Generate Obscuration Plots

Generate plots to show how the aircraft's geometry obscures the area of evaluation of each placement candidate. The area of evaluation that is obscured by the aircraft, known as the blockage area, is indicative of potentially limited antenna performance in that region.

Obscuration plots are useful because you can generate them before you simulate your placement candidates. This allows you to make a quick judgment about a placement candidate's potential to perform well during a simulation without using a significant amount of computational resources.

In this example, you generate obscuration plots for the placement candidates you previously defined. You review the total blockage area for each placement candidate. You plot the obscuration over the maximum angular range, because you are attempting to predict each antenna's omnidirectional coverage. Then, you evaluate if each placement candidate is still worth simulating.

  1. From the Obscuration Plot section of the Assistant, click Obscuration Plot .
    The app computes a one-time tessellation of the platform for each placement candidate's area of evaluation. Then, a dialog box opens and displays the obscuration plot for the first placement candidate you created.
  2. From the Placement candidate options, select Front Candidate to view the obscuration plot of the placement candidate at the front of the passenger cabin.
    The dialog box displays the obscuration plot. The blockage area is shown in blue, and the twin propellers are shown in the center of the plot.

  3. Record the front candidate's Blockage area (%) to compare with the blockage area of the other placement candidates.
  4. View the obscuration plots for the middle candidate and the rear candidate, and record their respective blockage areas.
    Both obscuration plots display larger versions of the propellers, as shown below, because the placement candidates are located closer to the propellers than the frontmost placement candidate.

    The blockage area results are as follows:

    Placement Candidate Blockage Area
    Front Candidate 43.2%
    Middle Candidate 43.8%
    Rear Candidate 45.4%

    The rear candidate has a substantially larger blockage area than the front and middle placement candidates, so it is not worth the computational expense to simulate it. Do not simulate the rear candidate in the tasks that follow.