EM Studio (exe file)

EM Studio is a free Electromagnetic Field Simulation software for Windows based on the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method.

To use EM Studio, download and extract emstudio.rar. Then, run EMStudio.exe. You can also find the binaries files at https://github.com/carisio/emstudio/releases/ .

For a brief tutorial, see the samples projects section.

Cite this project as:

• Leandro Carísio Fernandes and Antonio José Martins Soares, "Software Architecture for the Design of Electromagnetic Simulators [EM Programmer's Notebook]", IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Volume: 55, Issue: 1, Feb. 2013, DOI: 10.1109/MAP.2013.6474511.

Samples projects

1 - Monopole mounted on a conducting rectangular box

2 - Line-fed rectangular microstrip antenna

3 - Microstrip low-pass filter

4 - Propagation delay through dieletric slab

Compiling EM Studio

The source code of EM Studio is also available. This section shows how to compile it. It considers that you are running 64-bit version of Windows.

A brief description of the architecture of EM Studio can be found in:

• Leandro Carísio Fernandes and Antonio José Martins Soares, "Software Architecture for the Design of Electromagnetic Simulators [EM Programmer's Notebook]", IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Volume: 55, Issue: 1, Feb. 2013, DOI: 10.1109/MAP.2013.6474511. https://doi.org/10.1109/MAP.2013.6474511

Preparing to compile EM Studio (last instructions: 27 January 2023)

You will need a set of tools:

1. Download and install a compiler.

   • In this tutorial we will consider MinGW-64. You can download it at http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/download . Select the installer for TDM64 MinGW-w64 edition (current version: tdm64-gcc-10.3.0-2.exe)
   • After install, add the bin folder path to Windows PATH variable. If you use the default folder, its path is C:\TDM-GCC-64\bin . Note: during the installation, the default options already set it to the PATH variable.

2. EM Studio uses wxWidgets. It is necessary to download its source code and build it:

   • This version was tested with wxWidgets 3.2.1.
   • You can download it at https://www.wxwidgets.org/downloads/ . Download the source code (Windows zip file) and extract it to c:\wxWidgets-3.2.1 .
   • To build, open a console Windows (cmd) and execute the following commands (this process can take some time):
     • cd C:\wxWidgets-3.2.1\build\msw
     • mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=release SHARED=0 UNICODE=1 USE_OPENGL=1 CXXFLAGS=-std=gnu++11 -Wall
     • mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug SHARED=0 UNICODE=1 USE_OPENGL=1 CXXFLAGS=-std=gnu++11 -Wall

3. Configure OpenGL libraries:

   • Download freeglut 3.0.0 MinGW Package, available at http://www.transmissionzero.co.uk/software/freeglut-devel/ .
   • The file freeglut-MinGW-3.0.0-1.mp.zip has three folders: freeglut\bin, freeglut\include, and freeglut\lib.
     • Copy the GL folder of freeglut\include to c:\TDM-GCC-64\include;
     • Copy the files of freeglut\lib\x64 to C:\TDM-GCC-64\lib\gcc\x86_64-w64-mingw32\10.3.0;
     • Copy the freeglut.dll file of freeglut\bin\x64 to c:\windows\system32. You will need to register this dll. Open the console (cmd) and type regsvr32 freeglut.dll.

4. Download an IDE

   • In this tutorial we will consider the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ developers, available at https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/eclipse-packages/ .
   • After download it, you just need to extract the zip file and run the file eclipse.exeto open it.

Compiling EM Studio

To compile EM Studio, follow these steps:

1. Download or clone this repository. The EMStudio folder contains the Eclipse project for EM Studio.

2. In Eclipse, click File > Import > General > Existing Projects into Workspace. Select the folder that you extract or cloned this repository.

   • Note: The project is configured considering the instalation of wxWidgets in C:\wxWidgets-3.2.1. If you are using a previous version of wxWidgets or if it is installed in other folder, you will need to open the project properties (right click on the project, select Properties). In C/C++ Build, change the variable WX_PATH to point to your wxWidgets folder;

3. All bitmap files are stored in a resource file. You will need to compile it before compile/link EM Studio. Open a console window (cmd), and run:

   • cd EMS_FOLDER\src\emstudio\util\resources . Note: replace EMS_FOLDER for the location where you extract the EM Studio project;
   • windres -iresource.rc -oresource.o -IC:\wxWidgets-3.2.1\include

4. In Eclipse, select your project, click in menu Project > Build Project.

5. After the building process, depending on the build configuration (debug or release), the EMStudio.exe file will be at EMS_FOLDER\release or EMS_FOLDER\debug.

• Note: In the step 3 of the last section, if you didn't register freeglut.dll, you will need to copy this file to the same folder that EMStudio.exe is.