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Does somebody know about any tool for simulation and visualization of magnetic fields either of permanent magnets or solenoids, that can be used on Mac OS X? Maybe there is some software for Linux, but is open-source and can compiled for Mac OS X?

I want to have something like a canvas at which I can put the magnets, move them, and see how the magnetic field changes around them.

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    $\begingroup$ Do you need to do these visualizations on data that you already have, or do you need to simulate the field then visualize? $\endgroup$
    – Bill Barth
    Dec 20 '12 at 20:25
  • $\begingroup$ No, I don't have any data, so it must be simulated also. $\endgroup$
    – BartoNaz
    Dec 20 '12 at 22:25
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    $\begingroup$ You should rewrite this question to reflect the fact that you want a magnet simulator not just a visualization program. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Barth
    Dec 20 '12 at 22:40
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For this purpose you need to use a simulation software. One of the most common methods in Electromagnetics would be Finite element method, but you can also find Boundary Element Methods or Finite Difference Methods.

Some common software in EM are

A lot of people is also using COMSOL Multiphysics.

But I would say that this feature is implemented in a lot of different commercial and opensource applications. If your problem is 2D and you want opensource I would suggest Agros 2D, here an example:

enter image description here

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Have you tried either VisIt or ParaView ?

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  • $\begingroup$ It looks interesting, but as far as I understand, they just visualize the recorded data. But I want something like a canvas, to which I can put different magnets and then see the lines of magnetic field being drawn. And it needs some more specific tool, I guess. $\endgroup$
    – BartoNaz
    Dec 20 '12 at 22:28
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Try Mayavi. Look here and here for some nice examples of electric field visualizations.

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  • $\begingroup$ This examples look really cool. But this just a plotting tool, right? So does it mean that I have to write the code for calculation of the magnetic fields and use Mayavi just to draw it? $\endgroup$
    – BartoNaz
    Dec 20 '12 at 22:31
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    $\begingroup$ Yes you have to compute the fields. Your question was not clear whether you wanted a software that calculates the fields or just visualizes them. $\endgroup$
    – Vijay Murthy
    Dec 21 '12 at 9:49
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Ripplons' Biot-Savart http://www.ripplon.com/software.html

eight more characters for the stupid post minimum character count constraint.

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Scicomp.SE! The character limit is there for a reason -- such a link-only answer is not really helpful (for example, because links are not stable over time). Please consider expanding on your answer to describe the software and how it simulates EM fields. $\endgroup$
    – Christian Clason
    Jun 1 '16 at 18:40
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with @ChristianClason. The website is not that useful either, it does not provide (easily, at least) the description of the methods used by the software. $\endgroup$
    – nicoguaro ♦
    Jun 1 '16 at 19:02

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