Integrated Engineering Software, a developer of hybrid simulation tools for electromagnetic, thermal and structural design analysis, has launched an enhanced version of its Coulomb 3D electric field solver software. Coulomb's calculations include electric field strength, transmission line parameters and capacitance. It is suitable for applications such as high voltage shielding, transformers, insulators and bushings, transmission lines and lightning arresters.
Coulomb has always offered a successful integration of an effective calculating method with accuracy and an engineer-oriented approach. Powerful parametric solvers allow designers to automatically vary and experiment with geometry, materials and sources – reducing the tedious, repetitive task of fine–tuning multiple design parameters. Version 7.0 of the software includes features such as self adaptive 3D Finite Element Method and a better use of memory. The self-adaptive 3D FEM feature has been significantly enhanced, it is now quicker to converge with less iterations. The only practical limitation for this feature is the amount of RAM available on the workstation. The program can now solve larger FEM problems up to 10 times faster than previously.
Other new features include the commands for 'geometry define surfaces on plane' and 'define planar surface.' These commands will help the user to define surfaces on a plane during geometry construction. There is also a new 'scale periodic length for the periodic model when the 'parametric geometry scale' is used, giving the user the option to scale the periodic length along with the parametric geometry. A new variable 'L' (which stands for 'length') has been added to the command line parser. This will allow users to type 'L' to substitute the length for the segment as an input for the next command prompt. The rotate, copy and repeat functions have been sped up in 3D by approximately four times, reducing the amount of time the designer needs to spend in the modelling process. There is also new support available to enable or disable visibility for FEM bounding box, making the BEM 3D bounding box transparent. In addition, new hot keys will mean the user need not get out of a command in order to change the work plane depth.
