Introduction

You can now complete the entire cable modeling workflow within a single HFSS design. Cables are defined as 3D components. Required 2D Extractor and Circuit simulations are set up and run automatically in the background as part of the HFSS solution process. No manual setup, linking, or transfer of data is required on the analyst's part.

The 3D component definitions include conductor size, insulation thickness, arrangement of straight and twisted pair conductors, number of twists per unit length (for twisted pairs), materials, optional total angle of twist of the cable along its length, jacket type (braided shield, insulation, or none), and termination impedances and sources. The bundle of conductors is associated with a polyline in the Modeler window, and cylindrical geometry is automatically created to represent the wire harness. The diameter of the harness and arrangement of conductors is automatically determined by the program based on the number, size, and type of conductors.

Whether conductors are straight or in twisted pairs, a straight wire definition is required. For a twisted pair, the straight wire definition dictates the wire name, materials, conductor diameter, and insulation thickness. The twisted pair definition references the straight wire name and adds the twisted pair name, and number of twists per unit length or lay length (that is, the distance for a complete 360-degree twist). A harness can include multiple straight and twisted pairs of varying sizes and materials.

The model in this guide is a straight cable, 100 millimeters in length, consisting of a single twisted pair of copper conductors with PVC insulation, a PVC jacket, and no shield. The following image is a view of the completed model with the E-Fields overlaid on a small air object closely encompassing the cable. A larger air object, where a radiation boundary is assigned, is shown as a wireframe:

In this getting started guide, you will complete the following steps:

• Set options
• Start a new project and insert an HFSS design
• Enable legacy view orientations
• Draw a line to represent the path of the cable
• Draw an air object and assign a radiation boundary
• Create a 3D component to represent the cable
• Create the cable harness
• Draw a second air object (for plotting near fields)
• Adjust the initial mesh settings
• Assign a mesh operation to the smaller air object
• Add a solution setup and frequency sweep
• Solve the design
• Create an emission test report
• Create a polar plot of the radiation pattern
• Overlay E-field results near the cable
• Optionally, restore current view orientations