A year and some ago, a (non-ham) partner and I in a computer graphics
visualization class wrote some code to visualize the RF patterns of antennas
modelled in NEC2. Our goals were to create something where the user could:
* Render the pattern in 3D.
* Allow the user to fly around the antenna and view the pattern from any
angle.
* Present multiple techniques for visualizing the data.
* Visualize things like antenna nulls, polarization sense, polarization
tilt, wire current magnitude, etc., that NEC2 outputs.
* Allow the user to change simple things like wire geometry and add
simple box-like "solid" objects to the scene.
* Consider multiple antennas.
* Be semi-interactive by having a single button click to recompute the NEC2
results after changes are made.
We got this to work well enough to look at a couple of yagis and a
quad, but rest assured that there are a LOT of problems with the code and
enormous opportunity for its improvement. It has only ever run on an SGI
O2 running IRIX 6.5. In principle, it should be possible to port it to any
UNIX with X, Tcl/Tk, and OpenGL, and possibly even to Macintosh, BeOS, or
maybe even Windows. I do not anticipate a port to PalmOS being possible.
After some discussion and lots of procrastination, Adrian and I have
decided that neither of us have the time or inclination to develop this
much further ourselves, so we are releasing it as source code under the
terms of the GNU General Public License. I will readily welcome anyone's
contributions to the source code and/or documentation.
The thumbnails on the web site don't look super - click on them to
get The Big Picture. If anyone can get this to work, please email me
and let me know.
http://n5xu.ae.utexas.edu/antennavis/
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Kenneth E. Harker "Vox Clamantis in Deserto" kharker@cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin Amateur Radio Callsign: KM5FA
Department of the Computer Sciences President, UT Amateur Radio Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124 Maintainer of the Linux Laptop Home Page
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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