Viewing an Obscuration Plot

You can view the blockage area caused by the surrounding platform for each placement candidate.

Before you begin: Define one or more placement candidates, as described in Defining a Placement Candidate.
See Also
About Obscuration Plots
  1. From the Antenna Placement section of the action bar, click Obscuration Plot .
    Antenna Placement tessellates the platform and computes an obscuration plot for each placement candidate. The Obscuration Plot dialog box opens, displaying the results for the first antenna and placement candidate. Yellow handles appear in the 3D area. The initial range is the entire spherical view.
  2. Optional: From the Antenna options, select a different antenna; or from the Placement candidate options, select a different placement candidate.
    Antenna Placement updates the plot and blockage area results for the new antenna and placement candidate selections.
  3. Optional: From the Sector section, select a different range for evaluation from the Angular range options:
    OptionDescription
    All Represents the entire far-field sphere.
    Custom Represents a range of the far-field sphere that you specify.
    Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom Represents the part of the far-field sphere that aligns with the corresponding global direction (that is, +X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z, respectively).

    Tip: You can also define the range using the following methods:
    • Click and drag your pointer across the obscuration plot to define a smaller range to view.
    • In the 3D area, click and drag the yellow handles to interactively reposition the planes that represent the range limits.

  4. If you selected Custom from the Angular range options, specify the range using Phi and Theta.

    Use the image below as a frame of reference.

  5. Click Update.
    Antenna Placement updates the plot and Blockage area (%) with the results for your new range selection.
  6. Optional: Click Reset to reset your range selections to the original values.
    The dialog box displays the initial area of evaluation for the current placement candidate.