Wire editor

   Select Wire edi in the Edit menu to start the wire editor.  You can add, modify, and delete the wire by the mouse operations.  The editor has four types of views.

3D tab

Three dimension view

X-Y tab

Top view

X-Z tab

Side view

Y-Z tab

Front view

 

The sliders and buttons at the right of the window are:

Zoom slide

Zoom-in/Zoom-out

Edit wire

Select mode

New wire

Add a new wire

New loop

Add a new loop

Plus tool button

Centered on X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Whole view tool button

Zoom the view to show full antenna

Display pull down list

All: all the wires
Plane: the wires on the same plane
Element: show only wires that are connected with the selected wire

Grid

Hide/unhide the grid

Step

Step of grid

 

Right click on the window to call the pop-up menu that has the following functions:               

Full view

 Make the click position the center of the window.

Centered in X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Make the reference point (X, Y, Z = 0) the center of the window.

Centered on the antenna

Move the center of the antenna to the center of the window.

Connect to the closest wire

Connect the selected wire to the closest other wire

Disjoint wire at the connected point

Disjoint wire from other wires at the connected point

Set center wire on center axis

Move the selected wire to the axis

Divide wire into

Divide wire into the specified number of pieces

Del wire

Delete the wire

Grid start point

Align the grid to the specified point

  The selected wire is display in red and the others are in black.  The end points are marked with X if connected.  They are marked with [] (square) if not connected.  You can define a complicated antenna, such as an LPDA, by making full use of these functions, that is, Divide wire, Disjoint wire, Connect wire to the closest wire, etc.

Mouse operation in the wire selection mode

  Click on the arrow button at the top right corner to start the wire selection mode.  Click the target wire to select.  Note that you can do the following operations in the 2-D view window only.  In the 3-D view, you only can move the end of the wire and connect it to the other wire's.   Bring the mouse pointer close to the end of a wire.  The cursor changes its shape to the cross hair type.  Click and drag the end point to move it.  With the shift key pressed, MMANA-GAL moves the wire with keeping vertical or horizontal.  With they Ctrl key pressed, MMANA-GAL keeps the wire length and change only the angle.

   Get the mouse pointer close to the center of a wire.  The cursor changes it shape to [] (square) + pointer.  You can grab the wire and move to the arbitrary position.  With the shift key depressed, MMANA-GAL attempts to keep the wire horizontal or vertical.

 Wire definition mode

  Click the line button at the top right corner to start the line definition mode, in which you can add a new wire.  Click and drag to place a new wire.  You can directly input the parameter values by clicking the right hand side menu in the window. Note that in the 3-D view window, you only can add a new wire that is connected to the other existing wire.

Loop definition mode

   Click the square button at the top right corner of the window to star the loop definition mode.   Click and drag to place a new square loop. Note that this mode is not available in the 3-D view window.