CST Studio Suite

Cable Simulation

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Workflow &
Solver Overview

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
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 Table of contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 5
Welcome ............................................................................................................................................. 5
How to Get Started Quickly ............................................................................................................. 5
What is CST Cable Studio? ............................................................................................................ 5
Applications ..................................................................................................................................... 6
CST Cable Studio Key Features ......................................................................................................... 6
General ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Harness Structure Modeling............................................................................................................ 6
Harness Electric Modeling .............................................................................................................. 6
Circuit Simulator .............................................................................................................................. 7
3D Full-Wave Simulator .................................................................................................................. 7
About This Manual .............................................................................................................................. 7
Document Conventions ................................................................................................................... 7

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Your Feedback ................................................................................................................................ 8
Chapter 2 – Overview ............................................................................................................................. 9
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Main Frame ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Interface to CST Design Studio....................................................................................................... 9
How to Define a Cable Assembly ..................................................................................................... 10
The Trace of a Cable Bundle ........................................................................................................ 10
Inserting Cables ............................................................................................................................ 15
Cable bundle from Curve .............................................................................................................. 23
Cable Types .................................................................................................................................. 24
Signals ........................................................................................................................................... 24
Terminals....................................................................................................................................... 24
Connectors .................................................................................................................................... 24
Plug-in ........................................................................................................................................... 24
Pins (Connector Pins) ................................................................................................................... 25
Junctions ....................................................................................................................................... 25
Components .................................................................................................................................. 25
Chapter 3 – Examples ........................................................................................................................... 27
Transmission on a Coax Cable ......................................................................................................... 27
The Structure................................................................................................................................. 27
Cable Definition ............................................................................................................................. 27
2D Modeling .................................................................................................................................. 33
Circuit Simulation and Results ...................................................................................................... 34
Crosstalk between two Wire Bundles ............................................................................................... 41

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 Cable Definition ............................................................................................................................. 41
Meshing and Simulation with two Different Search Distances ...................................................... 45
Field Coupling from and into a Twisted Pair ..................................................................................... 51
Cable Definition ............................................................................................................................. 51
Hybrid Method for Radiation from a Cable .................................................................................... 53
Hybrid Method for Irradiation into a Cable .................................................................................... 59
Chapter 4 – General Methodology ........................................................................................................ 64
Standard Workflow ........................................................................................................................ 64
Additional Workflow for Uni-and Bi-Directional Cable-to-Field Coupling ...................................... 64
Chapter 5 – Finding Further Information ............................................................................................... 66
Online Documentation ....................................................................................................................... 66
Tutorials and Examples..................................................................................................................... 66
Technical Support ............................................................................................................................. 66
Macro Language Documentation ...................................................................................................... 66
History of Changes ............................................................................................................................ 66

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 Chapter 1 – Introduction
Welcome
Welcome to CST Cable Studio, the powerful and easy-to-use package for analyzing conducted
transmission, EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) and EMS (Electromagnetic Susceptibility) on
complex cable structures.
This program combines transmission line, circuit and 3D “full-wave” simulation in a convenient
and sophisticated way, which makes it highly suitable to simulate cables inside electrically large
systems.

CST Cable Studio is embedded into the design environment of CST Studio Suite, which is
explained in the CST Studio Suite Getting Started manual. The following explanations assume
that you have already installed the software and familiarized yourself with the basic concepts of
the user interface.

How to Get Started Quickly

We recommend that you proceed as follows:

1. Read the CST Studio Suite Getting Started manual.

2. Acquire a working knowledge of transmission lines. You should be familiar with wo-conductor and
multiconductor lines.

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3. Work through this document carefully. It should provide you with all the basic information necessary
to understand the advanced documentation found in the online help.
4. Look at the examples provided in the Component Library (File: Component Library  Examples),
especially the examples which are tagged as Tutorial, since they provide detailed information of a
specific simulation workflow. Press the Help button of the individual component to get to the
help page of this component. Please note that all these examples are designed to give you a basic
insight into a particular application domain. Real-world applications are typically much more
complex and harder to understand if you are not familiar with the basic concepts.
5. Start with your first own example. Create your first CST Cable Studio model and simulation.
Choose a reasonably small and simple harness that will allow you to quickly become familiar with
the software.

What is CST Cable Studio?

CST Cable Studio is an electromagnetic simulation tool specially designed for the fast and
accurate investigation of real-world cables in complex electromagnetic environments of
electrically large systems by combining transmission line, circuit and 3D full-wave simulation. It
allows to investigate multi-scale problems which are otherwise difficult to solve with full-wave
solvers. Typical multi-scale problems are for instance cables with dimensions down to the
micrometer range built in towers, cars or aircraft with overall system dimensions in meter.

CST Cable Studio offers a user interface that makes it easy to define a complex cable harness.
The 3D topology can be defined either from scratch or by loading an existing harness via a
NASTRAN or STEP AP212-KBL import filter. Separate dialog boxes enable the definition of four
basic types of cables: single wires, twisted cables, ribbon cables and coaxial cables / shielded
wires with compact, foil or braided shields.
Any combination of these basic cable types can be defined as cable groups and stored in a user
defined library. A couple of dialog boxes allow the convenient definition of exact or random cable
cross sections.
The transfer impedance of a shielded cable can be either directly defined or calculated by using
the built-in transfer impedance calculator, which extracts the impedance from the geometric
characteristics of the shield. In addition, it is possible to load and assign measured transfer
impedance curves.

CST Cable Studio generates equivalent circuits from the cable harness based on classical
transmission line theory. It automatically meshes the cable harness along its length and
calculates the transmission line parameters on these segments. Skin effect and dielectric loss

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 are modeled in both frequency and time domain simulations. The equivalent circuits can be
exported in several SPICE formats.

CST Cable Studio uses the powerful 3D solid modeling front end of CST Microwave Studio to set
up or import arbitrary metallic 3D shapes, ranging from simple ground planes to complex chassis
structures. Moreover, the powerful 3D full-wave solvers from CST Microwave Studio are used to
calculate the electromagnetic field in the environments of cables.

CST Cable Studio uses CST Design Studio’s easy-to-use schematic to define passive and active
devices at cable terminations. The powerful built-in network simulator in CST Design Studio
enables the simulation of a whole system consisting of the equivalent circuit of the cable harness
and its terminations.

CST Cable Studio controls the data exchange between the circuit simulation engine and the
various 3D EM solvers for currents (on the cable harness) and electromagnetic fields (around the
cable harness). This enables simulating both the effects of fields coupling into the cables and
fields radiating from the cables.

Applications
 Transmission and crosstalk simulations of extended cable structures in time and frequency
domains
 E3: analysis of complex cables in electromagnetic environments of large systems

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 EMI: analysis of radiated electromagnetic fields from complex cables lying along and apart metallic
structures
 EMS: analysis of coupled electromagnetic fields into complex cables lying along and apart metallic
structures

CST Cable Studio Key Features

An overview of the main features of CST Cable Studio is provided in the following list.

For the circuit simulator only some selected key features are listed below. Additional information
can be found in the CST Studio Suite - Circuit Simulation and SAM (System Assembly and
Modeling) manual and Online Help.
For the 3D solid modeling front end and the 3D full-wave simulation only some selected key
features are listed below. A full list can be found in the CST Studio Suite - High Frequency
Simulation manual.

General
 Native graphical user interface based on Windows operating systems.
 Tight interface to CST Design Studio and CST Microwave Studio enabling cable
modeling, circuit simulation and 3D full-wave analysis in one environment.
 Transmission line modeling method for fast and accurate simulation of TEM / Quasi-TEM
propagation modes inside complex cable structures.
 Hybrid method combining transmission line analysis with 3D “full-wave” analysis.

Harness Structure Modeling

 Easy definition of complex harness topology.
 Import of harness via NASTRAN and STEP AP212-KBL.
 Interactive cable editing dialog boxes for all relevant types of cables.
 Parameterization of cable position.

Harness Electric Modeling

 Automatic meshing and extraction of 2D transmission line parameters.
 Modelling of all relevant cable types in any combination (single wire, ribbon cables,
twisted cables and shielded cables).
 Consideration of skin and proximity effects as well as dielectric loss in time and frequency
domains.

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  Consideration of transfer impedance for compact, foil or braided shields.
 Impedance calculator for characteristic line impedances.
 Export of equivalent SPICE circuits.

Circuit Simulator
 Schematic editor enables the easy definition of passive and active devices on the cable’s
equivalent circuit.
 Fast circuit simulation in time and frequency domains.
 Import of SPICE sub-circuits (Berkley SPICE syntax).
 Support of IBIS models.
 Import and Export of S-Parameter data via TOUCHSTONE file format.
 Parameterization of termination circuitry and parameter sweep.

3D Full-Wave Simulator
 Automatic transfer of impressed common mode currents on cable bundles from circuit
simulator to the 3D “full-wave” simulator.
 Automatic transfer of induced voltages on cable bundles to circuit simulator.
 Advanced solid modelling to define scattering or antenna structures.
 Import of 3D CAD data by SAT, Autodesk Inventor®, IGES, VDA-FS, STEP, ProE®,
CATIA 4®, CATIA 5®, CoventorWare®, Mecadtron®, NASTRAN or STL files to define
scatter and antenna structures.
 Plane wave excitation (linear, circular, elliptical polarization).
 Ideal voltage and current sources for antenna excitation.

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 Accurate and efficient time domain solvers, based on the Finite Integration Technique
(FIT) and the Transmission-Line Matrix (TLM) method.
 Fully automatic creation of hexahedral grids in combination with the Perfect Boundary
Approximation (PBA), Thin Sheet Technique (TST) and Octree-based meshing.
 Calculation of various electromagnetic fields and quantities such as electric fields,
magnetic fields, surface currents and voltages.

About This Manual

This manual is primarily designed to enable a quick start on the modeling capabilities of CST
Cable Studio. It is not intended as a complete reference guide to all available features, but rather
as an overview of the key concepts. Understanding these concepts will allow to learn the software
efficiently with help of the online documentation.

To learn more about the circuit simulator, please refer to the CST Studio Suite - Circuit Simulation
and SAM (System Assembly and Modeling).

To learn more about the 3D full-wave simulator, please refer to the CST Studio Suite - High
Frequency Simulation manual.

The next chapter, Overview, is dedicated to explaining the general concepts of CST Cable Studio
and to show the most important objects and related dialog boxes. The Chapter Examples will
guide you through three important examples which provide a good overview of the capabilities of
CST Cable Studio. We strongly recommend studying both chapters carefully.

Document Conventions
 Buttons that should be pressed within dialog boxes are always written in italics, e.g. OK.
 Key combinations are always joined 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, it is shown in brackets after the command.
Example: View: Change View  Reset View (Space)

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  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.

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.

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 Chapter 2 – Overview
CST Cable Studio is designed for ease of use. However, to get started quickly you will need to
know the basic concepts behind it. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of
the most important objects and dialog boxes.

User Interface
Launch CST Studio Suite from the Start menu or by clicking on the desktop icon. In the Modules
and Tools list click on 3D Simulation -> Cable.
A new CST Cable Studio project opens with an empty Main View.

Main Frame

Ribbons

Main View

Cable / 3D
Navigation Tree

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Cross Section Parameter List Messages
Window Window Window

The user interface is divided into five sub-windows:

 The Main View allows the 3D visualization of the harness and its surrounding metallic and insulator
shapes.
 The Cross Section window shows the 2D visualization of cable cross sections.
 The Cable/MWS Navigation Tree frame enables switching between the Cable Navigation and the
MWS Navigation Tree.
The Cable Navigation Tree allows access to all objects necessary to define a complete cable
assembly in 3D. When selecting an item, it will be displayed in the Main View, Cross Section View or
in both depending on the object’s characteristics. The MWS Navigation Tree allows access to all
MWS related objects, thereby allowing full access to solid modeling and 3D full-wave simulation
technology. When selecting an item, it will be displayed in the Main View.
 The Messages window shows general information, solver progress, warnings and errors during project
set up or simulation.

Interface to CST Design Studio

Below the Main View there are two different tabs:

Initially the 3D view is active. Selecting the Schematic tab changes the view to CST Design
Studio. This provides access to the schematic editor and the circuit simulator. The following list
gives an overview on the meaning and usage of the two different tabs:

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  The 3D tab presents all objects and dialog boxes necessary to define and edit cable bundles
inside a 3D metallic and insulator environment. It includes appropriate solver technology to
generate equivalent circuits, which are passed to the Schematic tab. It further enables the
hybrid methods for radiation and irradiation by exchanging the common mode currents and
voltages of a cable between the circuit simulator and the 3D transient solvers.

 The Schematic tab is used to define and edit loads on the equivalent circuit of the cable
harness with the help of a schematic editor. It further enables the circuit simulation of the whole
system in time and frequency domains, while maintaining a tight interface with the 3D transient
solvers to easily exchange impressed currents and voltages.

How to Define a Cable Assembly

This section will explain how to set up a complete cable assembly. It is a basic procedure that
we recommend reading carefully before starting with the examples in the next chapter.

In order to set up a cable assembly, cable bundles where different cable types can be placed
must be defined first. This can be done by using any existing curve (Cables: Curves  Curves)
or by using the following two objects: Nodes and Segment, which can be seen as separate sub-
folders in the Cable Navigation Tree.

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The Trace of a Cable Bundle
Nodes and Segments build a 3D graph, which is used for defining paths. Such paths are called
Traces and they can be assigned to any number of different cables.
All cables on a Trace build a Cable Bundle, and all those cables are automatically coupled (by
the mutual inductances and capacitances between the cables).
There is one restriction: a trace of a cable bundle cannot build a closed loop.

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 We start with the definition of six nodes which we will use later to define two separate traces. We
double-click on Cable Navigation Tree: Nodes and get the following dialog box:

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To define the first node, we select the marked symbol on the top left and enter -200.0 for x and
200.0 for y. This needs to be repeated for five additional nodes according to the list below:

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 After closing the dialog box, we see six nodes appearing in the Cable Navigation Tree and in the
Main View:

In order to define a trace along the node sequence N1-N2-N3-N4 we select Cables: Edit Cabling
 Cable Bundles  Edit Cable Bundles as shown in the figure below:

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The following dialog box will appear:

We click on the New Cable Bundle button on the top left side of the dialog box and

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 get the following view:

To define the trace N1-N2-N3-N4, we multi-select the first four nodes and shift them to the right
by using the arrow in the center of the dialog box

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 After shifting the four nodes they will disappear from the list of Available Nodes:

We name the Cable Bundle “first” in the Display name field as shown in the figure above and

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press the Ok button. We have generated the first trace as can be seen in the Main View:

and we now start inserting cables into it.

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 We double-click on Cable Bundles in the Cable Navigation Tree. The following dialog box will
appear where we select the item “first” in the list of available cable bundles:

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Inserting Cables
In order to insert a cable in the predefined trace “first”, we select the cable bundle “first” and press
the “Add Cable” button as shown in the figure below:

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 The following sub-dialog box will appear:

Since there is no cable type in the current project yet, we select the Library tab and see a list of
predefined cable types:

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From the Single wires we select the wire type LIFY_0qmm25 and press the Add button.

Then, we repeat the procedure with wire type LIFY_0qmm75 and press Close.

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 The cable bundle dialog box should look like the figure below:

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By default, the Random bundling flag is checked; the overlap between wires will be taken care
of correctly. To demonstrate the Auto Bundle feature, we uncheck the Random bundling flag
here.

Both wires are at position x=0, y=0. After pressing Apply a warning message will appear,
indicating that the cross sections of the two wires are overlapping:

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 In order to choose the correct physical positions, there are two possibilities. One way is to enter
the precise coordinates for each wire. The other way is to press the button Auto Bundle.

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Auto Bundle generates a simple arbitrary configuration for a physically correct bundle. In many
cases such an arbitrary cross section is sufficient because the exact position of wires inside a
bundle is not defined in most real-world configurations.

After pressing Auto Bundle the Cross Section View will show a similar configuration:

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 As long as any segment of a topology is only used by a single cable bundle, the representative
cross section is adapted to all the segments used by that cable bundle. This can be seen if we
select the Segments tab in the right column of the dialog box:

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If we click on any of the three segments in the list, we will see the same bundle cross section
in the Cross Section window as above. When double-clicking on a segment a dialog box will
appear showing the same positions:

This is no longer true if there are two or more cable bundles using a common segment. For this
reason, we will define a second cable bundle on path N5-N2-N3-N6.

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 In order to show the arrangement of the existing nodes, we select Cables: Options  View
Options. The following dialog box will appear:

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We check Label visible and close the dialog box. After doing so the names of the nodes are
displayed in the Main View.

To generate the second cable bundle, we select Cable Navigation Tree: Cable Bundles  New
Cable Bundle by using the right mouse button:

A new dialog box will appear. First we enter “second” as Name for the new cable bundle. Then,
we select the nodes N2, N3, N5 and N6 as shown in the figure below:

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 After pressing the shifting arrow in the middle of the dialog box, the trace consisting of the
correct nodes but incorrect sequence N2-N3-N5-N6 will appear: In order to get the correct node
sequence N5-N2-N3-N6, we have to move N5 to the first position. This can be done by selecting
the node and moving it up by using the Move Up button.

In the end the trace definition should look like in the figure below:

After pressing Ok, the dialog box changes and we can insert cables along the trace. Therefore,
we switch to the Library tab on the left side and add NYFAZ_2x1qmm50 from the cable type
group Ribbon cables:

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Now, we press Ok closing the dialog box.

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 The new cable will be displayed in blue along N5-N2-N3-N6 inside the Main View. In addition,
the ribbon cable can be seen in the Cross Section window:

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Now we want to investigate the cross section in segment N2-N3 which is used by both cable
bundles. For this purpose, we select the corresponding segment (by double-click with the left
mouse button) in the Cable Navigation Tree.

A new dialog box appears and the overlapping wires inside the segment are immediately shown
in the Cross Section window:

The overlap can be resolved by manual editing or automatic bundling.

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 To resolve it through user interaction, we enter an appropriate coordinate for the new ribbon
cable or simply press Auto Bundle.

If Random bundling is deactivated, the program will maintain the position values (which were
either entered manually or automatically chosen with the help of the Auto Bundle button) later
on in the meshing and modeling process.

The second option would be to ignore the overlapping wires and to let the program resolve the
overlap automatically before starting the 2D-TL solver. In this case, the Random bundling button
has to be checked. The advantage of this function may not be obvious for such a simple

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configuration, but it is a powerful function if one has to deal with a complex cable harness
consisting of many segments and overlaps.

Cable bundle from Curve

For more complex routing it is possible to create any curves (without loops) that can then be
turned into a cable bundle for simulation in CST Cable Studio. The first step is to define a curve
by selecting e.g. Cables: Curves  Curves  Spline. Then double-click to create a series of
intermediate points. Finally press ESC and close the dialog using Ok.

The next step creates a cable bundle from this curve. Use Cables: Edit Cabling  Cable Bundles
 Cable Bundle from Curve, then pick the curve just created using a double mouse click.

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 The Edit Cable Bundle dialog box appears with a default name for the cable bundle and the user
is able to insert cable types (as mentioned in the previous section).

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We finish this section by explaining all terms that have not been introduced so far but will be used
in later chapters:

Cable Types
A specific cable may be realized with one of the following cable types:

Single wire
Twisted cables
Coaxial cables
Ribbon cables
Cable groups

Signals
Every wire inside a cable carries an individual electrical signal. For each of these signals a signal
path is generated. In case of shielded cables, for instance, a signal path for every shield will be
created. Every signal path starts and ends at a terminal where electrical loads or sources may
be defined.

Terminals
A terminal is the electrical input or output of a signal path.

Connectors
Connectors describe actual physical connectors from a real cable assembly. Each connector can
contain a list of plug-ins with a specific number of pins, where each pin can be linked to a terminal.

Plug-in
A plug-in is part of a connector and is a collection of pins.

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 Pins (Connector Pins)
A connector pin can be linked to a terminal. It is part of a plug-in and as such also part of a
connector. It is possible to link more than one terminal to a connector pin.

Junctions
Terminals can be connected to other terminals and connector pins can be connected to other
connector pins. This is possible by means of junctions.

Components
So far we have generated cables in the 3D space and CST Cable Studio has interpreted each
single conductor inside a cable as a potential carrier for a signal.
Every signal path starts and ends at a terminal where electrical loads or sources may be defined.
The user has to provide a current return path for each signal. This can be done either by defining
a separate conductor inside the cable or by defining a reference conductor with the help of
components.

In many cable configurations one can find an additional conducting body acting as reference
conductor for the return current or for shielding purposes. In order to define such metallic 3D
bodies, the whole range of CST Microwave Studio solid modeling possibilities are available. For
a detailed explanation on solid modeling the user is referred to the CST Studio Suite - Getting
Started manual. For the purpose of this manual the definition of two important metallic bodies will
be explained: a simple ground plane and the import of a complex car chassis.

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To define a simple ground plane select Modeling: Shapes Brick. Press ESC in order to show
the dialog box for inserting the coordinates by hand. Inside the dialog box enter the data as shown
in the next figure:

Note that the data field Material is set to PEC, because only perfect conductors or other metallic
materials are acting as a current return path. The 2D(TL) modeling process will consider both
metallic materials and normal (insulator type) materials.

25
 After pressing OK the new object is displayed in the Main View:

In the (MWS) Navigation Tree the new component is listed as an additional object:

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As a final step we set up a simple S-Parameter analysis. First we switch to the Schematic tab
and start the Macro Macros  Construct  Add Ports to all pins of a block. Afterwards, we create
S-Parameter task by clicking on Tasks  New Task.

We set the maximum frequency to 100MHz (switch project units if necessary) corresponding to
the default in the 2DTL settings and the number of samples to e.g. 500. Then we press Simulation
 Update and wait for the calculation to finish.

The results in Tasks SPara1 show the S-Parameters of the selected system that looks like this:

To conclude this section, we describe the import of a complex car chassis or other metallic shape.

26
 Chapter 3 – Examples
Having given a short introduction into the theoretical background, the user interface and how to set up a
cable harness, this chapter will present three insightful examples on the capabilities of CST Cable Studio.
The first two examples deal with the simulation of typical transmission line effects in cables. The third
example explains how to proceed when radiation from cables or susceptibility into cables has to be
investigated.

Transmission on a Coax Cable

The intention of this example is to acquaint you with the
 Cable library and the definition of materials and cable shields
 2D modeling dialog box and the generation of an equivalent circuit
 AC- and Transient circuit simulation with preparation of result curves

The Structure
In this example a single coaxial cable without any additional reference conductor will be modeled.

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Cable Definition
Create an empty CST Cable Studio project and save it as coax cable. The geometric units of
the project can be set with Home  Settings  Units:

The default units are correct for our example and should be kept.

27
 We create a straight coax cable with a length of 1m. To quickly define the cable we select Cable
Navigation Tree: Cable Bundles  New Cable Bundle by using the right mouse button. The
Create New Cable Bundle dialog box will appear where we generate the following end nodes:

We select both nodes (by Ctrl+left mouse button) and shift them to the right side by using the
shifting arrow in the middle of the dialog box.

The cable bundle dialog box should look like the figure below:

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After pressing Ok, the dialog box will change to the Edit Cable Bundle dialog. Here, we select the
Library tab and select a RG58 coaxial cable as shown in the figure below:

28
 Note: if you don’t see the full dialog box from above (but only a shrinked versions of that) you
have to press the “More”-button:

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After pressing Ok, the generated cable bundle will be displayed in the Main View:

29
 In order to see the characteristics of the cable, we pay a short visit to the Cable Types folder. We
go into Cable Navigation Tree: Cables Types  Coaxial cables and double-click on the RG58
cable which has been loaded from the Library.

The following dialog box will appear, listing the structure of a coax cable with the inner Wire, the
Insulator Inside (inside the screen), the Screen and the Insulator Outside (outside the screen).
On the right side of the dialog box the corresponding values are displayed:

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When selecting the content Insulator Inside the dialog box shows PE as material used for the
insulator:

30
 If we want to check the characteristics for this material, we can open the materials list by pressing
the Material button. If we right click on any material an Edit option opens a dialog box showing
the values of the important characteristics (which can also be edited affecting all PE used in the
project): Permittivity with Loss angle tan() and Frequency as well as Permeability:

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CST Cable Studio performs a broadband approximation of the loss angle. This approximation
guarantees a constant value of the defined loss angle within the frequency range where the
corresponding equivalent circuit of a cable (including the material) is valid.

31
 We finish the introduction of the characteristics of the RG58 cable by looking at the characteristics
of the screen. The dialog box shows that the type of the screen is a braided shield. This means
the screen does not consist of one solid conductor but is composed of many single conducting
and weaved wire strands. This impacts the shielding quality which is described by the so called
transfer impedance of the screen.

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In order to calculate the transfer impedance using an analytical formula (Kley model), five
parameters of the braided screen have to be set. Any change of the parameters below will
force an update in the impedance display:

 The inner diameter of the screen: this is automatically defined by the Insulator inside
definition of the inner dielectric (see page before).
 Strand diameter
 Number of strands in one carrier: a carrier is a package composed of a certain number
of filaments
 Number of carriers: the number of carriers that is used for the braid
 Braid angle: the angle with which the carriers are woven. As an alternative the Optical
coverage or the Picks per unit length can be defined instead of the Braid angle.

32
 2D Modeling
Before we generate an equivalent circuit let’s have a short look at the folder Signals in the Cable
Navigation Tree.

The inner wire and the outer screen of the coax cable are listed as two different signals. The
names of the signals are automatically generated by the program. In addition, for each signal two
terminals are allocated and can be distinguished by the prefix N1_ and N2_. These terminal
names will be used to name the pins of the equivalent circuit as we will see in the next step.

To generate the equivalent circuit, we choose Cables: 2D (TL) Modeling. A new dialog box
appears where we click on the Selection tab and see the two signals that were automatically
selected:

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We change to the Modeling tab and set the dialog box as follows:

We check Ohmic losses and Dielectric losses to consider metallic losses and with it the skin-
effect and dielectric of the inner insulator. We then press Apply.

33
 An important setting is the maximum frequency up to which the model should be valid. In this
example we want the maximum frequency to be 500MHz. We close the dialog, go to Simulation:
Settings  Frequency and enter the frequency range 0…500MHz as shown in the figure below:

1. We recommend to set the frequency range just as high as needed for your application,
because: The maximum frequency range affects the complexity of the equivalent circuit - the
higher the frequency the more complex the circuit is.
2. Every configuration has its own natural frequency limit and above this limit a model can’t be
produced because of the modeling method used by the program (see explanation for TEM-
modes in Chapter 4, General Methodology). The limiting factor is the cross section size of
the cable bundle – the larger the size of the cross section the lower the maximum possible
frequency range.

If we open the 2D (TL) Modeling again, we see that the frequency parameter “Model valid up to

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frequency” in the “Modeling” tab has been changed. To see the resulting circuit and to set up a
simulation we have to change to the Schematic tab.

Circuit Simulation and Results

In the Schematic tab the schematic symbol with its automatically generated terminal pins of the
cable model is displayed in the Main View.

We start with re-arranging the pins by right-mouse click on the block and selecting “Changing Pin
Layout…”.

The field below the block gets grey and the user is able to drag the pins with the mouse. We
arrange the two pins from node N1 at the left side and the two pins from node N2 at the right
side.

34
 Now we can prepare the circuit for an AC- task. For a detailed explanation on how to use the
schematic editor, please refer to the CST Studio Suite - Circuit Simulation and SAM (System
Assembly and Modeling) manual.

We begin putting a resistor on either side of the cable block. Next we draw a yellow external port
symbol on the left side of the left resistor. Right-click on the port symbol and we get a pull-down
menu where we can select Properties. The following dialog box appears where the “Differential”
button can be checked:

Next, we can complete the schematic as shown in the figure below:

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We have to put two differential probes on either side of the cable block. This can be done by
double-selecting both nets on the left (using <Ctrl> left mouse click) and selecting Home:
Components  Probe  Add Probe. The same is repeated on the right side. We have to make
sure that both probes have the correct orientation with the positive pole on the upper and the
negative pole on the lower side, as shown in the figure below:

If this is not the case, we select the probe, right-mouse click and choose “Change Probe
Direction” from the corresponding pull-down menu.

35
 To set up an AC-task we select Navigation Tree: Tasks  New Task and choose “AC, Combine
results” as shown in the figure below.

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After pressing Ok, a Task Parameter List will appear where we select the “Excitations” tab, click
on the “Load” parameter and choose “Define Excitation” as shown in the figure below:

36
 A new dialog box will appear as shown in the figure below:

We leave the default values and close the dialog again by pressing the OK button. In the
“Frequencies”-tab of the Task Parameter List we define 0 Hz as the minimum frequency and 500
MHz as the maximum frequency as shown in the figure below.

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Now we can start the simulation by pressing Home: Simulation  Update. In order to compare
the two differential voltages on both sides of the cable, we generate a new result folder and name
it “curves on both sides” as shown in the figure below:

37
 Next we drag P1 Diff and P2 Diff from the result folder FD Voltages into the new generated result
folder. The results should look like in the figure below:

In order to perform a Transient-task, a similar procedure has to be applied as explained for the
AC-task. We select Navigation Tree: Tasks  New Task (using the right mouse button). Again,
a Task Parameter List will appear, where we select the “Excitations” tab and define a pulse in

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the appearing dialog box as shown in the figure below:

38
 After pressing Ok, we select the “Transient” tab from the Task Parameter List. First, we click on
“Local Units” and change the time unit to “ns” in the appearing dialog box:

In a final step we can now set the maximum simulation time to 80 ns:

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Now, the Transient task is defined and we are able to select Update and start the simulation of
the transient task.

After a few seconds the task will be completed. We create a new result folder named Transient
Voltage and drag the two results P1 Diff and P2 Diff from the result folder TD Voltages into the
new generated folder. We should see something similar to the following result:

39
 We want to finish the example with a special note on a general characteristic of this cable model.
As mentioned at the beginning of the example (see sub chapter The Structure) the model was
generated without the presence of an additional reference conductor. Therefore, it makes sense
to put a pure differential termination on the model’s pins as in our example. Any termination that
forces currents to an imaginary ground (see figure below) is indeed allowed by the schematic
editor but wouldn’t lead to any reasonable results, neither in the simulation nor in the real world.

Note: the picture shows the way not to do the loading in case of a non-ground referenced
structure!

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40
 Crosstalk between two Wire Bundles
The aim of this example is to acquaint you with the
 search distance to couple cable bundles lying in different segments
 S-Parameter analysis
 difference between lumped models and modal models

Cable Definition
In this chapter we want to set up a simple cable harness consisting of two separate cable bundles.
All cables in a cable bundle are automatically coupled by their mutual capacitances and mutual
inductances. Electromagnetic coupling between different cable bundles depends on the given
search distance during meshing.

We create an empty project and save it as two cables. The geometric units are left to default.
We start with the definition of four nodes by double-clicking on Cable Navigation Tree: Nodes.
After the dialog box appears, we create the nodes by assigning the co-ordinates as shown in the
figure below:

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41
 Next we create a cable bundle with name B1 between N1 and N2 and put two single wires into it
as shown in the next dialog box:

We press Auto Bundle and then place another cable bundle B2 between N3 and N4 by pressing
the New Cable Bundle button. We put a single wire into it as shown in the dialog box below:

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We press Ok and close the dialog box.

42
 Next we select Cables: Options  View Options and change the settings for nodes as shown in
the following dialog box:

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The structure defined so far is displayed in the Main View:

43
 To finish the harness definition, we have to add a ground plane. We select Modeling: Shapes
Brick. After pressing ESC, the following dialog box will appear where we complete the settings
as shown below:

Finally we change to Simulation: Settings Frequency and set the maximum frequency to
500MHz as shown in the figure below:

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The structure should now look like this:

44
 Meshing and Simulation with two Different Search Distances
To generate a first model, we select Cables: 2D (TL) Modeling. The following dialog box
appears. In the Meshing tab we set Search distance for coupling of different bundles to 2 mm.

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We change to the Modeling tab and see that the value for “Model valid up to frequency” is set
to 500MHz, according to the maximum frequency setting in Simulation: Settings Frequency.
Now we press the Apply button on the top right.

Next we go back to tab Meshing and press the Show Mesh button. If the button is greyed out,
press Start meshing first. A new dialog will appear showing two separate cross section items:

For each selected item the corresponding cross section appears in the Cross Section window.
Each cable bundle was modeled individually and this means there won’t be any coupling
between the cable bundles.

45
 Now let’s change to the Schematic tab and set up an S-Parameter-task. We load the cable
block according to the figure below:

Note: connecting a resistor between a pin and the ground symbol does make sense in this
case, because the equivalent circuit behind the schematic symbol includes the information of
an existing reference conductor (the ground plane).

We are now able to set up the S-Parameter task. We select Navigation Tree: Tasks New
Task by using the right mouse button. In the dialog box we select S-Parameters and press OK.
In the appearing Task Parameter List we set the parameters the minimum and the maximum
frequency according to the figure below:

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46
 Now we start the simulation by selecting Home: Simulation  Update. After a few seconds the
task will be completed. To show the results on port 2 and port 3, we create a new result folder
with name crosstalk and drag curve S2,1 and S3,1 from the result folder S-Parameters into it:

After switching the Plot Type (Result Tools: Plot Type) from dB to Linear, the two result
curves should look like in the figure below:

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In a second step we go back to the 3D tab, open the Cables: 2D (TL) Modeling) dialog box once
again, select the Meshing tab and set the Search distance for coupling of different cable bundles
to 20 mm and press Apply.

We will be prompted to confirm the change. Next, we switch to the Schematic tab and start the
simulation task again. Note that the cable model is updated automatically.

47
 After the simulation has completed the result can be seen by again selecting the result folder
crosstalk. As expected, there is also coupling into pin N4_SW_3 now.

In order to see the reason for this, we change back to the 3D tab and reopen the 2D Meshing tab
(inside Cables: 2D (TL) Modeling).

After pressing the Show Mesh button, a single item will be shown instead of the two in the
previous one:

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By selecting the item and looking at the Cross Section window we see that there are three wires
inside the cross section, and this means both cable bundles have been coupled during the
modeling:

48
 We want to finish this example by going back to the 3D tab and selecting Cables: 2D (TL)
Modeling once again. We check Allow Modal Models in the Modeling tab and press Apply.

The difference between lumped and modal can be best explained using a simple, single
transmission line.

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Using the lumped modeling approach, a transmission line is approximated by a series of discrete
(or lumped) R, L, C devices as shown in the next figure:

Each R-L-C-combination models a short section of the transmission line. The valid frequency
range for the whole model is therefore limited by the length of this unit because the length of the
section must be considerably smaller than the shortest wavelength of the propagating signal.

The advantage of the lumped approach is its flexible usage inside a circuit simulation and its
suitability for modeling non-uniform transmission lines like twisted pairs. Disadvantages arise
when dealing with overall lengths of transmission lines much larger than the wavelength of its
transmitted signal. In this case the number of necessary sections is large and this causes a large
number of lumped elements inside the equivalent circuits.

Using the modal modeling approach, a transmission line is described by its secondary
transmission line characteristics like wave impedance Z and propagation delay . The size of the
model does not depend on the length of transmission line or on the maximum frequency and this
is a big advantage when dealing with long uniform transmission lines. Using this approach for
non-uniform transmission lines like twisted pairs requires some simplifications by the program
and this may slightly influence the accuracy. The modal approach can’t be used if the models
use hybrid field-to-cable coupling.

When checking Allow modal models the program automatically looks for electrically long sections
along the cable assembly and models these sections by modal models instead of lumped models.
Note: electrically long means a length that is considerably longer than the wavelength for the
maximum frequency set in the same dialog box.

To see how these modal models work we change to the Schematic tab. Before starting a new
simulation, we first save the results of the previous run. In order to do this, we select the existing

49
 result curves in folder crosstalk and uncheck Update Automatically by using the right mouse
button (do this for both curves).

Now we run a new simulation and notice that the simulation takes less time than before. After
completion of the simulation we create a new result folder and name it crosstalk modal as in the
figure below:

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We add curve S2,1 and S3,1, compare it with the results in folder crosstalk and notice no
considerable difference:

50
 Field Coupling from and into a Twisted Pair
The aim of this example is to acquaint you with the
 hybrid method for radiation (current substitution method)
 hybrid method for irradiation (field substitution method)
 difference between a balanced and un-balanced termination on a twisted pair

Cable Definition
In this chapter we want to set up a simple configuration of a straight 2m long twisted pair cable
placed 50mm over a ground plane. We create an empty Cable project and save it as twisted
pair. The geometric units are left to default. We start with the definition of the ground plane as
shown in the dialog box below:

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Next, we change to Simulation: Settings Frequency and set the maximum frequency to 200
MHz as shown in the figure below:

Next we right-mouse click at Navigation Tree: Cable Bundles and choose New Cable Bundle
from the pull-down menu. The Create New Cable Bundle dialog box appears where we define a
trace between nodes N1 and N2 as shown in the dialog box below:

51
 Note that the z-position of the nodes is 50mm. We press Ok and see the Edit Cable Bundles
dialog box where we add the standard twisted pair cable from the library into the trace:

We finish with pressing the OK button.

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In the following examples we want to connect both cable ends with the ground plane by using
capacitors. In order to inform the 3D field solver of such a connection of the cable nodes to the
3D objects, both cable ends have to be marked in a special way. We select the Nodes tab on the
left side of the dialog box and afterwards press the Connection to 3D button on the right side of
the dialog box:

A further dialog box appears which allows to select both end nodes of the cable bundle.

52
 We see that both nodes are prepared for a connection with the ground plane by default. Note:
Nodes prepared for a 3D connection appear in yellow color inside Main View, all other nodes will
be displayed in blue color.

We close the Connect to 3D dialog box, open the 2D (TL) Modeling dialog box and activate
Ohmic losses and Dielectric losses as shown in the figure below:

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After pressing Apply the settings will be updated.

Hybrid Method for Radiation from a Cable

To simulate the radiation of the cable we now change to the Schematic tab and see the generated
schematic symbol. Before we set up the schematic (see figure below), we have to make sure that
both pins of node N1 are arranged on the left side and both pins of node N2 are arranged on the
right side.

We start with adding at the left side by adding two capacitors (both with a value of 1 pF), two
resistors (both with value of 50 Ohm) and a differential port.

On the right side we add a resistor of 100 Ohm and two capacitors with different values. The
upper one has a value of 1pF, but the lower one has a value of 100pF. This difference causes

53
 an unbalance that will affect the radiation result. To finish the schematic, we add a differential
probe on the right side of the cable block.

Next we create an AC-task and do the following settings for Fmin, Fmax and Samples in the
“Frequencies”-tab of the appearing Task Parameter List:

The 3D field solvers are indeed able to perform a calculation in a broad frequency range, but
since we are only interested in a field distribution plot at a single frequency point, we confine the
number of frequencies.

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At last, we define a voltage source with the help of the ”Excitations”-tab

with the following settings:

54
 Before we start the simulation we have to prepare the circuit simulation to write out the common
mode current along the cable path for the 3D field calculation. Therefore, we change in the “Cable
Field Coupling”-tab of the Task Parameter List and select Uni-directional Radiation as shown in
the figure below:

Now we can close the Task Parameter List and change to the 3D tab to see that Units,
Background Material, Boundary Conditions and Frequency are already set.

In order to get a distribution of the radiated field, we have to set a field monitor. We select
Navigation Tree: Field Monitors and choose New Field Monitor by using the right mouse button:

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A dialog box will appear where we select monitor type H-Field and Surface current:

55
 We leave the Frequency at the proposed value of 100MHz, and press OK. We now see a field
monitor item in the Navigation Tree and also a corresponding frame in the Main View:

We switch back to the Schematic tab and start the simulation by pressing the Update button.

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To display the radiated magnetic field we change back to the 3D tab, select Navigation Tree:
2D/3D Results  H-Field  h-field (f=100) [AC1] and finally we select Contour in 2D/3D Plot: 
Plot Type.

To better see the magnetic field distribution on a 2D plane we select 2D/3D Plot:  Sectional
View  Fields on Plane switch the Normal to Z in 2D/3D Plot:  Sectional View and display the
magnetic field at Position 50 mm (the position where the cable is located):

56
 After rotating the whole structure according to the figure below and clamping the Color Ramp to
0.0002…0.02 A/m, we see something like the following magnetic field distribution:

Note: Depending on the setup of this example the field distribution can differ slightly. The
contributing factors are geometry, twist/lay settings of the cable and the actual resonance

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frequency of the system. One resonance frequency of this example is at or close to 100MHz
which we use for this example.

To demonstrate the influence of a better balanced termination on the twisted pair, we change to
the Schematic tab and modify the 100pF capacitor to 1pF:

Now the termination is fully balanced and we repeat the whole simulation by updating the AC-
task once more.

57
 After a few seconds the simulations will be complete. Again we plot the magnetic field distribution
and clamp Color Ramp to 0.0002…0.02A/m as was done before. We see the magnetic field
distribution has vanished:

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We have now seen how the signals inside a cable and the termination on the cable’s ends can
influence the 3D field around it. In the next section we will investigate the influence of the 3D field
on the cable signals.

58
 Hybrid Method for Irradiation into a Cable
To see how external fields can be coupled into the existing twisted pair cable, we first create a
plane wave excitation in CST Cable Studio. In order to do this, we go into the Navigation Tree,
close the 2D/3D Results folder, select the Plane Wave folder and choose New Plane Wave by
using the right mouse button.

In the following dialog box we change the settings as shown in the figure below:

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After pressing OK we are prompted to confirm the deletion of the old results:

We press OK and select the new plane wave item in the Navigation Tree.
After doing so you will see the plane wave in the Main View:

59
 Next, we call the T-Solver dialog box (by selecting Home: Simulation  Setup Solver) and select
Plane Wave as Source type as shown in the figure below:

Next, we press Apply, close the dialog box and change to the Schematic tab where we make

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three modifications.

First, we change the value of the lower capacitor to 100pF again:

Next, in order to force the 3D solver to calculate the induced voltages along the cable path, we
click on the task AC1 in the Navigation tree and open the Task Parameter List. We select the
Cable Field Coupling tab and choose Uni-directional Irradiation as shown in the figure below:

60
 Now we change to the Frequencies tab and set the number of frequency samples to 200:

At last we change to the Excitations tab

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And set the value of the voltage souce to 0 (zero):

Now we press OK and start the simulation. We notice that the 3D field simulation is executed
first, followed by the circuit simulation with the AC task. The whole sequence takes only a few
seconds.

61
 To display the induced voltage on the right side of the twisted pair cable, we select P1Diff in the
FD Voltages result folder and get a result like this (the magnitudes may vary slightly):

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Next, we force the scaling to fixed values. In order to do this, we go with the mouse pointer into
the Main View and choose Plot Properties by pressing the right mouse button. In the dialog box
we uncheck Auto range of the Y Axis field as depicted in the figure below and press OK.

62
 In order to see the changes when we balance the termination network on the right side of the
cable, we will now change the 100pF capacitor to 1pF:

After a new simulation run the result will change to a zero line:

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

63
 Chapter 4 – General Methodology
CST Cable Studio is designed for ease of use. However, to work with the tool in the most efficient
way the user should know the principal method behind it. The main purpose of this chapter is to
explain the theoretical concepts and the constraints on its use.

The central method of CST Cable Studio is based on classical transmission line theory. In this
method the geometric and material characteristics of a cable are transformed into an equivalent
circuit that can be simulated in time and frequency domains.

Standard Workflow
In the first step a complex cable harness is divided into a finite number of straight segments. For
each segment the program checks for any metallic and insulator shapes surrounding the cables.
All cables in a segment - in combination with additional metallic and insulator shapes from the
3D environment - define its cross section. This whole process is called Meshing.

In the second step the primary transmission line parameter per unit length (R’, L’, C’, G’) is
calculated from each segment by a static 2D field solver. Afterwards each segment will be
transformed into an equivalent circuit. Finally, all circuits will be connected together into one
single electrical model representing the whole cable. This process is called Modeling.

The second step implies that only TEM propagation modes can be considered and this fact
causes the following constraints which are described below:

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 TEM propagation mode means that there are at least two separate conductors necessary
to enable one single propagation mode (to enable forward and return current). In general
N conductors are necessary to enable N-1 propagation modes. One single wire inside
open space without any reference (typical antenna structure) won’t be modeled correctly
for a frequency higher than DC.

 The generated equivalent circuits are only valid within a frequency range from DC to the
maximum frequency. This is due to the fact that the primary transmission line parameters
are static parameters and only valid if the geometric dimensions behind the calculation
are significantly smaller than the shortest wavelength of the propagating wave.

 Discontinuities like bends, deviations or cable ends will not be considered when using
the standard workflow.

In the third step the electrical model of the cable can be further processed in the Circuit
Simulation. To make this possible the model will be automatically transferred to a circuit simulator
where the user is able to define several loadings (passive/active, linear/non-linear) and to
calculate the transmission behavior of the cable in time and frequency domains.

Additional Workflow for Uni-and Bi-Directional Cable-to-Field Coupling

Many industrial applications deal with cables inside an additional metallic environment (e.g.
ground planes in laboratory setups, car chassis). In the presence of such reference conductors
one propagation mode is of special interest. This mode is called common mode and consists of
the sum of the currents of all wires inside the cable bundle and the corresponding return current
back through the reference conductor. Significant common mode currents are often the reason
for considerable EMI/EMS problems.

If a reference conductor is part of the configuration, the method used by CST Cable Studio is
able to calculate the common mode by summing up all currents in the cable bundle during an AC
task. The “common mode current” along the cable path can automatically be passed to a 3D full-
wave solver where it can be used as an impressed field source. This method is called a uni-
directional cable-to-field coupling.

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 If the cable was modeled for uni-directional coupling the cable itself is not physically present
during the 3D full wave simulation. Because of this, the reaction of the generated field (generated
by the impressed current) back to the cable will be neglected. This approach limits the range of
applications to configurations where most of the radiated energy will not be scattered back to the
cable. This is true for many configurations with cables along open metallic chassis. The
assumption is not true in case of a resonant cable inside a nearly closed metallic enclosure.
Therefore, when using this current substitution method, the user has to check if the application
fulfills the necessary assumption.

Note: If there is no reference conductor, CST Cable Studio will always predict a common mode
current of zero. Any oscillating antenna modes which may exist in the higher frequency range
(when dimension of lambda equals length of cable) won’t be considered because the basic
method is only able to simulate TEM-modes.

The procedure described above can also be used for considering the common mode impact of
an external electromagnetic field onto a cable. Here, the 3D full-wave solver will calculate the
tangential electric field along the cable path (while the cable itself is not physically present). In a
next step the solver will automatically convert these values to voltages and finally pass the
voltages to a circuit simulator. During an AC-task the voltages can be used to calculate the
induced currents on the cable. The limitation of this field substitution method is identical to the
current substitution method.

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

If the described uni-directional coupling methods are not sufficient, CST Cable Studio also offers
the most general method, namely the bi-directional coupling between cable- and field-solver in
time-domain. In this case, currents and voltages are exchanged in every time step between the
3D full-wave field simulator and the circuit simulator cables and loadings. This method can (and
has to) be applied in case of resonating structures, where radiation and irradiation effects act
simultaneously.

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 Chapter 5 – Finding Further Information
Online Documentation
The online help system is your primary source of information. You can access the help system’s
overview page at any time by choosing File: Help  Help Contents . The online help system
includes a powerful full text search engine.

In each of the dialog boxes, there is a specific Help button which 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 block is selected, you will obtain some
information about the block’s properties.

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

Please refer to the CST Studio Suite - Getting Started manual to find some more detailed
explanations about the usage of the CST Studio Suite Online Documentation.

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.

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

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

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, you should
browse through these lists even if you are already familiar with one of the previous releases.

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