Introduction

CST-Python-API is an object-oriented Python package which aims to provide a programmatic interface to control CST Microwave Studio with the goal of automating the generation of 3D models, execution of simulations and post-treatment of the results.

This tool is developed at the IETR laboratory (France), as part of the HERMES platform. Its source code is hosted here.

The current version of CST-Python-API is 0.1.1 (Hanter dro).

Why Hanter dro?

This tool has been developed at INSA Rennes, an engineering school in France which is part of the IETR laboratory. As indicated by its name, INSA Rennes is based in the city of Rennes, the capital city of the Region of Brittany.

Brittany is a region with a very rich culture, which draws from its Celtic heritage. One of the manifestations of this culture are the traditional dances from Brittany, which are commonly danced by people of all age at the fest noz and fest deiz (Breton names for, respectively, “night party” and “day party”). An example of a fest noz can be found in this video.

With the goal of contributing to the dissemination of the folklore from Brittany worldwide, we have decided to give to each version of CST-Python-API the name of a traditional Breton dance. For this initial release, we have chosen the dance called hanter dro. Hanter can be translated to English as “half”, and dro as “turn”. This is the very first dance that we are taught when we begin to learn Breton dance, and for this reason we decided that it would an appropriate choice for the first release of CST-Python-API. Here you can find a tutorial for learning this dance!

Limitations

CST Microwave Studio is a complex tool with many features. Although the long-term goal of CST-Python-API is to provide a complete interface for all of them, the tool us currently in an early stage of development. For this reason, only the most common features are supported at this moment.

Our goal is to keep developing the tool, adding new features periodically. If there is a particular feature that you would like to see implemented, do not hesitate to open an issue at the GitLab page of the project.

CST-Python-API is only available for Windows systems. Although we believe that this should not be a problem since the vast majority of CST users make use of Windows machines, in the future we would like to make the tool usable in GNU-Linux operating systems too.