Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) is a finite element package for solving 2D planar and axisymmetric problems in low frequency magnetics and electrostatics. The current version of the program program runs under runs under Windows 2000, XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8. The program has also been tested running in Wine on Linux machines. The program can be obtained via the FEMM home page at http://www.femm.info.
The package is composed of an interactive shell encompassing graphical pre and postprocessing; a mesh generator; and various solvers. A powerful scripting language, Lua 4.0, is integrated with the program. Lua allows users to create batch runs, describe geometries parametrically, perform optimizations, etc. Lua is also integrated into every edit box in the program so that formulas can be entered in lieu of numerical values, if desired. (Detailed information on Lua is available from http://www.lua.org/manual/4.0/) There is no hard limit on problem size—maximum problem size is limited by the amount of available memory. Users commonly perform simulations with as many as a million elements, though simulations with tens of thousands of elements are typical.
The purpose of this document is to present a stepbystep tutorial to help new users get "up and running" with FEMM. In this document, the solution for the field of an aircored coil is considered. Although the objective of the tutorial is for the reader to build the model on their own, the completed tutorial.fem can also be downloaded.