Free version of Mefisto-3D electromagnetic simulator

[fekete]

The Nova version of the TLM based electromagnetic field simulator is available for free.
The memory limit is 16MB, and the Spice and Matlab linking are not included.

**broken link removed**

Also there – while Mefisto is a low-cost program, it has an even lower cost academic version with 64MB memory limitation.



Also, also there – free version of EM3DS a planar MOM solver with advanced features

**broken link removed**

 

[svarun]

This is real good news. I hope more companies come forward to giver out such programs.

 

[maxwellian]

I see that EM3DS is now available from AdvancedEM, and from Coventor Software. Who else sells it? Who supports it? It is apparently still a product of MEMs Research (Dr. Farina in Italy) since the software is still available on their web site, so I assume that these guys are just reselling it. So who really does the technical support for it?

fekete, I assume you work for AdvancedEM. Do you resell EM3DS now? What about Coventor?

 

[fekete]

Yes, EM3DS is from MEMResearch and represented in the US by Convertor and AdvancedEM and maybe others.
And no, I don’t work for AdvancedEM, but I am using software from them, and they do the support. We bought a 3D simulator (MEFiSTo) and a planar simulator (EM3DS) at a total price way below that of one single HFSS or CST license and we are very happy with them. That’s why I recommend them and there should be more people doing that – they have some very good products at low prices but everybody seems to talk only of HFSS and CST (do they work there, by the way?)

 

[bhgaurav]

he he well this is some good news

 

[edf]

I tried the Mefisto-3D demo and found it laborious and confusing with antenna outputs.

 

[fekete]

A few points:

Every tool is as good as the person using it. I saw numerous post here of people not been able to properly use even very user-friendly (and expensive) tools, for simple applications. If you don’t know well your field you will be in trouble sooner or latter. Computers and software cannot replace expertise and deep understanding. Some people expect to press a button and the software to guess what they need. An engineer is supposed to have deeper knowledge and then teach a technician to press the right button for the simple and repetitive cases.

Every tool has it’s own way of treating problems, you have to get used to that; there is a learning period when the user has to suffer. For me it was three days with MEFiSTo, but I already knew well a bunch of other EM simulators.

MEFiSTo does not have the latest and greatest user interface – that’s why it is much less expensive then other 3D simulators (not to mention that the demo is free). There is always a trade-off.

Not everybody works in universities (where they get software cheap) or can afford expensive software. This forum is for everybody. Some of us are willing to work harder in order to spare $30K from the price difference.

I don’t want to reopen an old discussion:

 

[edf]

The (Mefisto-3D) demo did not have a tutorial to explain modeling antennas. It did have a sample that had antenna plots in it. But that didn't do much good. A brochure with real measurements vs calculated results would be nice.

 

[fekete]

As I said, there are trade-offs. There isn’t a tutorial on antennas, but they explain in the user manual how to get the radiation pattern. I noticed from the beginning that the tutorial and user manual are old, and I was told by AdvancedEM that they are preparing new editions.

A brochure with real measurements vs calculated results would be nice.

I don’t think that most EM programs have a brochure like that. Examples yes, but you can see one with MEFiSTo too, on the AdvancedEM page, and it is exactly on antennas.