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Auto mode and quality

Auto mode is the default. You set the centre frequency and bandwidth, pick a quality level, and RayRF derives the mesh, the PML, the air margins, and the ringdown criterion for you. Advanced mode exposes those derived parameters as editable fields. Both modes run the same simulation. The difference is which knobs are visible.

Quality slider

The Quality slider is continuous, with four named stops along the way. The summary line under the slider updates as you drag and shows the resulting mesh cell count, the peak VRAM estimate, and the runtime relative to Low.

  • Low. Coarse mesh. Good for sanity checking the project setup, a rough resonance, or sweeping a parameter.
  • Medium. Engineering accuracy on most boards. The default for the patch antenna example.
  • High. Finer mesh with tighter convergence. A reasonable default for a final run.
  • Very High. For validation work and convergence studies. Expect minutes to hours.

Frequency range

Two equivalent input modes:

  • Centre and bandwidth. Set the centre frequency and the bandwidth you want covered. The app computes Fmin and Fmax from those.
  • F min / F max. Set the band edges directly.
Do not over-spec the bandwidth
The Notices panel warns when the bandwidth exceeds about 100% of the centre frequency. The Gaussian pulse becomes inefficient and the air margin has to grow to match the lowest frequency. If you really need a decade of bandwidth, run multiple narrower simulations and stitch them.

Minimum feature size

Each axis (X, Y, Z) has an optional minimum feature size. A non-zero value forces the mesh to resolve features at least that fine on that axis. Use it for thin Z dielectrics where you do not want to blow up the X / Y cell count. Hover the small ? next to the field for the in-app explanation.

Options

  • Compute Radiation Pattern. Runs the near-field-to-far-field transform after the FDTD pass. Usually on.
  • Save Surface Currents. Stores per-frequency surface-current snapshots for the Field Viewer. Adds disk and runtime overhead.
  • Perform Convergence Study. Runs the same project twice at progressively finer mesh and reports the difference. Uncheck for fast iteration.
  • Use CPU backend. Switches the solver from the GPU path to the CPU path. The CPU backend is roughly an order of magnitude slower than the GPU on the same machine. Reach for it when no compatible NVIDIA GPU is available, or when validating a result against the CPU implementation.

Auto vs Advanced mode

Click Advanced at the top of the Mode panel to expose every derived parameter: per-axis cell sizes, mesh-grading multipliers, PML cell counts, air-margin overrides, the energy ringdown criterion, the NF2FF resolution, and the field-export controls. The geometry, frequency, and ports do not change. The simulation runs the same way. You see and edit the parameters Auto picked silently.

The Transfer to Advanced Mode button copies the derived values from Auto into the Advanced fields. Use it when you want Auto's sensible defaults as a starting point and then plan to tweak one parameter without re-deriving everything by hand.

Transfer overwrites Advanced state
Transfer to Advanced overwrites whatever was in the Advanced fields before. The button confirms first. If you have hand-tuned Advanced settings you want to keep, save the project before transferring.

Notices and warnings

Simulation problems show up in two places. The Notices panel at the bottom of the editor lists ongoing issues like no ports defined, port not over copper, or bandwidth too wide. When you press Run, any still-active warnings are collected into the Simulation Warnings dialog so you can decide whether to proceed.

The dialog lists every warning with its severity. The four buttons:

  • Cancel. Do not run. Go back and fix the issues.
  • Run and Dismiss Type. Run, and silence this category of warning for the rest of the session.
  • Run and Dismiss These. Run, and silence only these specific warning instances. Other warnings of the same type still trigger the dialog next time.
  • Run Anyway. Run and leave warnings as-is. The Notices panel still shows them.

Hard blockers like a port not over copper or geometry off the canvas skip the warnings dialog and go straight to a Simulation Blocked dialog. See Ports and excitation for that flow.