Assembler Direct Plot add to outputs

Brad,

That might solve the specifics of what you want, but then there are all the other small options that everyone else wants - that's what would make it an enormoform. Adding one little feature at a time will please one user, but annoy others because their options aren't there (this isn't an argument for not doing anything, more for the fact that you need to keep scalability in mind). I can tell you that if we did what you want, somebody who did both an ac analysis and an sp analysis would then want to have the ac analysis results on a rectangular graph and the sp results on a smith chart. Or they are plotting S11 and S21 - you wouldn't normally plot S21 on a Smith Chart. All are complex results. Or they are doing hb and hbsp - you wouldn't want the hb to be on a Smith Chart. So setting this globally would end up being more of a bug generator than a solution.

So I understand your need - but it's not a scalable solution to the problem.

Regards,

Andrew

Andrew,

I like that you are thinking about scalability but my suggested enhancement is not an attempt to solve the enormoform (EF) challenge and it's not a one off little feature either. I believe it is a pratical solution to a big problem that could be implemented relatively easily without needing to solve all of the challenges of creating a new EF feature. Consider the following, it is quite common to plot all 4 s-parameters on a Smith chart when back fitting transistor models to measurements, i.e. we want to see simulated and measured s11,s22,s12,s21 on the same Smith chart. This provides a means of comparing phase and magnitude vs frequency all at the same time. Look through almost any issue of the MTT Transactions and you'll see such a plot. Viewing S11,S22 on a smith chart is most convenient for designing matching circuit with Q lines, something every microwave designer does. In the case of an amplifier you are correct, a designer typically does not use a smith chart for S21 but instead prefers dB(s21). If a named expression is created, s21dB=db(spm('sp(2 1)), the result will be a scalar wave and it will now default to a rectangular plot and I'm not suggesting changing that. 

For the case of hbsp analysis, I can see reasons for using a smith chart format but more often designers are going to be looking at dB(Sxy). Designers will rarely if ever want to see magnitude of an hbsp on a rectangular plot the way it defaults now. All considered it's not so important to send hbsp to a smith chart. Similarly, ac outputs will less often be viewed on a polar chart. In fact, even with Direct Plot I can't get a polar plot for an ac output. And I can't select an ac output trace on a ViVa plot and use RMB menu to send it to a polar plot. I have to use the browser form to find an output signal and then set the browser default format to polar to get that plot type. This highlights an inconsistency in the way Viva handles complex outputs.

So a refinement to the previous suggestion would be to change the the Print/Plot options form as show below, i.e. apply the format to S-parameters and leave other parameters alone. Notice the new form has an option for Rectangular which is the current default used by Assembler (and hard coded so the user can't change it). If the S-parameter Print/Plot options form is added and the default set to Rectangular everything would work the way it does now and designers would not even know a change had been made (therefore the change would result in no annoyed designers) unless they went to this menu and selected something other than rectangular. You mentioned that a global setting would be a bug generator, but my response is that someone already hard coded a global setting and users don't have access to modify it.

Another solution though less desirable would be to add the S-parameter plot type option to the cdenv file.

Regards,

Brad