Exporting a trace from SolariaPCB to Solaria
In SolariaPCB you can import complete printed circuit boards by reading in ODB++ files. If there are traces or planes that have high current then their dissipation due to Joule heating may be significant and can be automatically calculated and made part of the overall thermal solution of the board.
If you would like to perform a seperate simulation of a particular trace or plane, you can do that as well. In SolariaPCB, select PCB>Edit Trace. Make sure the layer is visible by using PCB>View Entities. Hit the Select Trace button and select the trace. It will get highlighted as shown below.
Next hit the "Send Trace to Solaria" button circled above. In the next dialog just hit the Apply button. Hit the OK button to dismiss the Edit Trace dialog. Go back to Solaria. You will see the entire trace.
You can now use the Automesher to mesh the trace. Below the Create Regions button has been hit.
Below the Modify Region button was hit, the outer bounds of the trace selected and the Maximum triangle edge length was reduced to 0.2 inches. This change results in triangles no larger than 0.2 inches in areas unconstricted by geometry. Hit the Apply button to make the change then OK to dismiss the dialog.
Now hit the Mesh button.
You can see that every region was assigned a different property, different colors.
It is easy to remove the elements in the model that are holes in the plane. You can then assign the material the electrical properties of copper, define the Plate element thickness, add Heat Loads to represent locations of current draw and define Boundary Nodes at Voltage supply areas then solve for Voltages, as shown below.
