does not resemble the radiation of the circuit used properly.  L and Rs understates the radiation, while C and Gp overstates it.  To get accurate results, make two runs that find ZoODD and ZoEVEN directly.

 

Scripting Facility

Although I added this feature for my own use, you might find it useful.

 

If you enter ZZZ in the Name box and then select File>Run Script, atlc2 will open the file ZZZ.txt and execute the commands it finds there.  The file name ZZZ can be a mix of upper and lower case and may contain blanks.

 

When the atlc2 application begins, it looks for the file StartupScript.txt.  If found, atlc2 will execute it.

 

A sample script file:

| A sample script file

twinlead

box 1 F        | restrict to skin depth

total 4000

separation 6mm

diameter 2mm

frequency .001

sweep frequency 25 4

 

The file format rules are the same as for MoreColors.txt.  Only the first 3 characters of each command name are examined.  When the argument is a directory or file name, the case and any blanks are preserved.  Otherwise the case does not matter but there must be no blanks within an argument.  Most commands are simple string moves.  Very little error checking is performed.  A detected error will abort the script.  The "Stop" button will abort the script.  No files are kept open during solves or script execution.

 

Allowed commands:       (arg1, arg2, and arg3 are the command arguments)

twinlead         equivalent to File>New twinlead

square            equivalent to File>New square twinlead

coaxial           equivalent to File>New coaxial

pixel                moves arg1 to the "Pixel width" box.  (This has no effect unless the Usermap is from a file.)

total                 moves arg1 to the "Total conductor pixels" box.  (This has no effect unless the Usermap is internally generated.)

frequency      moves arg1 to the "Frequency" box.

separation     moves arg1 to the "Wire separation" box.

diameter         moves arg1 to the "Wire diameter" box.

insulation      moves arg1 to the "Insulation diameter" box.

top                   moves arg1 to the "Top distance" box.

bottom            moves arg1 to the “Bottom distance” box.

side                 moves arg1 to the "Side distance" box.

skew               moves arg1 to the "Vertical skew" box.

width              moves arg1 to the "Wire width" box for square twinleads.

height             moves arg1 to the "Wire height" box for square twinleads.

center             moves arg1 to the "Center conductor diameter" box for coaxial cables.

inner               moves arg1 to the "Shield inner diameter" box for coaxial cables.

outer               moves arg1 to the "Shield outer diameter" box for coaxial cables.

box                  set the checkbox designated by arg1.  Arg2 should be a T or F.  See note 5.

name              moves arg1 to the "Name" edit box.  The case and any blanks within arg1 are preserved.

folder              designates a folder.  Thereafter, all references to the execution folder will use this folder instead.

open               like File>Open.  A Usermap is loaded from arg1.bmp.  See note 1.

solve               equivalent to Solve>Solve fully.  See notes 2 and 3.

LRS                equivalent to Solve>Solve for L and Rs.  See note 2.

CGP               equivalent to Solve>Solve for C and Gp.  See note 3.

sweep            L and Rs parameter sweep.  arg1: parameter.  arg2: number of runs.  arg3: runs per decade.  See note 4.

terminate       terminate atlc2.

erase              erase the script file.

window          set the window state for this application.  Arg1 gives the window state: 0 - wsNormal, 1 - wsMinimized, 2 - wsMaximized, etc.

launch            launch arg2 as an app (using ShellExecute).  See note 1.  Arg1 gives the window state: 0 - sw_Hide, 1 - sw_ShowNormal, 3 - sw_ShowMaximized, etc.

save                write the displayed image to the file named by the “name” box.  (no prompting)

keyboard        apply each character of arg1 as a keyboard character.  (Function keys can be entered as Fn.  F8 will call another script.)

threads           use arg1 threads (cores).  Arg1 can be a + or – to increment or decrement the current setting.

beep               sound the console bell (ding).

 

Note 1            If the first character of the file name is a % then the % is replaced by the execution folder name.  Do not follow the % with a \.  (A \ will be included automatically.)

Note 2            The computed L is appended to ZZZ Inductances.txt, and Rs is appended to ZZZ Resistances.txt.  These files are cleared when the script begins.

Note 3            The computed C is appended to ZZZ Capacitances.txt, the computed Gp is appended to ZZZ Conductances.txt, and vf is appended to ZZZ VFactors.txt.  These files are cleared when the script begins.

Note 4            Arg1 can be any of these: pixel, total, frequency, separation, diameter, insulation, top, bottom, side, skew, width, height, center, inner, or outer.  Each refers to the same edit box as the same-name command above.  See note 2.

 

                        Example:  If the frequency box contained 10 then "sweep  frequency  5  2" would run L and Rs with the frequencies 10, 31.62, 100, 316.2, and 1000 MHz.

 

Note 5            Specify a number for the desired checkbox:

1           Restrict to skin depth

2           Unending run

3           Skip E prediction

4           Vo zero

10         Add top plane

11         Add bottom plane

12         Add side planes

13         Insulation vertical

14         Insulation horizontal

15         One wire

20         Add floating wire

21         Add grounded wire

30         Air dielectric

31         Show all standard colors

 

 

Windows versions before XP

Early versions of Windows would not accept blanks within file names.  When atlc2 detects these versions, it will require an underscore in place of a blank.  (I have no way to test this.  If this detection fails, the &X command will toggle it.)

 

 

Revision history

Version 1.04    L=0 bug fixed.  (L was always zero in Inductances.txt)

 

Version 1.03    Gp bug fixed.  (Gp was wrong in the 2v case.)  The program can now handle 64 threads.

 

Version 1.02    The pixel width can be specified in the file name.  The loss field is new.  The arrow keys are fixed.

 

Version 1.01    Control panel rescaling is new.

 

Version 1.00

This is the first version I am proud of.  It has no bugs, so far as I know.  If you see anything that might be a bug, please report it to me at kq6qv@aol.com .  I will fix it quickly.

 

Previous versions had problems with charge prediction that sometimes caused them to run very slowly.  This has been mostly fixed.

 

Some small changes to the program:

 

1.  A new checkbox allows E-field prediction (charge prediction) to be skipped.  This makes the run time different, but does not change the ultimate numerical result.  E-field prediction usually speeds up the program, but for some very large examples makes it slower.

 

2.  Gp calculation is new.  (atlc2 log.txt is affected.)

 

3.  If you created a MoreColors.txt file, it should be changed to include tan(delta) values.  If you do not know your dielectric's tan(delta) or don't care, specify a 0.

 

4.  I decided to change the name of "C and vf" to "C and Gp".  This is a purely cosmetic change.

 

5.  Clicking on "File>Save displayed bitmap as..." now saves the full 3200 x 3200 map, with no zooming.

 

6.  PNG and TIFF files now work again.  Saved images will have the same file format as the Usermap.

 

7.  C and Gp now employs up to 32 threads.

 

8.  Rs prediction is now accurate to 5 %.

 

9.  Rescaling is new, allowing Usermaps from files to be resized.  (It looks like zooming, but actually changes the number of Usermap pixels.)

 

10.  C and Gp predicted L and Zo by assuming vf=1.  L and Rs predicted C and Zo by assuming vf=1.  Both have been changed to make a guess about vf.  The guess averages the permittivities of all the dielectric pixels, weighing them equally.  This is often a rather poor guess, but it is usually closer than assuming vf=1.

 

11.  Scripting changes:  The entire script file is read into RAM and closed before the script is executed.  The "erase" command no longer terminates the script.  The command "restrict" has been replaced by "box 1", and "CVF" has been replaced by "CGP".  "Conductances.txt" is new.  Scripts can call other scripts (key F8).

 

12.  E-field lines is new.  The line density is adjustable.

 

 

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