1 .TH atlc 1 "atlc-4.4.2 10th Sept 2003" "Dr. David Kirkby"
4 \fBatlc\fR - an Arbitrary Transmission Line Calculator
6 \fBatlc [-C] [-s] [-S] [-v] [-c cutoff] [-d rrggbb=Er] [-i factor] [-i prefix] [-t threads] [-r rate_multiplier] bitmapfile\fR
9 This man page is not a complete set of documentation - the complexity of the atlc project makes man pages not an ideal way to document it, although out of completeness, man pages are produced.
10 The best documentation that was current at the time the version was produced
13 /usr/share/doc/atlc/html\-docs/index.html
15 Sometimes, errors are corrected
16 in the documentation and placed at http://atlc.sourceforge.net/ before a new release of atlc is
17 released. Please, if you notice a problem with the documentation - even spelling errors and typos,
21 \fBatlc\fR is a finite difference program that is used to calculate the
22 properties of a two-conductor electrical transmission line of arbitrary
23 cross section. It is used whenever there are no analytical formula known,
24 yet you still require an answer. It can calculate:
26 The impedance Zo (in Ohms)
28 The capacitance per unit length (pF/m)
30 The inductance per unit length (nF/m)
32 The velocity of propagation v (m/s)
34 The velocity factor, v/c, which is dimensionless.
36 A bitmap file (usually with the extension .bmp or .BMP) is drawn in a graphics
37 package such as \fBGimp\fR available from http://www.gimp.org. The bitmap
38 file \fBmust\fR be saved as a 24-bit (16,777,216 colour) uncompqessed file. The
39 colours used in the bitmap indicate whether the region is a conductor (pure
40 red, pure green or pure blue) or a dielectric (anything else). Pure white
41 is assumed to be a vacuum dielectric, but other colours have different meanings.
42 See COLOURS below for precise definitions of the colours.
46 print copyright, licensing and copying information.
50 Skip writing the Ex, Ey, E, V, U and Er bitmap (.bmp) files
53 Skip writing the Ex, Ey, E, V, U and Er binary (.bin) files
57 makes the output more verbose/talkative.
61 Sets the convergence criteria of the finite difference program. The
62 default is 0.0001, meaning two separate iterations must be within
63 01% for the program to stop iterating. Setting to a smaller positive
64 number gives more accuracy, but takes longer.
68 is used to indicate the colour 0xrrggbb in the bitmap is used to
69 represent a material with permittivity Er. See also COLOURS below
73 is used to lighten or darken the .bmp electric field profile images
74 produced by atlc. Set factor > 2 to lighten or between 1 and 2 to
77 \fB-r ratemultiplier\fR
79 Sets the parameter 'r' used internally when computing the voltage at a point w,h.
80 The default, which is (as of version 3.0.0) 1.95, results in what is believed to be
81 optimal results. Setting to 1.0 will avoid the use of the fast convergence method,
82 which is generally not a good idea.
86 Adds 'prefix', which is usually a directory name, in front of the output files.
94 The 24-bitmaps that atlc uses have 8 bits assigned
95 to represent the amount of red, 8 for blue and 8 for green. Hence there are
96 256 levels of red, green and blue, making a total of 256*256*256=16777216 colours.
97 Every one of the possible 16777216 colours can be defined precisely by the stating the exact amount
98 of red, green and blue, as in:
101 red = 255,000,000 or 0xff0000
103 green = 000,255,000 or 0x00ff00
105 blue = 000,000,255 or 0x0000ff
107 black = 000,000,000 or 0x000000
109 white = 255,255,255 or 0xffffff
111 Brown = 255,000,255 or 0xff00ff
113 gray = 142,142,142 or 0x8e8e8e
115 Some colours, such as pink, turquiose, sandy, brown, gray etc may mean slightly
116 different things to different people. This is not so with atlc, as the
117 program expects the colours below to be exactly defined as given. Whether
118 you feel the colour is sandy or yellow is up to you, but if you use it in
119 your bitmap, then it either needs to be a colour reconised by atlc, \fBor\fR
120 you \fBmust\fR define it with a command line option (see OPTIONS).
122 red = 255,000,000 or 0xFF0000 is the live conductor.
124 green = 000,255,000 or 0x00FF00 is the grounded conductor.
126 blue = 000,000,255 or 0x0000FF is the negative conductor
128 All bitmaps \fBmust\fR have the live (red) and grounded (green) conductor. The blue
129 conductor is used to indicate a negative conductor, is needed when the program
130 is used to analyse directional couplers.
132 The following dielectrics are reconised by \fRatlc\fB:
135 white 255,255,255 or 0xFFFFFF as Er=1.0 (vacuum)
137 pink 255,202,202 or 0xFFCACA as Er=1.0006 (air)
139 L. blue 130,052,255 or 0x8235EF as Er=2.1 (PTFE)
141 Mid gray 142,242,142 or 0x8E8E8E as Er=2.2 (duroid 5880)
143 mauve 255.000,255 or 0xFF00FF as Er=2.33 (polyethylene)
145 yellow 255,255,000 or 0xFFFF00 as Er=2.5 (polystyrene)
147 sandy 239,203,027 or 0xEFCC1A as Er=3.3 (PVC)
149 brown 188,127,096 or 0xBC7F60 as Er=3.335 (epoxy resin)
151 L. yellow 223,247,136 or 0xDFF788 as Er=3.7 (FR4 PCB)
153 Turquoise 026,239,179 or 0x1AEFB3 as Er=4.8 (glass PCB)
155 Dark gray 142,142,142 or 0x696969 as Er=6.15 (duroid 6006)
157 L. gray 240,240,240 or 0xDCDCDC as Er=10.2 (duroid 6010)
159 D. orange 213,160,067 or 0xD5A04D as Er=100.0 (mainly for test purposes)
163 Here are a few examples of the use of atlc. Again, see the html documentation in atlc-X.Y.Z\docs\html-docs,
164 the documentation on your system (normally at /usr/local/share/atlc/docs/html\-docs/index.html ) or online
165 at http://atlc.sourceforge.net for examples.
167 \fBex_1 % atlc coax2.bmp\fR
169 This is a simple example (ex_1), in which the geometry of a transmission line is defined in coax2.bmp. In
170 this example, only the predefined dielectrics (Er =1.0, 1.0006, 2.1, 2.2, 2.33, 2.5, 3.3, 3.335, 3.7,
172 or 10.2) could have been used in the bitmap, which would have been done with one of 13 different colours. white (0xFFFFFF) for Er=1.0, pink (0xFFCACA) for 1.0006 etc.
173 No other colour (dielectric) could have been used, since it was not
174 specified with the -d option.
177 \fBex_2 % atlc -d f9e77d=2.43 somefile.bmp \fR
179 In ex_2, a dielectric with Er=2.43 was wanted. A colour with the RGB values of 0xF9E7&d was
180 used. The -d option tells atlc what Er this colour refers to.
183 \fBex_3 % atlc -v coax2.bmp\fR
185 In ex_3, atlc has been instructed to print the results of intermediate calculations to stdout.
186 Normally, only the final result is printed. Using -vv even more information may be produced, but this
187 is really of only use to the developer of the project.
191 Original bitmap file. Must be 24-bit colour uncompressed.
195 X-component of E-field as a bitmap. Red=+dV/dx, blue =-dV/dx
198 y-component of E-field as a bitmap. Red=+y, blue =-y
202 E-field, as E=sqrt(Ex^2+Ey^2).
206 Voltage as a bitmap, red= positive, blue =negative.
210 Bitmap showing the permittivity as a grayscale. Lighter is a higher
218 In addition to the bitmaps, the data is also saved in binary files.
220 All the saved binary files (.bin's) are saved as a double precision
221 number for each of the pixels. The first double is the top left, the
222 last the bottom right. If the original image has width W and height H,
223 the saved binary files will be W-1 by H-1.
225 All the saved bitmap files are 24-bit uncompressed, just like the input
230 create_bmp_for_circ_in_circ(1)
231 create_bmp_for_circ_in_rect(1)
232 create_bmp_for_microstrip_coupler(1)
233 create_bmp_for_rect_cen_in_rect(1)
234 create_bmp_for_rect_cen_in_rect_coupler(1)
235 create_bmp_for_rect_in_circ(1)
236 create_bmp_for_rect_in_rect(1)
237 create_bmp_for_stripline_coupler(1)
238 create_bmp_for_symmetrical_stripline(1)
240 find_optimal_dimensions_for_microstrip_coupler(1)
244 http://atlc.sourceforge.net - Home page
246 http://sourceforge.net/projects/atlc - Download area
248 atlc-X.Y.Z/docs/html-docs/index.html - HTML docs
250 atlc-X.Y.Z/docs/qex-december-1996/atlc.pdf - theory paper
252 atlc-X.Y.Z/examples - examples
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