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    Connecting Wires

    Created On
    Updated On
    By:Tony Golden

    A wire junction is automatically established when the coordinates of a wire end match the end coordinates of a previously added wire. Wire junctions are essential to satisfy Kirchhoff’s current law at the connection point.

    Figure 1 illustrates the correct and incorrect ways to connect two wires. To connect the end of wire 1 to a point on wire 2 that is not an end, you must split wire 2 into two wires. This means three wires will be needed instead of two to make the connection.

    Fig. 1: Incorrect and correct methods for connecting wires.

    Connecting Wires by Copying and Pasting Ends

    Two wires can be connected by copying and pasting their ends:

    1. Right-click on a wire to select it.
    2. From the pop-up menu, choose Copy Start Point or Copy End Point to copy the coordinates of the wire end to an internal clipboard.
    3. Paste the copied point in the Draw dialog box when adding a new wire by clicking the From Point button, located just above the start point coordinates (X1, Y1, Z1) (see Fig. 2).

    Note:

    • When a wire is selected in the workspace, it will be highlighted in light blue, and an arrow will appear at the End Point. The opposite end is the Start Point.
    • Wire orientation serves as the electrical reference for the phase of the current distribution. However, it does not affect observables such as input impedance (and thus VSWR or S11) or radiation pattern metrics (directivity, gain, efficiency, etc.).
    Fig. 2: Connecting wires by copying and pasting ends.

    Copying Start and End Points via the Wire Properties Window

    The Start and End Points of a wire can also be copied to the AN-SOF internal clipboard for use in a dialog box to draw another wire, using buttons in the Wire Properties window. This procedure is demonstrated in the video below and explained in detail in the following section.

    Procedure for Connecting Two Wires at Their Ends

    This procedure demonstrates how to connect the Start or End Point of wire #1 to the Start Point of wire #2:

    1. Right-click on wire #1 to display a pop-up menu.
    2. Choose the Copy Start Point or Copy End Point command. This command is also available in the Wire Properties window of the selected wire (see Fig. 3).
    3. In this example, wire #2 will be a Line. Navigate to Draw > Line in the main menu to open the Draw dialog box for the Line.
    4. Click the From Point button to paste the copied point (see Fig. 4). Then, complete the definition of wire #2.

    Using this procedure, any number of wires can be connected at the same point.

    Fig. 3(a): Wire Properties window for wire #1 – Click the Start Point button to copy this wire end.
    Fig. 3(b): Wire Properties window for wire #1 – Click the End Point button to copy this wire end.
    Fig. 4: Draw dialog box for wire #2 – Click the From Point button to paste the copied end of wire #1.
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