CST Studio Suite

Getting Started

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Installation
Modeling
Post-Processing

Version 2020.0 - 8/16/2019

 Copyright
© 1998–2019 Dassault Systemes Deutschland GmbH
CST Studio Suite is a Dassault Systèmes product.
All rights reserved.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The

software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement
or non-disclosure agreement. The software may be used only in accordance
with the terms of those agreements.

No part of this documentation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, for any purpose other than the
purchaser’s personal use without the written permission of Dassault
Systèmes.

Trademarks
CST, the CST logo, Cable Studio, CST BOARDCHECK, CST EM STUDIO,

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CST EMC STUDIO, CST MICROWAVE STUDIO, CST PARTICLE STUDIO,
CST Studio Suite, EM Studio, EMC Studio, Microstripes, Microwave Studio,
MPHYSICS, MWS, Particle Studio, PCB Studio, PERFECT BOUNDARY
APPROXIMATION (PBA), Studio Suite, IdEM, Aurorasat, SPARK3D,
FEST3D, 3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass logo and the 3DS logo, CATIA,
SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA,
BIOVIA, NETVIBES, 3DSWYM and 3DEXCITE are commercial trademarks
or registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes, a French “société
européenne” (Versailles Commercial Register # B 322 306 440), or its
subsidiaries in the U. S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are
owned by their respective owners. Use of any Dassault Systèmes or its
subsidiaries trademarks is subject to their express written approval.

DS Offerings and services names may be trademarks or service marks of

Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries.

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2
 Table of contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction .................................................................................................................... 5
Welcome ....................................................................................................................................... 5
How to Get Started Quickly ........................................................................................................ 6
About This Manual ......................................................................................................................... 6
Document Conventions .............................................................................................................. 6
Your Feedback .......................................................................................................................... 6
Support.......................................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 2 – Installation ...................................................................................................................... 7
Installation Requirements............................................................................................................... 7
Software Requirements .............................................................................................................. 7
Hardware Requirements ............................................................................................................ 7
Licensing Options .......................................................................................................................... 7
Installation Instructions for Microsoft Windows ............................................................................... 7

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License Server............................................................................................................................... 9
License Server Installation ....................................................................................................... 10
License Server Configuration ................................................................................................... 10
Starting CST Studio Suite ............................................................................................................ 11
Node Locked License .............................................................................................................. 11
Floating License ....................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 3 – User Interface............................................................................................................... 13
License Management .................................................................................................................. 14
Automatic Software Updates ........................................................................................................ 15
Version Information...................................................................................................................... 16
Opening a Project ........................................................................................................................ 16
Creating a New Project ................................................................................................................ 17
Overview of the User Interface ..................................................................................................... 18
Ribbon ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Other User Interface Elements ................................................................................................. 20
Next Steps ................................................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 4 – Structure Modeling ....................................................................................................... 21
Create and View Some Simple Structures .................................................................................... 21
Create a First Brick .................................................................................................................. 21
An Overview of the Basic Shapes Available ............................................................................. 23
Select Shapes.......................................................................................................................... 23
Group Shapes into Components and Assign Material Properties .............................................. 24
Change the View ..................................................................................................................... 27
Apply Geometric Transformations ............................................................................................ 28

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 Combine Shapes Using Boolean Operations ............................................................................ 31
Pick Points, Edges, or Faces from within the Model .................................................................. 32
Chamfer and Blend Edges ....................................................................................................... 33
Extrude, Rotate and Loft Faces ................................................................................................ 34
Local Coordinate Systems ....................................................................................................... 39
The History List ........................................................................................................................ 41
The History Tree ...................................................................................................................... 43
Curve Creation......................................................................................................................... 44
Trace Creation ......................................................................................................................... 47
Bond Wire Creation.................................................................................................................. 49
Local Modifications .................................................................................................................. 50
Next Steps ................................................................................................................................... 52
Chapter 5 – Post-Processing ........................................................................................................... 53
Parametric Result Storage ........................................................................................................... 53
Post-Processing Templates ......................................................................................................... 54

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Framework to set up Result Templates .................................................................................... 55
Pre-Loaded Post-Processing Templates .................................................................................. 56
Example for Post-Processing Templates .................................................................................. 56
Chapter 6 – Finding Further Information........................................................................................... 62
Online Help System ..................................................................................................................... 62
Tutorials and Examples ............................................................................................................... 63
Technical Support ........................................................................................................................ 63
Macro Language Documentation ................................................................................................. 63
History of Changes ...................................................................................................................... 63
Appendix – List of Shortcut Keys ..................................................................................................... 64
General Shortcut Keys ................................................................................................................. 64
Shortcut Keys Available in 3D Modeling View .............................................................................. 64
Shortcut Keys Available in Edit Fields .......................................................................................... 65
Shortcut Keys Available in Schematic View .................................................................................. 65
Shortcut Keys Available in Assembly View ................................................................................... 66
Shortcut Keys Available in VBA Editor ......................................................................................... 67

4
 Chapter 1 – Introduction
Welcome
Welcome to CST Studio Suite®, the powerful simulation platform for all kinds of electromagnetic
field problems and related applications. The program provides a user-friendly interface to
handle multiple projects and views at the same time.

One of the outstanding features of the environment is the seamless integration of various
simulation methods and strong interoperability management. The CST Studio Suite software
package provides the following simulation options:

3D EM Technology
CST Microwave Studio: Fast and accurate 3D EM simulation
tools for high frequency problems. It offers a variety of
different solvers operating in time and frequency domains.

CST EM Studio: 3D EM simulation of static and low

frequency problems. The module features a large collection of
solvers for various applications.

CST Particle Studio: Specializes solvers for the 3D simulation

of electromagnetic fields interacting with charged

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particles. The software contains several different solvers
addressing these challenging problems.
SPARK3D: A general software tool for radio frequency (RF)
breakdown analysis. It uses powerful and accurate numeric
algorithms for predicting both corona (arcing) and multipactor
breakdown onsets, which are two of the main high power
effects that can severely damage a device.
FEST3D: An efficient software tool for the accurate analysis
of passive components based on waveguide technology.
FEST3D is the first commercial software capable to integrate
high power effects in the design process.
Cable | Circuit | Macromodels | PCB | Chip
CST Cable Studio: Tools for the analysis of SI, EMC and EMI
effects in cable systems including single wires, twisted pairs
as well as complex cable harnesses.

CST Design Studio: A design and analysis tool for system

level simulation. Its schematic view allows the connection of
different 3D projects and circuit elements. It is the entry point
for the System Assembly and Modeling (SAM) workflows
and our powerful circuit simulator.
IdEM is a tool for the generation of SPICE-ready macro-
models of electrical interconnect structures. Starting from their
input-output port responses IdEM provides accurate, proven,
passive and causal broadband computational models that can
be used in any circuit simulation environment.
CST PCB Studio: Tools for the investigation of signal and
power integrity and the simulation of EMC and EMI effects
on printed circuit boards (PCB) and for the design of 3D
chips.

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 Multi-Physics
CST MPhysics Studio: A set of tools for solving thermal as
well as mechanical stress problems. Use these solvers in
conjunction with other simulation domains to address coupled
simulation tasks.

How to Get Started Quickly

We recommend that you proceed as follows:
1. Work through this document carefully. It provides you with all the basic information
necessary to understand further documentation.
2. Each of the solver modules mentioned above comes with a dedicated manual. Once
you have determined which modules are best suited to solve your problems, continue
by reading the corresponding manual. The manuals provide valuable information to
help you use the software quickly and efficiently.
3. Browse through the online help system and familiarize yourself with its content. As an
entry point, you may follow the links on the online help system’s start page.
4. Do not hesitate to contact technical support if you encounter any problems or if any
questions remain. Since a variety of different applications exists, the documentation
may not be able to cover all special cases equally. The support team will be more than
happy to assist you in solving your simulation problems as soon as possible.

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About This Manual
This manual is primarily designed to enable a quick start to CST Studio Suite. It is not intended
to be a complete reference guide to all available features, but it will give you an overview of the
key concepts. Understanding these concepts will allow you to learn how to use the software
efficiently with the help of the online documentation.

Document Conventions
 Buttons that should be pressed within dialog boxes are always written in italics, e.g.
OK.
 Key combinations are connected with a plus (+) sign. Ctrl+S means that you should
hold down the “Ctrl” key while pressing the “S” key.
 The program’s features can be accessed through a Ribbon command bar at the top of
the main window. The commands are organized in a series of tabs within the Ribbon.
In this document, a command is printed as follows: Tab name: Group name  Button
name  Command name. This means that you should activate the proper tab first and
then press the button Command name, which belongs to the group Group name. If a
keyboard shortcut exists, brackets are used to highlight the command.
Example: View: Change View  Reset View (Space)
 The project data is accessible through the navigation tree on the left side of the
application’s main window. An item of the navigation tree is referenced in the following
way: NT: Tree folder  Sub folder  Tree item.
 Example: NT: 1D Results  Port Signals  i1

Your Feedback
We are constantly striving to improve the quality of our software documentation. If you have
any comments regarding the documentation, please send them to your support center:
3DS.com/support.

Support
Dassault Systèmes is happy to receive your feedback. If you have any questions concerning
sales, please contact your local sales office. In case you have problems using our software,
see the information provided in Chapter 6 – Finding Further Information.

6
 Chapter 2 – Installation
Installing CST Studio Suite is simple. This chapter explains everything you need to know
regarding installation. It covers the following sections:

 Installation requirements
 Licensing options
 Installation instructions for Microsoft Windows
 License Server
 Starting CST Studio Suite
Please note: This document deals with the installation on a Microsoft Windows operating
system. To install the software on Linux, please refer to the documentation shipped with the
Linux package.

Installation Requirements
Software Requirements
The software runs under Windows 7 (SP 1 or later), Windows 2008 Server R2 (SP 1 or later),

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Windows 8.1, Windows 2012 Server R2, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 and Windows
Server 2019.

Hardware Requirements
 IBM PC compatible CPU (Intel Xeon processor strongly recommended)
 OpenGL compatible graphics hardware
 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
 30 GB free disk space (60 GB recommended)

Please refer to 3DS.com/support/hardware-and-software/simulia-system-information/cst-studio-

suite/cst-studio-suite for more details.

Licensing Options
The software can be licensed either as a single PC (node locked) version or as a network
version. The single PC license allows the software to run on a single PC only. In contrast, the
network license allows the software to run on several PCs connected to a license server.

Most of the steps of the installation procedure are the same for both types of licenses. We will
therefore focus on the common procedures first and then explain the differences in setting up
the license afterwards.

Installation Instructions for Microsoft Windows

You will normally need administrator privileges in order to install the software. If you do not
have these privileges on your local computer, ask your system administrator for assistance.
Once you installed the software successfully and it is running, you should close it and log back
in as a standard user for security reasons.

Note: Some virus detection programs may interfere with the setup process and cause the
installation to fail. We therefore strongly recommend that you close all other applications
and turn off virus scanning before proceeding with the actual installation.

Before installing CST Studio Suite, please download the current installer from the download
area at 3DS.com/support/download. If you already have a recent installation DVD, you can skip
this step. However, the download area also contains some additional packages free of charge.
Please consider the license terms of each individual package.

7
 If you have downloaded, an installation package or the DVD installation does not start
automatically after you put it into you DVD drive, run the installer by double-clicking setup.exe
in the root folder of the installation package. You will see the following screen:

Depending on the current system configuration, the next step will be to install some modules
required by the CST Studio Suite software:

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If some or all of these requirements are already installed, then either some modules or even the
entire dialog box may be skipped. Please press the Install button here to proceed to the actual
software installation, which will then show the following screen:

Next, follow the instructions on the screen, and make sure that you read every screen as you
advance. We recommend using the Typical setup to ensure that you can access all examples
which might be of interest to you.

8
 Please note that the Typical setup now also includes the installation of Distributed Computing
components, which can be activated afterwards.

After pressing Next and then Install, please also confirm to install the MATLAB Runtime
package. You need it if you want to use IdEM or FEST3D:

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Once the installation is completed, the following dialog box appears:

If you have a single-PC (node locked) license, skip the next section and continue to the Starting
CST Studio Suite section.

License Server
The usage of a floating (or network) license requires a license server running on one computer
in your network that is accessible to all other computers, which will run CST Studio Suite
software. The communication between the license server and the other modules is done via
TCP/IP. If you are using a firewall, make sure that the connections can be established properly.

The individual installation of a license server is required only if you are going to use the license
server on a computer which does not have the CST Studio Suite Program Files component
installed on it. The Typical installation of the software package will always include the license

9
 server. If you already installed CST Studio Suite simulation software on the license server, skip
the installation step and continue with the configuration of the license server.

License Server Installation

Installing the license server on a particular computer is easy. Simply run the installation
program as shown on the previous pages. When you are asked about the installation type,
select License Server.

License Server Configuration

After the license server installation is completed, you need to configure the license. Access the
CST Studio Suite modules from within the CST Studio Suite 2020 folder in the Windows Start
menu. This folder contains an entry named CST License Manager. Select this entry to start the
License Server control panel:

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Now press the New License File button. As a later step, you will be prompted to browse for the
license file, which you should have received by email. Once properly selected, the new license
file will be automatically copied to the correct location. Then you need to press the Start Service
button to start the license server. The Licenses available on local server list will display a
summary of currently available licenses.

The following picture shows an example of how the dialog box should look after the license has
been set up successfully:

10
 Please note: This dialog box also allows you to obtain information about who is currently using
a particular license by pressing the Active Licenses button.

Starting CST Studio Suite

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When you start CST Studio Suite for the first time or whenever the license has expired, a dialog
box will appear:

The following steps are slightly different depending on whether you are going to use a node
locked or floating license.

Node Locked License

To install a node locked license, click the Import a CST license file option in the Specify License
dialog box as shown above. Pressing the … button will then allow you to specify the location of
the license file, which you should have received by e-mail. After pressing OK, the license file
will be automatically copied to the correct location, and CST Studio Suite should start.

Floating License
A floating license requires a license server running on one of the computers in your network.
We assume that you have already set up your license server correctly by following the
instructions in the License Server section above. If not, please install the license server now
before continuing with the next steps.

For floating licenses, select the Point to an existing CST license server system option. The
dialog box will then appear as follows:

11
 The only setting you need to specify here is the name of your license server in the Server field.
The Port field optionally allows you to specify the license server’s TCP/IP port. By default, the
port will be detected automatically, so you can normally keep the default setting. Pressing OK
will then store this setting and start CST Studio Suite.

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 Chapter 3 – User Interface
After successfully installing the software, remember to log in as standard user rather than
keeping administrator privileges for security reasons.

Start the application by selecting the CST Studio Suite entry in the Windows Start menu’s CST
Studio Suite 2020 folder. You will see the main window of the CST Studio Suite user interface:

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If no project is open, this is the default view of the application. You can activate it at any time by
selecting the File tab.

On the left pane you have direct access to typical file related options like Open, Save, and
Print. In addition to those standard controls, the following four pages are provided:

 Project: The Project page gives a brief overview of the currently active project and
offers project related operations like Archive As or quick access to the project folder in
the windows explorer. Please note: you can access this page only if a project is loaded.
 New and Recent: The New and Recent page is the central place to a start a new
project or quickly load one of the recent projects.
 Component Library: On the Component Library page you can manage and share your
reusable projects with your colleagues. For more information about the Component
Library please refer to the online help system.
 Help: From the Help page you can start the online help, access your support account
or get copyright and version information.

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 License Management
Open the License Management dialog box by choosing File: License:

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The tree view shows a list of all potentially available features along with the number of licenses
and their respective expiration date. Moving the mouse over one of the features shows a tool
tip containing more information concerning the respective feature.

Other text fields in the dialog box show the currently used License server and License server
port as well as the Host ID.

In case of a node locked license, you can also update the license file by pressing the License
button. If you are using a floating license, we recommend using the License Server control
panel as explained in the installation instructions in Chapter 2.

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 Automatic Software Updates
The automatic software update system helps you to keep your installation of CST Studio Suite
up-to-date.

Note: Some virus scanning tools can interfere with the automatic updating system. We
strongly recommend either to turn off virus scanners while installing an update or to
exclude the CST Studio Suite installation directory and its sub-directories from virus
scanning.

By default, the system is configured in such a way that it frequently checks on the internet for
new updates. You can change this by choosing File: Options  Automatic Updates:

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Here you can specify the Update mode (Update from internet, Update from local directory, No
automatic updates) and optional proxy server information. The latter may be necessary if you
need to provide authentication information when opening an internet connection.

We strongly recommend using the automatic software updates in order to stay up-to-date with
the latest improvements of the software. Please refer to the online help system for more
information about the software update system.

15
 Version Information
Sometimes the technical support team will ask you which software version you have. You can
easily find this information by selecting File: Help:

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Opening a Project
Use the File: Open command to open an existing project:

Here you can select a project file with the extension .cst.

If you want to open a project, which you have used recently, just activate File: New and Recent
and select the project from the list of recent projects.

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 Creating a New Project
Create a new project by clicking on the New Template button in the New and Recent page.
This will start the template wizard, which guides you through a series of questions in order to
specify the application area of your new project.

This ensures that the appropriate module starts automatically. In addition, all project settings
are set correctly for the particular type of device you want to analyze. These settings are also
stored as a project template for later use. Just click on this template in the list of project
templates whenever you want to create another project of the same type.

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Besides the Template Wizard you can use the buttons in the Modules and Tools group to
create a new project. The Tools buttons offer quick access to additional applications.

The button Connect to 3DExperience is available, if the 3DExperience platform is installed on

your system. In this case, you can easily open projects or import CAD geometry from
3DExperience.

Now we want to create a new project. Press the button File: New and Recent  New Template
to start the template wizard. In this document, we just introduce the common steps needed
when using this wizard for project creation. Please refer to the other CST Studio Suite
documents for more details.

17
 For this introduction, we do not rely on any specific project settings, so just select MW & RF &
OPTICAL and Antennas and press the Next button multiple times without any change. At the end
of the project definition, you can verify your choices on the summary page. On this page,
change the name of the project template, if needed:

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Finally press the Finish button to start the appropriate module. In this case, this is the high
frequency module CST Microwave Studio.

Overview of the User Interface

This section explains the controls and commands of CST Microwave Studio. Since the user
interface concept of CST EM Studio, CST Particle Studio, and CST MPhysics Studio is
identical, it should be straightforward to follow the explanations below in case you are using any
one of these modules.

After the module has started you will see the user interface of CST Microwave Studio. Now let
us have a closer look at the various user interface elements:

Navigation
Tree
Active Project Ribbon

Drawing Plane
Schematic
Context Menu
3D

Status Bar Parameter List, Messages,

Result Navigator Progress

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 Ribbon
The Ribbon command bar organizes all user interface controls in a series of tabs. It is a
replacement for the classical menus and toolbars:

Quick Access Toolbar Tab Contextual Tab Search Help

Group
All commands in a Ribbon tab are organized in groups, which are labeled. Besides tabs and
groups, the Ribbon consists of:
 A Quick Access Toolbar. This is a small customizable toolbar that displays commands,
that displays frequently used commands.
 Core tabs are the tabs, which are always visible. When switching from 3D to Schematic
the core tabs change, because each mode has its own set of individual controls.
 Contextual tabs are activated only when a particular object is selected or special view
is active.
 The File tab consists of a set of commands related to file handling. General application
options and additional help can also be found here.

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 A Search field to quickly find commands, examples or search in the help.
 A Help button to access the online help and the support account. In addition, the
Quick Start Guide can be started here if a CST Microwave Studio project or a project of
a similar type is active.
 The Minimize the Ribbon (Ctrl+F1) button can be used to hide all the Ribbon groups.
Instead, only the tab labels are permanently visible.
Use File: Options  Customize Ribbon to create your own tabs or add additional buttons or
groups to the predefined tabs.

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 A Ribbon tab can contain three different types of buttons:

Push Button Menu Button Split Button

 A Push button simply performs an action or switches a certain state.

 The Menu button offers a set of choices, but does not directly trigger an action.
 The Split button is a combination of the two other types. It shows a menu when clicking
on the lower part of the button. If the upper part is used, the default action of the
control is performed.

Other User Interface Elements

Active Project: Use the tabs at the top of the central main window to switch between the
currently loaded projects.
Navigation Tree: The navigation tree is an important part of the user interface. Here you can

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access structural elements as well as simulation results.
Context Menu: The context menus are a flexible way of accessing frequently used menu
commands for the current context. The content of this menu (which can be opened by pressing
the right mouse button) changes dynamically.
Drawing Plane: Use the drawing plane to sketch the 2D part of 3D geometry. As the mouse is
only a 2D locator, even when defining 3D structures, the coordinates are projected onto the
drawing plane in order to specify a 3D location. Since you may change the location and
orientation of the drawing plane by means of various tools, this feature makes the modeling
very powerful.
3D, Schematic and Assembly: With the tabs at the bottom of the central main window you
can switch between the 3D modeling, the Schematic and the Assembly view. Besides these
main views, you also have access to additional temporary views, e.g. results. The user
interface for the Schematic and the Assembly view is explained in the CST Studio Suite -
Circuit Simulation and SAM documentation.
Parameter List: The parameter list window displays a list of all previously defined parameters
together with their current values.
Result Navigator: The result navigator window displays a list of all previously calculated
parametric results. It allows you to browse all results available within the current result view.
Messages and Progress: The messages window displays information text (e.g. solver output)
whenever applicable. In the progress window, a progress bar is displayed for every running
simulation, even if another project is currently active.
Status Bar: The status bar provides some useful information about the current project settings.
You can click on the text for direct access to these values. In addition, you can alter how you
manipulate the view with the mouse. The different mouse modes are explained later in this
document.

Next Steps
Now that you have been introduced to some basic concepts of CST Studio Suite, the next step
in becoming familiar with the software is to carefully study the module specific manuals
depending on the product you are planning to use.

For simulations which are using CST Microwave Studio, CST EM Studio, CST Particle Studio,
CST Cable Studio, or CST MPhysics Studio we also strongly recommend working through the
following chapter: Structure Modeling.

20
 Chapter 4 – Structure Modeling
CST Microwave Studio, CST EM Studio, CST Particle Studio, and CST MPhysics Studio share
a common structure-modeling tool. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview
of the structure modeler’s many capabilities. Read this chapter carefully, as this is a fast and
easy way to learn how to use the software efficiently.

Note: Most parts of this chapter are also part of the online help Getting Started Video.

Create and View Some Simple Structures

The following section deals with the procedure of creating a simple structure. Many complex
structures are composed of very simple elements, or so called primitives. In the following, we
will draw one such primitive, a brick.

Create a First Brick

1. Use the Modeling tab and activate the Brick tool by using Modeling: Shapes  Brick .
You are able to select the first point of the brick’s base in the drawing plane (see the text
line in the upper left corner of the main window).
2. You may set a starting point by double-clicking a location on the drawing plane.
3. Now you can select the opposite corner of the brick’s base on the drawing plane by double-

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clicking on it.
4. Next, define the height of the brick by dragging the mouse. Double-click to fix the height of
the brick.
5. Finally, a dialog box will open showing the numerical values of all coordinate locations you
have entered. Click OK to store the settings and create your first primitive!

The following picture gives an overview of the three double-clicks used to define the brick:

Point 1

Point 2

Point 3

Before we continue drawing other simple shapes, let us spend some time on the different
methods of setting a point.

The simplest way to set a point is to double-click its location in the drawing plane as above.
However, in most cases the structure coordinates have to be entered with high precision. In this
case, the snap-to-grid mode should be activated. You will find the corresponding option dialog
box under View: Visibility  Working Plane  Working Plane Properties. The following dialog
box will appear:

21
 Here you may specify whether the mouse coordinates should Snap to a raster (which is the
default) or not. Furthermore, you may specify the raster Snap width in the corresponding field.
The raster Width entry influences only the size of the raster, which is drawn on the screen. The
coordinate mapping is independent of this setting.

Please note that selecting the Help button in a dialog box always opens a help page containing
more information about the dialog box and its settings.

Another way to specify a coordinate is to press the Tab key whenever a location is expected. In

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this case, a dialog box will appear in which you may numerically specify the location. The
following example shows a dialog box that appears when the first point of a shape must be
defined:

You may specify the position either in Cartesian or in Polar coordinates. The latter type is
measured from the origin of the coordinate system. The Angle is between the x-axis and the
location of the point, and the Radius is the point’s distance from the origin.

When the first point has been set, the Relative option will be available. If you check this item,
the entered coordinates are no longer absolute (measured from the origin of the coordinate
system) but relative to the last point entered. The coordinate dialog boxes always show the
current mouse location in the entry fields. However, often a point should be set to the center of
the coordinate system (0, 0). If you press Shift+Tab, the coordinate dialog box will open with
zero values in the coordinate fields.

The third way to enter accurate coordinates is by clicking estimated values using the mouse
and then correcting the values in the final dialog box. You may skip the definition of points
using the mouse at any time by pressing the Esc key. In this case, the shape dialog box will
open immediately.

Pressing the Esc key twice aborts the shape generation. Pressing the Backspace key deletes
the previously selected point. If no point has been selected, the shape generation will also be
aborted.

Please note that another mode exists for the generation of bricks. When you are asked to pick
the opposite corner of the brick’s base, you may also specify a line rather than a rectangle. In
this case, you will be asked to specify the width of the brick as a third step before specifying the

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 height. This feature is quite useful for construction tasks such as building a microstrip line
centered on a substrate.

To facilitate this, a feature exists which allows the line definition to be restricted to orthogonal
movements from the first selected point. Simply hold down the shift key and move the mouse to
define the next point.

An Overview of the Basic Shapes Available

The following picture gives a brief overview of all basic shapes that can be generated in a
similar way to the brick (as described above).

Cylinder Torus
Sphere

Rotation
Cone

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Brick
Elliptical
Extrude
Cylinder

At this stage, you should play around a bit with the shape generator to familiarize yourself with
the user interface. Use the shape creation tools, which are located in Modeling: Shapes.

Select Shapes
After a shape is defined, it is automatically cataloged in the navigation tree. You can find all
shapes in the Components folder. If you open this folder, you will find a subfolder called
component1, which contains all defined shapes. The name for each primitive is assigned in the
final shape dialog box when the shape is created. The default names start with “solid” followed
by an increasing number: solid1, solid2, etc.

You may select a shape by clicking on the corresponding item in the navigation tree. Note that
after you select a shape, it will be displayed opaquely while all others will be drawn
transparently (see the picture below). This is how the modeler visualizes shape selection. A
shape can also be selected by double-clicking on it in the main window. In this case, the
corresponding item in the navigation tree will also be selected. Holding down the Ctrl key, while
double-clicking a shape in the main view, allows you to select multiple shapes. You may also
select ranges of shapes in the navigation tree by holding down the Shift key while clicking on
the shapes’ name.

Another powerful way to select multiple shapes is the Rectangle Selection feature. Choose
View: Selection  Rectangle Selection and define a rectangular area in the main view by
clicking and dragging with the mouse. All shapes within this rectangle are selected. Take a few
seconds to familiarize yourself with the shape selection mechanism.

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 solid1

solid2

You may change the name of a shape by selecting it and choosing Modeling: Edit  Properties
 Rename (F2). You can then change the name of the shape by editing the item text in the
navigation tree.

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Group Shapes into Components and Assign Material Properties
Now that we have discussed how to select an object, we should spend some time on the
grouping of shapes into components. Each component is a subfolder of the Components folder
in the navigation tree. Each individual component folder can contain an arbitrary number of
shapes. The purpose of the component structure is to group together objects, which belong to
the same geometrical component, e.g. connectors, antennae, etc. This hierarchical grouping of
shapes allows simplified operations on entire components such as transformations (including
copying), deletions, etc.

You can change the component assignment of a shape by selecting the shape and choosing
Modeling: Edit  Rename/Change  Change Component (you find the option Change
Component also in the context menu when a shape is selected). The following dialog box will
open:

In this dialog box, you can select an existing component from the list or create a new one by
simply typing its name in the edit field. You may also select [New Component] from the list. In
the latter case, the newly created components will be automatically named as component1,
component2, etc.

The component assignment of a shape has nothing to do with its physical material properties.
In addition to its association with a particular component, each shape is assigned to a material
that also defines the color for the shape’s visualization. In other words, the material properties
(and colors) do not belong to the shapes directly, but to the corresponding material. This means
that all shapes made of a particular material are represented with the same color.

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 To change the material properties or the color of an individual shape you can assign it to
another material. This can be done by dragging the solid in the navigation tree to the target
material or vice versa:

Another method is to select the shape and choose Modeling: Materials  New/Edit  Assign
Material and Color (this option is also available in the context menu of the selected shape). The
following dialog box will open:

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In this dialog box, you may select an existing material from the list or define a new one by
selecting the item [New Material…] from the list. In the latter case, another dialog box will open:

In this dialog box, you have to specify the Material name and the Material type (e.g. perfect
electric conductor (PEC), normal dielectric (Normal), etc.). Note that the available material
types as well as the corresponding options depend on the currently used module. You can also
change the color of the material by clicking the Color button. Use the Material folder field to
arrange the materials in different sub folders. After clicking the OK button, the new material is
stored and appears in the Materials folder in the navigation tree. Selecting a particular material
in the navigation tree also highlights all shapes that belong to this material. All other shapes will
then be drawn transparently.

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 In order to simplify the definition of frequently used materials, a material database is available.
Before you use a material definition from the available database, you have to add it to the
current project by selecting Modeling: Materials  Material Library  Load from Library. This
operation will open the following dialog box displaying the contents of the database:

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You may select an existing material from the list and click the Load button to add the material
definition to the Materials folder in the navigation tree. Once the material is available in this
folder, it can be used in the current project. You can also add a material that has been defined
in the current project to the database by selecting the material in the navigation tree and then
choosing Modeling: Materials  Material Library  Add to Library.

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 Change the View
So far, we have created and viewed the shapes by using the default view. You can change the
view at any time (even during shape generation) using some simple commands as explained
below. The view will change whenever you drag the mouse while holding down the left button,
according to the selected mode. You can select the mode by choosing View: Mouse Control 
Zoom / Pan / Rotate / Dynamic Zoom / Rotate in Plane or by selecting the appropriate item
from the status bar:

Zoom Pan Rotate Dynamic Rotate

Zoom in
Plane
The mode setting affects the behavior as follows:

 Zoom: In this mode, a zoom window can be defined by dragging the mouse. After you
release the left mouse button, the zoom factor and the view location will be updated so that
the rectangle fills up the main window.
 Pan: The structure will be translated in the screen plane following the mouse cursor
movement.
 Rotate: The structure will be rotated around the two screen axes. The center of the rotation
will be the point on the structure where the mouse button was pressed, indicated by a red

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mark. If the selected location is outside the structure, the bounding box center point will be
used as rotation center.
 Dynamic Zoom: Moving the mouse upward will decrease the zoom factor while moving
the mouse downward will increase the zoom factor.
 Rotate in Plane: The structure will be rotated in the screen’s plane.

The dynamic view-adjusting mode ends when you release the left mouse button. You can reset
the zoom factor by choosing View: Change View  Reset View (Space) or from the context
menu. Press View: Change View  Reset View to Selection (Shift+Space) to zoom to the
currently selected shape rather than the entire structure.

Since changing the view is a frequently used operation that will sometimes be necessary even
during the process of interactive shape creation, some useful shortcut keys exist. Press the
appropriate keys, and drag the mouse while pressing the left button:

 Ctrl: Same as “rotate” mode

 Shift: Same as “plane rotation” mode
 Shift +Ctrl: Same as “pan” mode

A mouse wheel movement has the same effect as the Dynamic Zoom. By default, the origin for
this operation is located at the current mouse pointer location. Optionally, pressing the Ctrl key
while using the mouse wheel performs a zoom operation around the center of the screen. This
behavior can be altered by changing Zoom to mouse cursor in File: Options  Preferences 
Mouse settings.

In addition to the options described above, some specific settings are available to change the
visualization of the model.

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 Axes (View: Visibility  Axes, Ctrl+A): This view option toggles the coordinate system visibility:

Working plane (View: Visibility  Working Plane, Alt+W): With this view option you may
specify whether the drawing plane is visible or not.

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Wireframe (View: Visibility  Wire Frame , Ctrl+W): This option indicates whether all shapes
are displayed as simple wire models or as solid shaded objects.

To change the colors of the scene or other specific view settings use View: Options  View
Options .

Apply Geometric Transformations

So far, you have seen how to model simple shapes and how to change the view of your model.
This section focuses on applying geometric transformations to your model.

We assume that you have already selected the shape (or multiple shapes) to which a
transformation will be applied (e.g. by double-clicking on a shape in the main view).

You can then open the transformation dialog box by choosing Modeling: Tools  Transform
or by choosing the item Transform from the context menu. In the dialog box, you are asked to
select one of the following transformations:

 Translate: This transformation applies a vector translation to the selected shape.

 Scale: By choosing this transformation, you can scale the shape along the coordinate
axes. By unchecking Scale uniform you may specify different scaling factors for each
coordinate direction.
 Rotate: This transformation applies a rotation of the shape around a coordinate axis by a
fixed angle. You may additionally specify the rotation center in the Origin field (click on
More if the option is not immediately available). The center may be the center of the shape
(calculated automatically) or any specified point. Specify the rotation angle and axis
settings by entering the corresponding angle in the entry field for the corresponding axis
(e.g. entering 45 in the y field while leaving all other fields set to zero performs a rotation
around the y-axis of 45 degrees).

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  Mirror: This transformation allows one to mirror the shape at a specified plane. A point in
the mirror plane is specified in the Mirror plane origin field, and the plane’s normal vector is
given in the Mirror plane normal input field.

For all transformations above you may specify whether the original shape should be kept (Copy
option) or deleted. Furthermore, you can specify in the Repetition factor field how many times
the same transformation will be applied to the shape (each time producing a new shape when
the Copy option is active). Once a particular type of transformation is selected, corresponding
handles will be visualized in the main view. The actual transformation parameters can either be
specified by entering numerical values in the input fields or by just dragging the handles with
the mouse. Please note that you may need to press the More button in order to see all input
fields.

A final example will demonstrate the usage of the transformation feature. Assume that a brick
has been defined and selected as depicted below. Open the transform dialog box by choosing
the appropriate item from the context menu or Modeling: Tools  Transform .

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 Now the screen should look as follows:

The next step is to apply a translation to the shape by setting a translation vector (7, 0, 0), and
to produce multiple copies as the transformation is applied twice. You can either enter the
values into the dialog box or use the mouse and drag & drop the golden arrows in the main
view:

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After pressing the OK button, you should finally obtain the following shapes:

Solid1

Solid1_1
Solid1_2

Note that for each transformation the name of the transformed shape is either kept (no Copy
option) or extended by extensions _1, _2, etc. to obtain unique names for the shapes.

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 Combine Shapes Using Boolean Operations
Probably the most powerful operation to create complex shapes is to combine simple shapes
using Boolean operations. These operations allow you to add shapes together, to subtract one
or more shapes from another, to insert shapes into each other, and to intersect two or more
shapes.

Let us consider two shapes – a sphere and a brick – on which to perform Boolean operations.

This list names all available Boolean operations and shows the resulting body for each
combination:

Add brick to sphere

Add both shapes together to obtain a

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single shape. The resulting shape will
assume the component and material
settings of the first shape.

Subtract sphere from brick

Subtract the second shape from the first

to obtain a single shape. The resulting
shape will assume the component and
material settings of the first shape.

Intersect brick and sphere

Intersect two shapes to form a single

shape. The resulting shape will assume
the component and material settings from
the first shape of this operation.

Trim sphere
= Insert brick into sphere

The first shape will be trimmed by the

boundary of the second shape. Both
shapes will be kept. The resulting shapes
will have no intersecting volume.

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 Insert sphere into brick
= Trim brick

The second shape will be inserted into

the first one. Again both shapes will be
kept. The resulting shapes will have no
intersecting volume.

Note that not all of the Boolean operations above are directly accessible. As you can see, some
of the operations are redundant (e.g., a trimming operation can be replaced by an insertion
operation when the order of the shapes is reversed).

You can access the following Boolean operations by choosing the corresponding items:
Modeling: Tools  Boolean  Add / Subtract / Intersect / Insert. Operations are accessible only
when a shape is selected (in the following referred to as “first” shape). After the Boolean
operation is activated, you will be prompted to select the “second” shape. Pressing the Return
key performs the Boolean combination. The result depends on the type of Boolean operation:

 Add (+): Add the second shape to the first one – keeps the component and material
settings of the first shape.
 Subtract (-): Subtract the second shape from the first one – keeps the component and
material settings of the first shape.
 Intersect (*): Intersect the first with the second shape – keeps the component and material

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settings of the first shape.
 Insert (/): Insert the second shape into the first one – keeps both shapes while changing
the first shape only.

The trim operations are only available in a special “Shape intersection” dialog box which
appears when a shape is created that intersects or touches areas with existing shapes. This
dialog box will be explained later.

When multiple shapes are selected, you can access the Boolean add operation to unite all
selected shapes. You can also select more than one shape when you are prompted to specify
the second shape for Boolean subtract, intersect or insert operations.

Pick Points, Edges, or Faces from within the Model

Many construction steps require the selection of points, edges, or faces from the model. The
following section explains how to select these elementary entities interactively. For each of the
“pick operations”, you must first select the appropriate pick tool e.g. Modeling: Picks  Picks.

Pick points, Pick edge Show point Clear picks

edges or center pick list
faces

After you activate a pick tool, the mouse cursor will change indicating that a pick operation is in
progress. In addition, all pickable elements (points, edges, or faces) will be highlighted in the
model. Now you can double-click on an appropriate item. Alternatively, you can cancel the pick
mode by pressing the Esc key.

Note: You cannot pick edges or faces of a shape when another shape is currently selected. In
this case, you should either select the proper shape or deselect all shapes.

As soon as you double-click in the main view, the pick mode will be terminated and the
selected item will be highlighted. Note that if the Modeling: Picks  Picks  Keep Pick Mode
option is activated, the pick operation will not terminate after double-clicking. In this case you
have to cancel the pick mode by pressing the Esc key. This mode is useful when multiple items
have to be selected and it would be cumbersome to re-enter the pick mode several times.

32
 The following list gives an overview of the available pick modes. Whenever the main structure
view is active, keyboard shortcuts (listed in parentheses) can be used to activate a particular
pick mode. The main structure view can be activated by left clicking once on the main drawing
window.

 Pick Points, Edges, or Faces (S) : Double-click close to an edge, an end point of an
edge, or a face. The corresponding item will be selected.
 Pick End Point (P): Double-click close to the end point of an edge. The corresponding
point will be selected.
 Pick Edge Center (M) : Double-click on an edge. The mid-point of this edge will be
selected.
 Pick Circle Center (C) : Double-click on a circular edge. The center point of this edge
will be selected. The edge need not necessarily belong to a complete circle.
 Pick Point on Circle (R) : Double-click on a circular edge. Afterward an arbitrary point
on the circle will be selected. This operation is useful when matching radii in the interactive
shape creation modes.
 Pick Face Center (A) : Double-click on a planar face of the model. The center point of
this face will be selected.
 Pick Point on Face (O): Double-click on a point on the model to select it.
 Pick Edge (E) : Double-click on an edge of the model to select it.
 Pick Face (F) : Double-click on a face of the model to select it.
 Pick Edge Chain (Shift+E): Double-click on an edge of the model. If the selected edge is

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a free edge, a connected chain of free edges will be selected. If the selected edge is
connected to two faces, a dialog box will appear in which you can specify which one of the
two possible edge chains bounding the faces will be selected. In both cases, the selection
chain stops at previously picked points, if any.
 Pick Face Chain (Shift+F): Double-click on a face of the model. This function will
automatically select all faces connected to the selected face. The selection stops at
previously picked edges, if any.
 Pick Blend, Pick Protrusion and Pick Depression: Allows selection of multiple faces at
once which represent an individual feature:

Pick Blend Pick Protrusion Pick Depression

The pick operations for selecting points from the model are also valid in the interactive shape
creation modes. Here, whenever you are requested to double-click in order to enter the next
point, you may alternatively enter the pick mode. After leaving this mode, the picked point will
be taken as the next point for the shape creation.
Previously picked points, edges or faces can be cleared by selecting Modeling: Picks  Clear
Picks (D).

Chamfer and Blend Edges

One of the most common applications for picked edges is the chamfer and blend edge
operation. We assume you have created a brick and selected some of its edges, as shown in
the following picture:

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 Now you can perform a chamfer edge operation by choosing Modeling: Tools  Blend 
Chamfer Edges . In the following dialog box, you can specify the width of the chamfer. The
structure should look similar to the one depicted below:

Alternatively, you can perform a blend edges operation by choosing Modeling: Tools  Blend
 Blend Edges . In the following dialog box, you can specify the radius of the blend. The

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result should look similar to the following picture:

Extrude, Rotate and Loft Faces

The chamfer and blend tools are common operations on picked edges. Extrude, rotate and loft
operations are equally typical construction tools for use on picked faces. In the following, we
assume an existing cylinder with a picked top face:
Top face

Now we can extrude this face by simply selecting Modeling: Shapes  Extrusions  Extrude
. When a planar or cylindrical face is picked before this tool is activated, the extrusion refers
to the picked face, and the dialog box opens immediately:

34
 If no face is picked in advance, an interactive mode will be entered in which you can define
polygon points for the extrusion profile. However, in this example you should enter a height and
click the OK button. Finally, your structure should look as follows:

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The extrusion tool has created a second shape by extruding the picked face.

For the rotation, you should start with the same basic geometry as before:

The rotation tool requires the input of both a rotation axis and a picked face. The rotation axis
can be a linear edge picked from the model or a numerically specified edge. In this example,
you should specify the edge by selecting the Modeling: Picks  Pick Edge from Coordinates
. Afterwards you will be requested to pick two points on the drawing plane to define the edge.
Please select two points similar to those in the following picture:

35
 In the numerical edge dialog box, click the OK button to store the edge. Afterward you can
activate the rotate face tool by selecting Modeling: Shapes  Extrusions  Rotate .

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The previously selected rotation axis is automatically projected into the face’s plane (blue
vector), and the rotation tool dialog box opens immediately. In this dialog box, you can specify
an Angle (e.g. 90 degrees) and click OK. The final shape should look as follows:

Note that the rotate tool enters an interactive polygon definition mode similar to the one in the
extrude tool if no face is picked before the tool is activated.

36
 One of the more advanced operations is generating lofts between picked faces. To practice,
construct the following model by defining a cylinder (e.g. radius=5, height=3) and transforming
it along its axis by a certain translation (e.g. (0, 0, 8)) using the Copy option:

Transformed
cylinder

Next select the transformed cylinder and shrink it by applying a scaling transformation along the
x- and y-axes by 0.5 while keeping the z-scale at 1.0:

Face A

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Face B

Now pick the adjacent top and bottom faces of the two cylinders as shown above. Afterward
you can activate the loft tool by selecting Modeling: Shapes  Extrusions  Loft .

In the following dialog box you can set the smoothness to a reasonable value and click the
Preview button to get an impression of the shape. Drag the Smoothness slider such that the
shape has a relatively smooth transition between the two picked faces before clicking OK.

Note: You should select the corresponding shape before picking its face. Since all other
shapes become transparent, it is easier to pick the desired face even “through” other shapes.

37
 After pressing the OK button, your model should look like the following picture (note that the
actual form of the lofted shape depends on the setting of the smoothness parameter).

Face A

Face B

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Finally, add all shapes together by selecting all three (holding down the Ctrl key) and using the
Modeling: Tools  Boolean  Add (+) operation. Now, pick the two planar top and bottom
faces of the shape. Next, select the shape by double-clicking on it and initiate the Modeling:
Tools  Shape Tools  Shell Solid or Thicken Sheet tool.

Note that the shell command will be accessible only if you select a shape.

In the dialog box, you can specify a Thickness (e.g. 0.3) and click the OK button. Now, your
model should look similar to the following picture:

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 Picking the two faces before entering the shell operation has the effect that the selected faces
will later be openings in the shelled structure. If no faces are selected, the structure will be
shelled to form a hollow solid.

Local Coordinate Systems

The ability to create local coordinate systems adds a great deal of flexibility to the modeler. In
the above sections we described how to create simple shapes that are aligned with the axes of
a global fixed coordinate system.

The aim of a local coordinate system is to allow the easy definition of shapes even when they
are not aligned with the global coordinate system. The local coordinate system consists of three
coordinate axes. In contrast to the global x-, y-, and z-axes, these axes are called as the u-, v-,
and w-axes, respectively. The local coordinate system is also known as the Working
Coordinate System (WCS).

Either the local or the global coordinate system is active at any time. Any geometry data
entered is stored in the currently active coordinate system. You may activate or deactivate the
local coordinate system with Modeling: WCS  Local WCS or from the WCS context menu
item. This toggles the local coordinate system on or off.

The most important operations on the local coordinate system are accessible directly in the
Modeling tab:

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Toggle WCS on Transform WCS Align WCS Fix WCS
or off
The most common way to define the orientation of a local coordinate system is by selecting
Modeling: WCS  Align WCS (W) .

Hovering over the highlighted points, edges, or faces shows a preview of the new WCS. This
WCS can be activated by double-clicking on the highlighted item:

Another option is to pick points, edges, or faces of the model in advance and align the WCS
with these items by selecting Modeling: WCS  Align WCS (W) :

 When a point is selected, the origin of the local coordinate system is moved to this point.
 When three points are selected, the u/v plane of the WCS can be aligned with the plane
defined by these points. Additionally this function will move the origin of the WCS onto the
first selected point.

39
  When an edge is selected, the u-axis of the WCS may be oriented such that it becomes
parallel to the selected edge.
 Finally, a planar face can be selected with which the u/v plane of the WCS can be aligned.

Together with the available shortcut keys for the pick mode, this is the most efficient way to
change the location and orientation of the WCS.

Besides aligning the WCS with items selected from the model, there are two more ways to
define the local coordinate system:

 Define local coordinate system parameters directly (Modeling: WCS  Local WCS 
Local Coordinate System Properties): In this dialog box, you may enter the origin and
the orientation of the w-axis (denoted as Normal) and the u-axis directly.
 Transform local coordinate system (Modeling: WCS  Transform WCS ): In this
dialog box, you can translate the origin of the local coordinate system by a specified
translation vector. You can also rotate the local coordinate system around one of its axes
by a specified rotation angle.

The second option is especially powerful when combined with the pick alignment options
described above.

The following example should give you an idea of what can be done by efficiently using local
coordinate system specifications:

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The first step is to create a brick in global coordinates. Then rotate the brick around the z-axis
by 30 degrees using the transform dialog box:

1) 2)

Next activate the local coordinate system, and align it first with the top face of the brick and
then with one of the corner points on the top face:

3) 4)

Now align the coordinate system with one of the edges of the brick’s top face by rotating the
coordinate system 300 degrees around its w-axis, and then rotate the coordinate system 30
degrees around its v-axis:

40
 5) 6)

Finally create a new cylinder in the local coordinate system. As soon as you have defined the
cylinder, a dialog box will open asking for the Boolean combination of the two intersecting
shapes. In this dialog box choose Add both shapes and click OK:

7)

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The History List
Up to now, you have created some basic structures and performed some geometric
transformations. You can always correct mistakes made during the structure generation by
using Undo from the Quick Access toolbar to undo the most recent construction step.

However, sometimes it may become necessary to return to a previous step in the structure
generation to change, delete, or insert some operations. This typical task is supported via the
“History List". All relevant structural modifications are recorded in a list that can be opened by
choosing Modeling: Edit  History List .

In the following, we assume you have created a structure consisting of a brick and a cylinder as
shown above. In this case, the history list will look like in the following picture:

41
 The list shows all previous operations in chronological order. The markerindicates the current
position of the structure creation in the history list. You may restore the structure creation to any
step in the history list by selecting the corresponding line and clicking the Run to button.
Clicking the Step button will take you to the next step in the history list. By using the Continue
button the history list is processed to the end. You can now experiment a bit with this feature.

Clicking the Update button completely regenerates the structure. The Edit button allows you to
perform changes to previous operations. In this case, select the “rotate wcs” line and click the
Edit button. The following dialog box will appear:

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The text in this box is the macro language command that corresponds to the task performed in
the currently selected history step. Here, the first argument “v” is the rotation axis while the
second argument specifies the rotation angle. Try to change the rotation angle to 10 degrees
and click the OK button. Back in the history list click the Update button to regenerate the
structure. Your structure should now look similar to the following picture:

In general, the history functionality allows you to perform changes to the model quickly and
easily without having to re-enter the modified structure. However, some care has to be taken
when history items are altered since this may result in strong topological changes appearing in
the model. This often happens when some history items are deleted or new items are inserted.
In such cases, pick operations might select incorrect points, edges, or faces (sometimes
because the originally picked items no longer exist).

As an example, assume you have deleted the creation of the first brick from the history list. In
this case, the pick of the brick’s top face in order to align the WCS with this face will obviously
fail.

42
 In such cases we recommend you work through the history list from the beginning in order to
properly adjust the picks when needed. Even in this extreme case, the work needed to change
the model takes much less effort than completely re-entering the model. Please refer to the
online documentation for more details.

The History Tree

The History Tree is another powerful tool to edit an already existing object. Assume that you
want to change the radius of the cylinder in the previous example. One way to do this would be
to open the complete history list and edit the history step where the cylinder was created.
However, you can also select the corresponding shape by double-clicking it in the navigation
tree and then choosing Modeling: Edit  Properties or Properties from the context menu.

A dialog box (the History Tree) will open, showing the construction history of the selected
shape:

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You can now simply click the “Define cylinder” item. As soon as you have selected an editable
operation from the History Tree, the corresponding structure element will be highlighted in the
main view. Please note that subsequent transformations will not be considered by this
highlighting functionality.

After clicking the Edit button in the History Tree dialog box, the cylinder creation dialog box will
open, showing the parameters of the cylinder:

43
 You can now alter the cylinder radius and click the Preview button. You will get an impression
of how the structural changes will influence your model. If you are happy with the result, click
the OK button to update the structure.

Finally, your model should look as follows:

Play around a little with the History Tree to get an idea of what changes can be applied to the
existing structure using this functionality. Note that subsequent transformations will not be
visualized by the Preview option in the shape dialog box but will be applied when you update

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the model.

Curve Creation
The previous chapters showed how a model can be generated from 3D primitives and how they
can be modified by using powerful operations such as blending, lofting, shelling, etc.

Another complex shape generation option is based on curves. A curve is typically a 2D line
drawn on the drawing plane. After a curve is defined, it can be used for more advanced
modeling operations.

The following explanations give you only a basic introduction to the way curve modeling works.
A detailed description of all possibilities would exceed the scope of this document. Please refer
to the online documentation for more information.

Before proceeding with the actual curve creation, use File: New and Recent and press on the
Antenna – Waveguide template to start with a new and empty project.

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 Use Modeling: Curves  Curves  Rectangle to create a new curve item and draw a
rectangle on the working plane. Creating curve items is similar to constructing solid primitives.

Your result should look as follows:

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Next, draw a circle on the drawing plane, which overlaps with the rectangle. Activate the circle
creation by choosing Modeling: Curves  Curves  Circle . Afterward, your screen should
look similar to the following:

circle1

rectangle1

As a result of the previous steps, you now have two curve items – rectangle1 and circle1 – in a
subfolder named curve1. The navigation tree reflects this relationship.

Now trim both curve items so that the resulting curve contains only the outlines of both curve
items. First, select one of the curve items, e.g. rectangle1 (either in the navigation tree or by
double-clicking on it in the main view). Afterward activate the Trim Curves operation by
choosing Modeling: Curves  Curves  Trim Curves .

You will be prompted to select the item to be trimmed with the rectangle. Select the circle and
confirm your selection by pressing the Return key.

The next step will prompt you to double-click on any curve segments you wish to delete from
the model. When you move the mouse across the screen, all selectable curve segments at the
mouse location will be highlighted. You should now delete two segments so that the result will
look similar to the following picture. Press Return to complete the operation.

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 Now you can activate the local coordinate system and rotate it around its u-axis. Your model
should look as follows:

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The next action is to draw an open polygon consisting of three points on the drawing plane by
using Modeling: Curves  Curves  Polygon .

Point
1

Point
2

Point
3

Based on these two disjoint curves, you can create a solid using the sweep curves operation, which can
be initiated by choosing Modeling: Shapes  Sweep Curve :

46
 As soon as this operation is activated, you will be prompted to select the profile curve. Double-
click on the curve consisting of the rectangle and the circle.

After the profile is selected and confirmed by pressing Return key, you will be requested to
double-click on the path curve given by the polygon’s curve here. After you close the resulting
dialog box by clicking OK, the final shape should look as follows:

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This short introduction into curve modeling provides a very basic understanding of these
powerful structure drawing tools. You should experiment a little with the curve modeling
features to become more familiar with this kind of structure modeling. Please refer to the online
documentation for more details.

Trace Creation
The next section focuses on a rather tedious part of model creation: the definition of conducting
traces. Some structures (e.g. printed circuit boards) require many traces, which often entail
many time-consuming construction steps. A trace tool simplifies the creation of solid traces with
finite width and thickness based on the definition of curves.

To practice using this powerful tool, draw an open but otherwise continuous curve such as the
following by selecting Modeling: Curves  Curves  Spline :

47
 Based on this curve, you can now easily create a trace by choosing Modeling: Shapes  Trace
from Curve . As soon as this operation is activated, you will be prompted to select the trace’s
curve.

After you double-click on the previously defined curve, the following dialog box will open:

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In this dialog box, you can specify the metallization Thickness and the Width of the trace. You
can also specify whether the trace should have rounded caps (instead of rectangular caps) at
the start or end of the trace’s path. If Delete Curve is checked, the original curve will be deleted
by the create trace operation.

The resulting trace might look as follows (rounded cap at the end of the trace only):

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 Bond Wire Creation
Since bond wires are frequently used structure elements, a dedicated bond wire tool is
available. The easiest way to define a bond wire between two points is to pick those points first
as shown in the following picture:

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Once the points are picked, you can open the bond wire dialog box by choosing Modeling:
Shapes  Bond wire .

You can also open the dialog box without having picked any points. In this case, you may
specify the coordinates of the bond wire’s start and end points numerically.

The type of the bond wire can be spline, JEDEC4, or JEDEC5. The location of the spline’s
maximum can be specified whereas the other two models accept standardized parameters.

The following picture shows the three different types of bond wires:

49
 Spline JEDEC4 JEDEC5

Please refer to the online documentation for more information about JEDEC parameters.

You may also assign a finite radius to the wire by specifying a non-zero entry in the Radius
field. The wire will still be modeled as infinitely thin, but the solver module will apply a special
model to the wire in order to consider the finite radius. Please note, that solvers based on a
tetrahedral mesh do not support this feature.

In addition to this option of modeling the bond wire as an infinitely thin wire, the dialog box also
supports the creation of solid bond wires by offering the Solid wire model option. As for every
other solid, a solid bond wire needs to have a material assigned to it.

The Termination of the bond wire can be set to any one of the following types:

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 Natural: The wire will be a solid tube with perpendicular cuts at the end.
 Rounded: The wire will be terminated by a part of a sphere.
 Extended: This is the most powerful option. In this case, the software detects the plane
in which the bond wire ends. Then the wire extends toward this plane in order to ensure
an optimal connection with this plane.

The following picture illustrates the three types of termination:

Natural Rounded Extended

Local Modifications
So far we have focused on how to change a structure that has been entirely constructed within
the built-in modeler. However, sometimes the model will consist of an imported geometry for
which no information about the modeling process is available.

This section will illustrate that, even in these cases, the structure can be parameterized using
Local Modifications. To practice using these advanced modeling tools, go ahead and create a
model similar to the following image (a brick combined with a cylinder and a chamfer operation
applied to the cylinder’s top edge):

50
 In this structure you should first use the pick face tools in order to select the chamfer’s face
(Modeling: Picks  Picks ). Then you can initiate the Remove Feature command by selecting
Modeling: Tools  Modify Locally  Remove Feature (Ctrl+R).

Chamfer’s
face

Remove
Feature

As you can see, the gap produced by simply removing the face will automatically be closed by
the Remove Feature operation. Afterward, pick the cylindrical face and select the Modeling:
Tools  Modify Locally command. A dialog box will open where you can modify the offset of
the cylindrical face.

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This can be done either by dragging the yellow arrow or by modifying the Offset edit field in the
dialog box. The yellow arrow appears when the mouse is in the vicinity of the affected face.

51
 Press Apply to confirm the change. Now you can select the top face and modify the height of
the cylinder by dragging the yellow arrow again:

After pressing the Apply button the model finally looks like this:

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The local modifications are powerful modeling operations. However, the modifications will fail if
there is no unique solution for closing the gaps. You should play around a bit with these tools to
get an impression of what is possible.

Next Steps
Now you are familiar with the general user interface and the 3D modeling capabilities of the
software package.

Before starting with the following chapter, which is about post-processing, we recommend that
you read the dedicated manual of the module, which is appropriate for your area of application.

52
 Chapter 5 – Post-Processing
Once a simulation is completed, result data will typically be shown in the navigation tree. CST
Studio Suite contains powerful post-processing capabilities, which include various options for
visualizing the results and calculating secondary quantities. Please refer to the module specific
documentation and the online help system for more information.

Parametric Result Storage

In order to reduce the effort required for obtaining typical parametric results, all zero and one
dimensional data points / result curves are stored parametrically by default. In the following, we
will introduce this functionality briefly. Please refer to the online documentation for more
information.

For the following explanations, we assume that your model has a parameter “offset’” defined
and that you have performed multiple simulations for different values of this parameter.
Furthermore, the examples show the results of an S-Parameter computation using CST
Microwave Studio, but the concept is the same for all other solvers and modules.

Once a computation has finished, selecting a result from the navigation tree will display the
corresponding result curves for the current parameter values:

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Further results from all previously calculated parameter values are summarized in the Result
Navigator window:

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 Here you can change the parametric result selection to plot more results within the current
result view:

The Result Navigator offers an advanced filtering functionality to reduce the number of
displayed results based on desired parameter values or plotted 0D results. Changing the
selection in the navigation tree allows you to inspect other results based on the active
parameter combination selection.

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The parametric plotting functionality allows for convenient access of typical parametric results
without the need for further setting up more advanced post-processing operations. The
automatically stored parametric results can also be used directly for optimizations. Please refer
to the online documentation for more information.

Another very powerful feature, which is common to all modules of CST Studio Suite is the
concept of Post-Processing Templates which will be introduced in the following sections.

Post-Processing Templates
The Post-Processing Templates allow for flexible processing of 2D/3D Fields, 1D Signals, or
scalar values (0D Results).

All defined Post-Processing Templates are evaluated after every calculation during parametric
sweeps and optimizations. The calculated data is then stored parametrically to allow for flexible
access to the entire data set.

Typical examples for Post-Processing Templates are 1D results such as the following:

 Z, Y versus frequency
 Farfield 1D plots at a single frequency
 Broadband farfield values
 Group delay times
 1D Plots of 2D/3D results along arbitrary curves
 FFT of existing time signals
 Exchange excitations and TDR functionality
 Mixture of any of these 1D-results using an analytic formula
 and more…

or 0D results (single real scalar values):

 Min, max, mean, integral, and other values of existing 1D-results

 Q-values, energies, losses, coupling coefficients of eigenmodes
 Curve-, face-, or volume integrals of 2D/3D results
 Mixture of any of these 0D-results using an analytic formula
 and more…

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 The following sections introduce the framework of this feature and present its application with
an example.

Framework to set up Result Templates

The following picture shows the template-based post-processing dialog box, which can be
opened by choosing Post-Processing: Result Templates  Template Based Post-Processing
(Shortcut Shift+P):

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The list contains the currently defined sequence of post-processing tasks. You can add new
tasks to the list by first selecting a template group and then selecting a particular item from the
drop-down list below. The Type field indicates whether the result of a post-processing task is a
one-dimensional curve (1D) or a single data point (0D).

You can easily rename a task by clicking on the corresponding line and directly changing its
name in the list.

If the currently selected task provides a settings dialog box, pressing the Settings button will
open that box and allow you to change template parameters.

Clicking the Duplicate button creates a copy of the currently selected item. Some post-
processing operations require many settings. However, most of the time one is only interested
in investigating the results, which depend on varying parameters, leaving most of the settings
unchanged. In such a case, instead of repeatedly entering all settings, you may simply
duplicate an existing entry and modify the settings of interest afterwards.

The Evaluate button executes the currently selected task whereas the Evaluate All button
executes the entire list starting from the beginning.

All Post-Processing Templates are automatically processed after each solver run, including
parametric sweeps and optimizations. The execution takes place in the order shown in the list.
You may need to change the order (up / down arrow buttons), especially if tasks refer to
previously obtained data.

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 The template based post-processing results are managed as follows:

 1D results are shown in the navigation tree under Tables  1D Results …

 0D results are shown in the navigation tree under Tables  0D Results …
Additionally, the latest result value is shown in the Value column of the task list.
 Templates with a “-“ sign in front of their name do not add useful results to the
navigation tree’s Tables folder, but store their results at other locations. Please refer to
the corresponding template’s description for more information.

Pre-Loaded Post-Processing Templates

The standard installation includes an extensive list of pre-loaded Post-Processing Templates.
They can be mainly categorized as follows:

1. Load data into the post-processing chain.

2. Calculate secondary quantities.
3. Extract data from other post-processing results.

Besides operations on S-parameters, a variety of pre-loaded Post-Processing Templates deal

with the extraction of 1D or 0D data from fields (including farfields, etc.).

We recommend you to browse through the list of available templates in the online help system
to get an overview of what is already available. Each of the Post-Processing Template’s
Settings dialog boxes contains a Help button, which will open an online help page providing

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more information.

Since all Post-Processing Templates are written in the VBA programming language, you can
add your own specific post-processing operations. Please refer to the online documentation or
contact technical support for more information.

Example for Post-Processing Templates

The following example shows a typical Post-Processing Template for CST Microwave Studio.
However, even if you are using another module, we still recommend reading through this
example since it describes general procedures common to all modules.

Let us assume that you have simulated a device and that you want to calculate the accepted
averaged power 0.5*(1-|S11|^2) as well. You can take any example that calculates S-
parameters.

Please note that the accepted averaged power is available right away in the navigation tree NT
 1D Results  Power  Excitation [1]  Power Accepted. Although there is no actual need
for Post-Processing Templates here, it can still serve as a good example to illustrate the
principle workflow.

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 You should select the General 1D template group from the upper drop-down list in the dialog
box. Once a particular group is selected, the lower drop-down list shows all available post-
processing tasks within this group. Now we can calculate the accepted averaged power 0.5*(1-
|S11|^2) by selecting the Mix Template Results template:

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Selecting this task from the list opens the following window, where arbitrary 1D results can be
combined using VBA expressions, several predefined mathematical functions and physical
constants (cf. the Function List button). If we select A as a placeholder for the complex S11
result, our expression would be 0.5*(1-abs(A)^2).

Please note that this and some other result templates allow selecting primary result curves
directly without the need for loading them into the post-processing system beforehand.

57
 Back in the Post-Processing Template dialog box, you can set the name of the newly created
task by clicking on the corresponding item and changing its name to Accepted Power. Clicking
the button Evaluate will immediately add the corresponding result to the navigation tree’s
Tables folder:
Evaluate:

You can change the definition of any task by selecting the corresponding line and clicking on
Settings.

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So far, you have seen how Post-Processing Templates can be a very flexible and powerful tool
to perform complex post-processing tasks. However, many useful results will be calculated and
stored in a parametric way automatically, so please check what is available before setting up
Post-Processing Templates.

Once defined, a set of Post-Processing Templates will always be executed right after an
individual simulation run is completed. This functionality provides an efficient way to automate
post-processing steps. This automation becomes most useful when running parametric sweeps
or optimizations.

Let us now assume that we have a model where “offset” is one of the structure’s parameters.
Each solver dialog box contains buttons named Optimizer and Par. Sweep:

58
 In our example, we assume that the Accepted Power calculation was defined as described
above. Once a Parameter Sweep is performed, the Accepted Power results can be visualized
as a function of the structure’s parameters by selecting the corresponding template result:

Let us now assume that you want to optimize the Accepted Power averaged over the entire
simulation frequency band. This can be achieved by adding a Post-Processing Template
calculating the mean value of the Accepted Power. Therefore, switch to the General 1D
template group again and select the task 0D or 1D Result from 1D Result (Rescale, Derivation,
etc.):

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59
 This will open the corresponding Post-Processing Template’s settings dialog box:

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The results of 0D Post-Processing Templates are also written to the Tables folder in the
navigation tree after pressing the Evaluate button. Once the evaluation of a 0D Post-
Processing Template is performed, the latest results are shown directly in the task list’s Value
column:

The same 0D Post-Processing Templates that we used for parametric sweeps can be used as
goal definitions for the optimizer. The ability to combine various templates together provides a
very powerful way to define even complex post-processing tasks, which in turn allows for very
flexible goal setups.

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 The following picture shows an example of such a 0D Result optimizer goal definition based on
Post-Processing Templates. Choose Home: Simulation  Optimizer to access the optimizer:

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61
 Chapter 6 – Finding Further Information
After carefully reading the Getting Started manuals, you should have some idea of how to use
the CST Studio Suite modules efficiently for your own applications. However, you may have
additional questions once you start creating your own models. In this chapter, we will give you
an overview of the available documentation and help systems.

Online Help System

The online help system should generally be your primary source of information. You can
access the help system’s overview page at any time by selecting File: Help  Help Contents or
simply by clicking on the icon on the right hand side of the Ribbon bar.
Please note: We recommend using Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google
Chrome as the default web browser.

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The help system’s overview page contains a collection of useful links, making it easy to access
frequently requested information.

The system also features a powerful full text search function, which provides fast access to the
help system’s extensive content.

The help system’s content is organized into a hierarchical structure of books and pages, which
can be easily accessed from within the navigation tree.

62
 In each of the dialog boxes there is a specific Help button that directly opens the corresponding
manual page. Additionally the F1 key gives some context sensitive help when a particular mode
is active. For instance, by pressing the F1 key while a basic shape generation mode is active,
you can obtain some information about the definition of shapes and possible actions.

If no specific information is available, pressing the F1 key will open an overview page from
which you may navigate through the help system.

Tutorials and Examples

The component library provides tutorials and examples, which are generally your first source of
information when trying to solve a particular problem. See also the explanation given when
following the Tutorials and Examples Overview link on the online help system’s start page.
We recommend that you browse through the list of all available tutorials and examples and
choose the one closest to your application.

Technical Support
Before contacting Technical Support, you should check the online help system. If this does not
help to solve your problem, you find additional information in the Knowledge Base and obtain
general product support at 3DS.com/support.

Macro Language Documentation

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More information concerning the built-in macro language for a particular module can be
accessed from within the online help system’s VBA book: Visual Basic (VBA) Language. The
macro language’s documentation consists of four parts:

 An overview and a general description of the macro language.

 A description of all specific macro language extensions.
 A syntax reference of the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) compatible macro language.
 Some documented macro examples.

History of Changes
An overview of important changes in the latest version of the software can be obtained by
following the What’s New in this Version link on the help system’s main page or from the
File: Help backstage page. Since there are many new features in each new version, we
suggest that you browse through these lists even if you are already familiar with one of the
previous releases.

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 Appendix – List of Shortcut Keys
The following list gives an overview of available shortcut keys that may be very useful,
especially for advanced users.

General Shortcut Keys

Alt Shows the key tips and enables to navigate through the Ribbon by
using the keyboard
F1 Open context sensitive help
F2 Rename the currently selected shape in the navigation tree
F5 Update 1D results (while solver is running only)
Ctrl+F5 Start simulation
F7 Update parametric changes
F8 Open the component library
Ctrl+O Open new project file in current modeler window
Ctrl+N Switch to File: New and Recent
Ctrl+S Save current project
Delete Delete the currently selected object
Space Reset view to contents
Shift+Space Reset view to selection

Shortcut Keys Available in 3D Modeling View

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You can activate this view by clicking on it with the left mouse button.

Esc Cancel currently active mode

Alt+V Open view options dialog box
Ctrl+C Copy the currently displayed result curves to clipboard
Ctrl+Alt+C Copy the active view to clipboard
Ctrl+V Paste result curves from clipboard into the active result curve plot
Alt+O Toggle from outline off to colored and black outline
Alt+W Toggle working plane visualization on or off
Ctrl+A Toggle axis view on or off
Ctrl+W Toggle wireframe mode on or off
Shift+A Toggle field plot animation on or off
Shift+C Activate/deactivate cutting plane view
Shift+T Add to Report
x If the cutting plane view is active, the cut is made on the x-plane
y If the cutting plane view is active, the cut is made on the y-plane
z If the cutting plane view is active, the cut is made on the z-plane
Tab Open the numerical coordinate input box (also available in 1D plots
for axis marker positioning)
Shift+Tab Open the numerical coordinate input box with zero defaults
Numpad-(5) Front view
Numpad-(3) Back view
Numpad-(4) Left view
Numpad-(6) Right view
Numpad-(8) Top view
Numpad-(2) Bottom view
Numpad-(1) Nearest axis view
Numpad-(0) Perspective view
Cursor-Left Decrement phase (2D/3D plots), move axis marker left (1D plots)
Cursor-Right Increment phase (2D/3D plots), move axis marker right (1D plots)
Cursor-Up Move cutplane or meshplane in positive normal direction
Cursor-Down Move cutplane or meshplane in opposite normal direction
Page-Up Increase frequency for visualization of frequency dependent port
modes
Page-Down Decrease frequency for visualization of frequency dependent port
modes
Alt+X Select vector component X (2D/3D Plot)
Alt+Y Select vector component Y (2D/3D Plot)
Alt+Z Select vector component Z (2D/3D Plot)
Alt+A Select vector component Abs (2D/3D Plot)
Alt+N Select vector component Normal (2D/3D Plot)
Alt+T Select vector component Tangential (2D/3D Plot)
Ctrl+H Hide selected shape or object

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 Ctrl+Shift+H Show selected shape or object
Ctrl+U Show all
W Align the WCS with a point, edge or face
Shift+U Rotate the WCS around its u-axis by 90 degrees
Shift+V Rotate the WCS around its v-axis by 90 degrees
Shift+W Rotate the WCS around its w-axis by 90 degrees
S Pick point, edge or face
P Pick point
M Pick edge midpoint
A Pick face center
R Pick point on circle
C Pick circle center
E Pick edge
F Pick face
Shift+E Pick edge chain
Shift+F Pick face chain
D Clear picks
Ctrl+E Open history tree for selected shape
Ctrl+T Transform selected shape
Ctrl+Shift+A Align selected shape
Ctrl+R Remove the selected feature
Ctrl+Shift+D Delete the selected face
Ctrl+Shift+C Cover the selected edges
Backspace Delete previous point in generation of basic shapes.
+ Start Boolean add operation for selected shape
- Start Boolean subtract operation for selected shape
* Start Boolean intersect operation for selected shape, start trim
curves operation for selected curve

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 Start Boolean insert operation for selected shape
% Start Boolean imprint operation for selected shape
# Start trim curve operation for selected curve
Return Perform Boolean operation (if active)
Shift+P Open result template post-processing dialog box
Mouse Wheel Dynamic zoom view. By default the mouse wheel performs a zoom
operation around the current mouse pointer location. Optionally, by
pressing the Ctrl key the origin for this operation is located in the
center of the screen.

The following shortcuts are active when the mouse is dragged while pressing the left mouse
button:
Shift Restrict mouse movement along one coordinate axis (in shape
creation) or Planar rotate view (otherwise)
Ctrl Rotate view
Shift+Ctrl Pan view

Shortcut Keys Available in Edit Fields

Ctrl+C Copy selected text to clipboard
Ctrl+V Paste clipboard to current marker’s position
Ctrl+X Cut selected text
Ctrl+Z Undo last editing operation

Shortcut Keys Available in Schematic View

Ctrl+X Cut selected component/text
Ctrl+C Copy selected component/text into clipboard
Ctrl+Alt+C Copy the active view to clipboard
Ctrl+V Paste clipboard into drawing/to current marker’s position
Ctrl+Z Undo last editing operation
Ctrl+Y Redo previously undone operation
Ctrl+A Select all
Ctrl+E Open property dialog of selected component
Esc Cancel currently active mode (and return to selection mode)
Ctrl+Alt+Z Activate zoom mode
Ctrl+Alt+P Activate panning mode
Space Reset view
Shift+Space Reset view to selection
Shift+T Add to Report
Ctrl+Alt+Mouse Zoom in/out (without switching to zooming mode)
wheel

65
 Ctrl+Shift Pan (without switching to panning mode)
Ctrl+G Switch grid on or off
A Activate the insertion mode for a connection label
C Activate the insertion mode for a connector
G Activate the insertion mode for a ground element
O Activate the insertion mode for a probe
P Activate the insertion mode for an external port
Shift+R Activate the insertion mode for a resistor
Shift+L Activate the insertion mode for an inductor
Shift+C Activate the insertion mode for a capacitor
D Changes the direction of the selected probe
Left Scroll to the left if no components are selected, otherwise move the
selected components to the left
Right Scroll to the right if no components are selected, otherwise move the
selected components to the right
Up Scroll up if no components are selected, otherwise move up the selected
components
Down Scroll down if no components are selected, otherwise move down the
selected components
Page Up Scroll up page by page
Page Down Scroll down page by page

L Rotate left the selected components

R Rotate right the selected components
Ctrl+Alt+H Flip the selected components horizontally
Ctrl+Alt+V Flip the selected components vertically

3DS.COM/SIMULIA | © Dassault Systèmes | CST Studio Suite

Ctrl+Left Select the component(s) to the selected component's left
Ctrl+Right Select the component(s) to the selected component's right
Ctrl+Up Select the component(s) to the selected component's top
Ctrl+Down Select the component(s) to the selected component's bottom
Shift+P Open result template post-processing dialog box

Shortcut Keys Available in Assembly View

Esc Cancel currently active mode
Alt + V Open the view options dialog box
Alt + O Toggle between outline off and black outline
Shift + C Activate cutting plane view
A Align
B Show bounding box
D Clear picks
E Edit part
P Pick point
R Rotate part
T Translate part
Ctrl+T Absolute transform
X If the cutting plane view is activated the cut is made in the x-plane
Y If the cutting plane view is activated the cut is made in the y-plane
Z If the cutting plane view is activated the cut is made in the z-plane
Tab Toggle between active modes
Shift+Tab Toggle between active modes
Left Toggle between active modes
Right Toggle between active modes
Up Toggle between active modes
Down Toggle between active modes
Numpad-(5) Front view
Numpad-(3) Back view
Numpad-(4) Left view
Numpad-(6) Right view
Numpad-(8) Top view
Numpad-(2) Bottom view
Numpad-(1) Snap to closest aligned view
Numpad-(0) Perspective view
Backspace Go back to previous operation
Return Perform operation
Mouse-Wheel Dynamic zoom around center or mouse position (according to mouse
settings in Options - Preferences)
Ctrl+Mouse- Dynamic zoom around center or mouse position (according to mouse
Wheel settings in Options - Preferences)

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 The following shortcuts are active when the mouse is dragged while pressing the left mouse
button:
Shift Planar rotate view
Ctrl Rotate view
Shift+Ctrl Pan view

Shortcut Keys Available in VBA Editor

Ctrl+N File new
Ctrl+O File open
Ctrl+S File save
Ctrl+P Print
Ctrl+F Find
F3 Find again
Ctrl+R Replace
Ctrl+Z Undo previous operation
Ctrl+Y Redo previously undone operation
Ctrl+X Cut
Ctrl+C Copy
Ctrl+V Paste
F1 Context help for the word next to the caret position
F5 Run macro
ESC Pause macro
F7 Debug step to
F9 Debug break
Ctrl+F9 Add watch
Ctrl+Shift+F9 Clear all breaks

3DS.COM/SIMULIA | © Dassault Systèmes | CST Studio Suite

Shift+F9 Quick watch
Ctrl+F8 Debug step out
Shift+F8 Debug step over
F8 Debug step into

More information about the VBA Language is provided in the Online Help. Especially the
Overview page contains a short, useful introduction to the most important language elements.
In addition, there is also a Python interface for basic project handling and 1D result access
available. Please refer to the Automation and Scripting section in the Online Help:

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