Although QuickField 5.0 is supplied with the new version 5.0 of QuickField Type Library, all
applications built with the previous version 4.3, should be compatible with QuickField 5.0. If
you need your ActiveField-enabled application to be able to work with both QuickField versions,
build it with QuickField.tlb version 4.3.
Below is the list of main additions in QuickField Type Library 5.0 compared to version 4.3.
QuickField 5.0 introduces new object type, FieldQuantity,
together with accompanying collection type, FieldQuantities,
to provide easy and convenient handling of physical quantities you might need to evaluate
analyzing the problem solution.
Every FieldQuantity object describes a physical quantity that is calculated while you
analyze the problem result. It exposes properties and methods you use for identification and
classification of the quantity and for calculation of its values. The object never represents
any quantity value. Instead, it exposes the Calculate
method to calculate the value either at the required point or by integrating over the required
contour.
In ActiveField, you always access individual FieldQuantity objects as members of related FieldQuantities
collections containing all physical quantities accessible in particular context. To access these
collections you use your problem’s Result property. It
represents the object that provides several properties of FieldQuantities type. The
collections represented by these properties contain FieldQuantity objects related to your
problem type. When you access the Result object’s property with a Point or a Contour argument,
the represented collection contains only the objects whose values QuickField can calculate at
the point or over the contour defined by the argument. When you access the property without
arguments, the collection contains all FieldQuantity objects related to your problem
type.
FieldQuantity objects and collections add integrity to the existing approach to physical
quantities. In future, the new approach will simplify integration of user-defined
quantities into the existing ActiveField architecture.
As in QuickField 4.3, you can use the GetIntegralmethod
of any Result object to calculate integral field quantities.
This method requires its first argument to be the integer value uniquely defining the integral
quantity you are going to calculate. With type library version 4.3 you used one of enumerated QfIntegrals constants as the method’s first argument.
Although the new type library version, 5.0, supports the old style, we recommend to use one of
enumerated QfQuantity constants instead. For example, this
set of constants contains an interval (starting with qfPotential_ds = 5000) reserved for
integral quantities only.
In QuickField 5.0 we added a new property to the Application
object. The Version property represents the string equal to
the installed QuickField version as you see it in the Help->About dialog window.
QuickField 5.0 introduces the new type of problems – transient electromagnetic problems. The
ActiveField interface to the new problem type is the same as the interface to transient heat
transfer problems. The associated enumerated constant in QfProblemTypesis qfElectromagnetics.
To access local field values in transient electromagnetic problems use FieldPointTE objects. FieldPointTE is a
subclass of FieldPoint encapsulating several properties specific for transient magnetic
problems. These properties include:
QuickField 5.0 introduces the possibility to make field sources and some of boundary conditions
time-dependent. You define such parameters with QuickField Formula Strings. ActiveField exposes
fields that can be defined with formula strings via properties whose names end with Ex.
Such a property always has the Variant value with underlying numeral or string. When such
property value is numeric, ActiveField treats it as a constant. Otherwise, ActiveField treats
the value as a formula string and checks its syntax upon assignment. When ActiveField encounters
a syntax error, it reports it to you.
Below is the complete list of such properties along with related usage samples:
LoadingEx property of LabelBlockMS
and LabelBlockHT objects exposes the value or the
formula defining the field source volume density.
Example:
Dim lbl1 As QuickField.LabelBlockMS Dim lbl2 As QuickField.LabelBlockMS Dim lbl3 As QuickField.LabelBlockMS
. . . ‘ The following two lines produce the same
result lbl1.Loading = 1e5;
lbl2.LoadingEX = 1e5
‘ The following line sets formula-defined
property value lbl3.LoadingEx = “1e5 * sin (2*3.14159*60 / t)”
LoadingEx property of LabelVertexMS objects
exposes the value or the formula defining the concentrated current in a conductor. The same
property of LabelVertexHT objects exposes the value of
a concentrated heat source.
NeumannEx property of LabelEdgeMS and LabelEdgeHT objects exposes the value or the formula
defining Neumann boundary condition (boundary condition of the second kind).
LabelEdgeHT objects expose several methods allowing to
access formula-defined values. All of these methods are similar to the old methods (named
without Ex), the only difference being that they take Variant arguments. Defining
the arguments you can use double constants or formula strings.
Returns TRUE if the convection boundary condition is set, otherwise returns FALSE.
If the method returns TRUE, optional output arguments Alpha and T take
the values or formula strings for the film coefficient and the temperature of
contacting fluid medium respectively.
Sets (when Set=TRUE) or removes (when Set= FALSE) the convection
boundary condition. Alpha and T arguments contain the values or formula strings for the
film coefficient and the contacting medium temperature respectively.
Returns TRUE if the radiation boundary condition is set, otherwise returns FALSE.
If the method returns TRUE, optional output arguments Beta and T take
the values or formula strings for the emissivity coefficient and the ambient
radiation temperature respectively.
Sets (when Set = TRUE) or removes (when Set = FALSE) the radiation
boundary condition. Beta and T arguments contain the values or formula strings for the
emissivity coefficient and the ambient radiation temperature respectively.
Returns TRUE if the second kind boundary condition is set, otherwise returns FALSE.
If the method returns TRUE, optional output argument Flux takes the value or
the formula string for the normal component of the heat flux
Sets (when Set = TRUE) or removes (when Set = FALSE) the second kind
boundary condition. Flux argument contains the value or the formula string for the normal
component of the heat flux.
We introduce a new tutorial sample teaching how to create a
simple parametric analysis application. As its model, the sample uses screened conductor with
alternate current. It investigates the field in the external screen area placing a test
conductor into the required point.
The tutorial is organized as a Microsoft Word document containing the description of the sample,
the tables with input data and VBA macros. This tutorial provides more detailed description of
ActiveField programming technique than the Cable sample. Besides that, the tutorial is divided
into simple consecutive steps and can be used both with Professional and with Student’s
versions of QuickField.
Conductor tutorial also demostrates how to use Microsoft® Graph™ to draw nice graphs.