This is a list of fixes or problems which were fixed that are included in each EZNEC 4.0 update. Each update contains all the fixes listed below it. For example, 4.0.3 contains all the items listed for 4.0.3, 4.0.2, and 4.0.1 (the first revision). Updates for all EZNEC 4.0 program types are shown. 4.0.40 There is no operational difference between v. 4.0.39 and 4.0.40 standard, plus, and demo programs. The change affects only EZNEC pro program types. EZNEC pro (EZNEC-M and EZNEC/4 only) - Crash (Error 9) could occur when reading NEC format files in which the GW 'cards' aren't sequentially numbered and some tag numbers exceed 100. 4.0.39 Made changes to prevent occasional Error 438 and possibly "automation error" crashes in some versions. Corrected table of contents and index in the printed manual, which showed incorrect page numbers. 4.0.38 On about one percent of systems, program would crash with Error 339 and a message regarding MSCOMCT2.OCX registration. There is no need to upgrade from v. 4.0.37 if you don't see this error. 4.0.37 In new program installations, the installer wasn't creating an icon in the Windows start menu. On Vista systems, a requested desktop shortcut wasn't being created. When some early revisions of EZNEC v. 4.0 were upgraded, a long delay accompanied by disk activity would occur the first time the upgraded program ran. 4.0.36 Fixed the context-sensitive help (which opens the Help file at the appropriate point when the F1 key is pressed). It had been non-functional since the change to HTML help at v. 4.0.34. Fixed array bound violations in the routine which finds wire connections for display in the Wires Window, and one in the double precision NEC-2 calculating engine. Although these could potentially cause a crash, they have been present for a very long time without causing a noticeable problem. 4.0.35 There is no operational difference between v. 4.0.35 and 4.0.34. The only change is an updated and reformatted manual. 4.0.34 Changed help file to HTML type (.CHM) for compatibility with Windows Vista. The older Windows Help (.HLP) type would probably work with systems upgraded to Vista, but not new Vista installations. 4.0.33 In some program versions, 3D plot (.PF3) files created with EZNEC v. 3.0 caused an error (Error 9) when opened as a primary trace in Trace View mode. The length of the path for default EZNEC file locations (Options/Folders) was limited to 63 characters. This has been increased to 1024. EZNEC pro (EZNEC-M and EZNEC/4 only) - The v. 4.0.31 and .32 updates didn't automatically run the hardware key driver installer, although they did copy the installer to the EZNEC program directory. The driver included in v. 4.0.31 and later is required for EZNEC pro program use under the Vista operating system. 4.0.32 Wire insulation parameters were not correctly implemented when a structure such as a loop or helix was created. This would also sometimes cause a change to existing wire insulation parameters when a structure was added. 4.0.31 The installer has been changed. The one previously used will not intall on 64 bit systems. The new installer has been tested on 64 bit systems and also on Microsoft Vista. There are no operational changes from the previous version. 4.0.30 When a copy of a wire was placed above the original wire in the Wires Window wire list, the copy was made correctly but the wires weren't shown correctly in the Wires Window until some other change was made. The View Antenna display wasn't redrawn to remove currents and 2D pattern when wire loss was changed. [EZNEC+ only]: EZNEC+ wasn't using saved ground files when running the double precision calculating engine. The only consequence of this was that the Real, High-Accuracy ground calculations were re-done each time rather than being read from a file of previously calculated data when possible. 4.0.29 This revision corrects two errors which crept in during previous revisions: Results could be inaccurate in v. 4.0.22 - 4.0.28 if the model contained at least one wire having a diameter equal to or greater than its length. This occurred only when using an NEC-2 calculating engine, so did not affect EZNEC/4 users when an NEC-4 calculating engine was selected. V. 4.0.17 - 4.0.28 didn't indicate when the disk was being used as virtual memory. This has no effect on results, and is very unlikely to occur except in EZNEC pro programs running very large models. 4.0.28 In v. 4.0.27, a calculating engine error would occur when attempting to do a near field analysis with MININEC-type ground selected. [EZNEC/4 users note: This did not occur when using the NEC-4 calculating engines.] Additional and extensive testing has shown that even the modification to near field analysis with MININEC type ground can produce rather large errors, particularly close to a grounded wire. Because this appears to be due to some fundamental characteristics of NEC, I have been unable to correct it. So beginning with v. 4.0.28, near field analysis is disabled when MININEC type ground is selected. Further explation can be found in the "MININEC-type" section of the "Real Ground Types" topic in the updated manual furnished with this and future revisions. Note: The largest errors found indicated a near field much greater than would actually occur. So if you've used near field analysis with MININEC type ground in the past, the indicated near field was probably larger than it would actually be. [EZNEC/4 users note: Errors with the NEC-4 calculating engines when running near field analysis with MININEC type ground seem much smaller than when using an NEC-2 engine.] In some cases where auto segmentation couldn't make a wire meet guidelines, it did nothing rather than reducing the number of segments to one. Also, the Segmentation Check window didn't update after the "can't meet guidelines" message appeared. Undo of a change in ground type would sometimes not restore the original ground specifications correctly. 4.0.27 Near field results were inaccurate near the ground when MININEC type ground was used. File names shown for traces added to the 2D display are now capitalized as in the Windows file directory rather than being shown in all uppercase. Some versions of the program would crash (Error 6) when attempting to run an SWR plot of an antenna having a zero- amplitude current source. The character '&' was not correctly displayed in the main window when included in the description title. If the angle convention is compass bearing, the far field table initially showed angles CCW from the X axis unless the far field table window was closed and then opened, or caused to redraw. Added Special Option CalcProgReduction to reduce the frequency of updating the calculation progress indicator while a calculation is running. This improves speed when certain anti-virus or anti- spyware/adware programs are running. For more information, see "CalcProgReduction" in the EZNEC manual index after updating. Made additions to the manual. 4.0.26 Program would crash when saving Geometry Check or Segmentation Check data to a file, if there was a large total amount of text. SWR and frequency sweep operations are now faster, and with less hard drive activity. 4.0.25 Transmission line connections were reversed (that is, "N" (normal) connection specfication resulted in a reversed connection and "R" (reverse) connection specification resulted in a normal connection) when the transmission line length was exactly or very nearly exactly a multiple of a half wavelength. When importing wire coordinates from an ASCII file, lines in the wire coordinate section of the file beginning with ';' would generate a message saying the line wasn't read because of not having enough parameters. File names specified for Frequency Sweep outputs weren't reset when opening a new file, causing the specifications to be retained if the new file didn't contain replacement specifications. EZNEC pro (EZNEC-M and EZNEC/4) only: When opening an NEC format file, NEC-2 format GH 'cards' weren't being processed correctly: If the GH 'card' was the first geometry specification, the helix wouldn't be created. If not the first, the helix would replace any previously specified wires. GH 'cards' in NEC-4 format were processed correctly. Frequency Sweep and Near Field setup specifications were't being reset when a new NEC format file was read, causing the Frequency Sweep specifications to be retained, and the Near Field specifications to be retained unless the new file contained replacement specifications. 4.0.24 A bug introduced in v. 4.0.22 causes the program to write defective trace (plot) files. Some of these can be viewed, but they generate an error message. The defect also prevents the showing of traces at the end of a frequency sweep run. Trace (plot) files (.PF, .PF3, .P#) created with v. 4.0.22 and 4.0.23 should be deleted. Please contact w7el@eznec.com if you have an urgent need to retain any trace files created with these versions. This does NOT affect description (.EZ) files. 4.0.23 A bug introduced in v. 4.0.22 caused incorrect results when a model contained more than one load. Note for EZNEC/4 users: this only occurred with the NEC-2 calculating engines. 4.0.22 When copying wires containing transmission lines, EZNEC would only copy transmission line stubs. It will now also copy transmission lines having both ends connected within the group of copied wires. On rare occasions, program would crash with Error 401 during or just after the Geometry Check prior to running a calculation. Modified the numerical format for several columns in the far field table outputs to allow better display of small and large values. If a trace was saved, the dialog box for all following file save/open operations would have the caption "Save Trace". Removed Ant Notes button in main window when in TraceView mode, since it serves no useful purpose when in that mode. Currents shown in the View Antenna display weren't erased as they should have been when certain changes were made to the description. Sources, loads, or transmission lines added using the Add feature rather than the add row, then placed on a valid wire, wouldn't appear in the View Antenna display until something else caused the View Antenna display to update. EZNEC pro (EZNEC-M and EZNEC/4 only) - When showing ground wave results in V/m in the far field table, the phase angle of the vertically polarized component was incorrectly shown as being not available. EZNEC/4 only - Program would sometimes incorrectly identify a wire crossing the ground interface at other than a segment junction when in fact the crossing was at a segment junction. 4.0.21 Program would fail to start ("installation is corrupted" message) in some cases on Japanese systems and others having languages with extra or special characters. EZNEC/4 only: Warning now appears in Segmentation Check if the end of any wire terminates at the ground plane; Real, High Accuracy ground is specified; and an NEC-4 calculating engine is chosen. This message has been missing for NEC-4 engines since v. 4.0.16. The message did, and continues to, appear when an NEC-2 engine is selected. 4.0.20 Program would crash (Error 381) if last wire was deleted when the total number of wires was greater than 15 and the Wires Window grid was scrolled down to show the last wire. Program could hang if a wire coordinate was changed while Preserve Connections was on and one or more zero-length wires were present. A hang might have occurred also under some other circumstances. 4.0.19 An error in v. 4.0.18 caused the program to crash (Error 424) if the user attempted to import wires from an ASCII file by using the selection in the main window File menu. Doing the same operation from the Wires Window Other menu did not cause a crash. I apologize for the error. 4.0.18 Program would crash (Error 9) when creating new wires if specific conditions were present (certain combinations of windows which were open and with certain ones overlapping others). In v. 4.0.17, some text in printed graphics displays (e.g., View Antenna, 2D plot, SWR plot) was overly large and some too small. In the Desc Options dialog where the user chooses a fixed 2D plot outer ring value, the label following the user selected value was changed from dBi/dBic to dBref to more accurately reflect the outer ring value. 4.0.17 It is no longer necessary to run EZNEC in 256 color mode to prevent hanging in systems using a video adapter using an NVidia chip set. An option to print the wire coordinates has been added to the Wires Window Other menu. This was previously available only in the Control Center Outputs menu. Program now remembers the SWR sweep source number and Z0 choice until another description is opened. The 3D plot was sometimes shown incorrectly (greatly magnified) when the 2D display polarization choice was Vertical and Horizontal only (no Total). After printing a 3D plot, a highlighted 2D slice couldn't be changed between Azimuth and Elevation. Certain modifications to the description such as changing source amplitude or phase failed to delete the 2D plot shown in the View Antenna display. This plot should disappear whenever the description no longer matches the description used to generate the plot. Program would reverse the start and stop frequencies in the SWR setup window if the start frequency was greater than the stop frequency. This caused confusion, so an error message is now issued instead. It was possible to specify equal plot start and end angles, which could be saved in a description and would cause a crash when run (Error 6). Program now prevents this from happening and fixes the data from any defective file when opened. When opening some older files (including some example files) with Wavelength units, the Units dialog box would show wire diameter units as Inches, but wire diameter will really be in Wavelengths, as correctly shown in the Wires Window. Wire insulation thickness specified by one of the custom choices in the Wire Insulation dialog box which was entered while in Group Modify mode would be put into the Wires Window cells as incorrect values. If centered wire numbers were selected in the View Antenna display, wire numbers wouldn't be centered when printing. Some minor changes were made to the Geometry Check feature to improve its ability to spot problems. A number of modifications and additions were made to the manual. EZNEC Pro (EZNEC-M and EZNEC/4) only: When reading an NEC format file saved by EZNEC pro and containing a current source, EZNEC doesn't correctly recognize the current source as such. The resulting model has a source in the wire which contained a source in the previous model. Calculating engine would crash if a very large model was run on a system having more than about 2 GB RAM. This was caused by EZNEC pro attempting to allocate more memory than a Windows program is allowed. Calculating engine could crash when running a description read from an .NEC format file. The problem depended on what files were opened just prior to the problem .NEC format file. EZNEC/4 only: The double precision NEC-4 calculating engine could sometimes crash with very large models. When reading an NEC format file, placement of loads specified on LD "cards" was sometimes incorrect. In some cases, a crash (Error 9) could occur when opening a file. When High Accuracy ground was selected, wire ends with a zero Z coordinate were incorrectly shown shown in the Wires Window Conn column as connected to ground rather than to any other wires which might be connected to the same point. 4.0.16 Some versions would crash (Error 11) if a limit was put on the disk space allocated for saving undo files. EZNEC Pro (EZNEC-M and EZNEC/4) only: Program would crash (Error 5) if an attempt was made to view tabular current data and a connection existed to a wire numbered greater than 9999. 4.0.15 Fixed several problems in the Options Menu/Folders selection. Changing of the temporary file folder didn't work properly. Added a button to enable easy selection of the Windows system temporary file folder (which is the initial default for EZNEC). Added context-sensitive help links(F1 key) to a number of input data dialog boxes. Modified program to prevent small wire information window (which opens in the View Antenna display when the mouse cursor is paused over a wire) from creating an entry in the Windows task bar. 4.0.14 In the View Antenna display, in some versions, some wires would disppear when at high zoom levels. In v. 4.0.13 only, the data appears in the wrong place when a plot window including data is saved to the Windows clipboard (Edit/Copy Plot and Data). Program would crash (Error 6) if printing was attempted but no printer had been installed on the system. Minor changes were made to the manual. 4.0.13 Program could crash with Error 9 when attempting to display 2D plots of particular shapes, or when the cursor was moved on 2D plots of particular shapes. Made some minor changes in the 2D display and in the graphics printing. 4.0.12 A bug was introduced in v. 4.0.11 that caused the program to crash with Error 94 when any value was entered in the Loads or Transmission Lines Windows, if no loads or transmission lines had previously been defined. 4.0.11 Program would hang if View Antenna display was opened when both ends of a transmission line were (improperly) specified as open or short circuited stubs. Program would crash with Error 9 or Error 381 when wires were deleted via the Wires Window Wire menu, when the View Antenna display was on, and the text insertion point was below the wires to be deleted. In the grid entry windows, "Move [item(s)] in list" and "Copy [item(s)] in list" were sometimes unavailable (greyed out) when they should have been available. If a grid entry window was expanded in size, the size would revert back to original when items were moved in the list, and most other operations. Sizing and the first row position are now preserved when possible, and restored when undoing. Also, some combinations of sizing and scrolling could result in the inability to show all items. That has also been fixed. Text printing has been improved with the addition of a margin, and better multi-page printing. Graphics printing has been improved for the View Antenna display, particularly when the screen display had been zoomed. Minor changes were made to the printing of other graphics windows. When AutoSeg or FixSeg was run from the Segmentation Check Window, it wasn't possible to undo. Also, added an Edit menu to the Segmentation Check Window to enable undo/redo from that window. When in TraceView mode, the program would crash with Error 9 when trying to view a "slice" of a 3D plot, unless a calculation had previously been run. Reduced the maximum number of characters displayed in data grid cells, to prevent displayed data from exceeding the width of the cell when in scientific notation. 4.0.10 The program would crash (Error 381) if a cell in the bottom visible row of any of the data entry grids (e.g., Wires Window, Sources Window, etc.) was right-clicked in an 800 X 600 screen resolution display mode. The crash would occur in any screen display mode if the window had been manually resized in such a way that the bottom row was partially covered. In v. 4.0.5 - 4.0.9, data entry grid windows didn't maximize properly. If a group of wires or other items was selected for copying or moving in the list, and the "Place above [wire or other item]" specification for the new location was one of the selected items, the copying or moving wouldn't be done correctly. Among errors caused were the creation of a duplicate item. Also, sources, transmission lines, and loads would sometimes move to a different wire when copying or moving wires under those conditions. The color of Average Gain test message "Model contains loss" (at the bottom of the main window after running a 3D plot) was changed from yellow to orange for better visibility. "Stepped Diameter Correction in use" and "Using disk for virtual memory" messages in the Calculation Progress display were likewise changed. 4.0.9 When ending the program, if zero-length wires were present, a request to delete all zero-length wires didn't result in their deletion as it should. The program would crash (Error 9, or a general Windows error) if wires were added at a position above wires which contain a source, load, or transmission line. The program would crash (error 94, or a general Windows error) if values were entered into an empty data input grid (such as the Wires or Sources Windows), then deleted by pressing , then new values entered. The Preserve Connections option in the Wires Window didn't work properly when used with a number of the model modification features in the Wires Window Wire menu. Since v. 4.0.5, input grid windows (Wires, Sources, Loads, Transmission Line, and Media Windows) wouldn't maximize properly. When asked to maximize, the window would stay the same size and move to the upper left corner of the screen. If the window was closed when in this state, it would always re-open as a normal size window in the upper left corner of the screen, giving the impression that the position wasn't being remembered properly, while the problem really was that it wasn't being properly maximized. 4.0.8 Results would be incorrect in some cases when a transmission line electrical length was exactly a multiple of a half wavelength. The effect was greatest when using the standard precision NEC-2 calculating engine. If Bearing was chosen as the angle convention, in the 2D plot window data box the slice (azimuth) bearing incorrectly reported the angle CCW from the +X direction rather than showing the compass bearing. Non-functional selection Auto Coord Match was removed from the main window Options menu. This was an option in v. 3.0 but not in v. 4.0. Minor updates and corrections were made to the manual, including removal of references to the former Auto Coord Match option. 4.0.7 When wire gauge was used for wire diameter specification when creating a loop or helix or importing wire coordinates from an ASCII file, wires with very incorrect diameter would be created. This would not usually be evident except that calculation results would be wrong due to the erroneous wire size, and extra Geometry Check and/or Segmentation Check warnings would sometimes appear. The problem would correct itself if the file was saved and then opened. This problem is now fixed. Calculating engine would crash with an obscure math error if all sources were set to zero amplitude. Program would crash if attempt was made to print a long string of text not having hard carriage returns. It would also fail to wrap text on the printer unless it contained hard carriage returns. Now, the text will wrap on the printer if it's wrapped in the EZNEC Editor window, and not wrap on the printer if it's not wrapped in the window. 4.0.6 Program could crash with Error 11 (divide by zero) or unspecified error when importing wires with unspecified number of segments from the Control Center (main window) when the Wires Window was closed. When importing wires with Wires Window open and when the importation caused the Units to change, Wires Window didn't show coordinates in new units. When creating radials, prototype wires weren't considered connected if the connection was at the air-ground interface. 4.0.5 EZNEC no longer requires dwspy36.dll, a file incorrectly identified as spyware by an increasing number of spyware removal programs. Deletion of this file would cause EZNEC to crash with error 336 and a complaint regarding a problem with dwsbc36.ocx. That problem should no longer occur. For more information about dwspy36.dll and its use by EZNEC, see http://eznec.com/ez40faq.html. Program would forget the cursor position when re-opening the 2D display window. It would also fail to reset the cursor to the primary polarization trace after changing the plot type to 3D from one of the 2D choices. When using the automated radial creation feature, none of the wires in the prototype radial were allowed to be vertical. That rule has been relaxed, so that now only the first wire must be non-vertical. 4.0.4 A crash (Error 9) would occur when doing segment length tapering, in some cases when adding a wire or other component, and under some other circumstances. The cause of this problem was present only in v. 4.0.3. A bug in the NEC-2 calculating engines could cause a number of different and difficult to reproduce errors when calculating a description with a Perfect type ground. This problem didn't occur with the EZNEC/4 NEC-4 calculating engines. When the total calculated power was negative (indicating calculating engine errors, often due to a source in a too-small loop), the calculation would stop without an error message. This could result in termination of an SWR or frequency sweep before all steps had been completed. An appropriate message is now shown when this condition occurs. When saving a 2D "slice" of a 3D plot as a 2D trace, the zero degree "slice" was always saved regardless of which "slice" was selected. When zooming the display of currents in the View Antenna display window, the scroll bar button could sometimes "stick" and continue increasing or decreasing the amount of zoom after the mouse button had been released. 4.0.3 Group Modify would sometimes not change all the selected items. View Antenna Display didn't update automatically when sources, loads, or transmission lines were deleted. When R + jX load type was converted to parallel RLC, program would crash with Error 6 or Error 11 if R was zero. Program would crash with Error 381 when load type was changed to Laplace. When two one-segment wires were connected together end 2 to end 2, the connection junction was sometimes not shown in the View Antenna display. View Antenna display would sometimes not automatically redraw when an overlapping graphics window was moved. This could also possibly happen with other graphics windows. Program would crash if an attempt was made to save EZNEC Editor- displayed data to an inaccessible (e.g., locked or read-only) file. Program could crash or hang if wires containing a transmission line were deleted while the View Antenna window is open. This might happen also with wires containing a source or load. After running an SWR plot, currents (from the last frequency step) were shown in the View Antenna display, but disappeared when the display was updated for any reason. The currents are now not shown at the end of the SWR sweep. The wire information windows wouldn't appear when the cursor was placed on some wires which were exactly horizontal in the screen display. EZNEC/4 only: When using an NEC-4 calculating engine (EZCalc4 or EZCalc4D), the calculating engine would crash if a near field point corresponded exactly to an unconnected wire end. 4.0.2 Near field analysis gave erroneous H field results. Minor revisions were made to the manual. 4.0.1 (Note: This version wasn't available as an update.) Program would crash (Error 438) if color was changed in 3D plot while 2D "slice" was highlighted, and possibly under other circumstances. In the Show Description data, second medium height and boundary values were incorrect unless meters was the units choice. The program could freeze if certain dialog boxes were opened while the Control Center (main window) was minimized, and possibly when other windows were minimized. If a 2D azimuth "slice" of a 3D plot was displayed and the trace saved, the program would save an elevation "slice" instead. Program would crash with Error 9 if an attempt was made to save an azimuth "slice" if the ground type was other than Free Space. Corrected a number of errors and omissions in the manual.