Open-Source Visualization Tools for Antenna Engineers

Data visualization is an important part of data analysis and is used in all fields, antenna engineering being one of them. Antenna engineers mostly use closed-source tools to run simulations for electromagnetic applications. However, these tools have their limitations in data visualization and only process their own created data internally for visualization. To facilitate engineers, there are several open-source alternatives but these tools are not being used much by antenna engineers due to lack of exposure. In this manuscript. we compare various open-source two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) visualization tools for antenna engineers in terms of plot aesthetics, strengths and weaknesses of these tools, and speed. This work will help to bring more engineers to open-source tools so that they can benefit from them.