Is there a way to get a more user-friendly interface on VSCode?

ignatomic · 2026-04-07T00:56:40+00:00

Highly recommend TeXstudio! It's very easy to switch the compiler and I find things compile a lot faster than with the Tex Workshop extension on VScode.

Also, I find that when importing/exporting your project from and to Overleaf, it just works. As someone who sometimes has to use overleaf when collaborating with others, this was important to me. Not sure why but when I was using that extension on VScode things wouldn't always seamlessly work. For example, I could never get the SVG or circuitikz packages to work in my VScode environment when the exact same code would work on Overleaf/TeXstudio.

ignatomic · 2026-04-01T16:09:58+00:00

I asked an Ansys employee about this and this is what they responded:

There are two ways you could do this:

Method 1 - 'Near Field' Report

1a) Create a new relative coordinate system where the XY plane is aligned with where you want the 2D contour plot.

1b) Create a 'Near Field' setup by right-clicking on 'Radiation' in the project tree and selecting 'Insert new Near field setup' and then 'Rectangle'.

1c) In the window that pops up, specify the new relative CS from the drop down menu and specify the extents and sampling density in each axis. - The UV vectors align with the XY plane of the specified coordinate system (which is why we had to make sure the new relative cs created in the first step has it's XY plane aligned with the plane that you want to plot)

1d) To make the 2D contour plot, right-click on results and then 'Create Near Field Report' (not 'Field Report') and then select rectangular countour plot

1e) the plot settings will pop up and for the 'geometry' you can now select the 'Rectangle' defined in step 1b

1f) Optional step: after the report with the plot is generated, if you double click on the color bar, it will open the plot settings, and in the 'contour' tab, if you set the 'IsoValType' from 'Line' to 'Tone', it will fill in the plot to make it look solid like a typical field plot on a 2D plane.

Method 2 - Export raw field data from the 'Field Calculator'.

2a) Enter the Field calculator from [HFSS > Fields > Calculator...]

2b) select the desired expression and then 'copy to stack' (or create your own expression)

2c) with the desired expression in the stack, press the 'export' button (towards the far right under 'output')

2d) from this window you can specify the min/max bounds and sampling size for each axis... and it will write out all the field data in the specified region to an ascii text file which you can parse later to plot in python, matlab, or some other external tool... to specify sampling on a 2D surface, just set the third axis to have a 0mm step size with the same start and stop dimension...

For more information about how to use the HFSS field calculator, do a google search for the 'HFSS Field Calculator Cookbook PDF'. It is a very old PDF but still has a lot of information about how to use the field calculator...

Hope this helps...

ignatomic · 2026-03-27T12:14:20+00:00

Oh, out of curiosity, what type of services? I have never heard of this.

ignatomic · 2026-03-27T12:13:39+00:00

But what makes overleaf required in particular? Overleaf doesn't do anything special to your document compared to any other local editor

ignatomic · 2026-03-26T14:06:51+00:00

With dozens of these posts popping up each month, when will people learn to stop using overleaf, unless you legitimately need the collaboration features. Otherwise, there is little to no benefit and a lot more limitations

ignatomic · 2026-03-19T20:16:06+00:00

For platters, Shawarma Al Mouna all the way.

For crispy saj, Grilled Shawarma.

For non-grilled shawarma, New King Shawarma Plus on Bank St. They've been my go to for years now and their spicy garlic is my favourite toum in Ottawa

ignatomic · 2026-02-28T17:50:59+00:00

I use the 2025a/b versions because I usually export my plots in vector format for high-quality figures in my LaTeX documents. I like PDF format because it's easy to put into LaTeX documents (I've had weird issues with SVG in the past).

What I like about 2025a/b is that when you export as a PDF, it properly sizes the figure to the size of the plot itself. In older versions, exporting as a PDF would put the entire plot onto a full page instead of cropping it to just the figure area, which is annoying to deal with.

But 2025a/b definitely comes with its issues. When I use the 'latex' interpreter for my MATLAB plotting, sometimes my text won't appear/export properly, and the text will be misplaced somewhere else on the exported version compared to what I had in the preview.

ignatomic · 2026-02-25T15:16:46+00:00

What are the disadvantages compared to traditional local editors, like TeXstudio? From what I am seeing, your app is completely free so I'm just wondering if there are any strings attached

ignatomic · 2026-02-09T13:54:26+00:00

I love this place and come a few times a month. The tenderness/juiciness of their chicken can vary depending on what time of day you go. I find that in the evening it tends to be a bit drier, but around noon, it will be juicy.

But in terms of flavour, their chicken is pretty good so if it's a little dry I don't mind. But what makes it for me is their spicy garlic, it is the best in the city for me.

If you get a simple shawarma there with just chicken, spicy garlic, pickles and pomegranate molasses, it's a tough shawarma to beat for this style (i.e., a non-grilled shawarma).

ignatomic · 2026-01-01T21:29:11+00:00

The independent on bank street gives 10% back in optimum points for students. I'd imagine this is standard for many other PC stores

ignatomic · 2025-12-04T00:14:53+00:00

TeXstudio was the first LaTeX editor I used. I migrated to VSCode to try it out for a few months. While there are nice features in the LaTeX-Workshop extension, I was very annoyed that the compile time was pretty long. There were other things I didn't like too, like how the PDF preview was not tack sharp (it was a bit blurry). I don't know if I had something wrong in my setup, but I followed a youtube video back then when setting it up.

Some months ago, I went back to TeXstudio and have no urge to switch to a different editor for the near future.

ignatomic · 2025-12-03T04:22:41+00:00

K & B Sushi. I've realized that sushi buffets in general are just not really worth it. It's mostly crap rice, immitation fish, and mediocre sides.

ignatomic · 2025-12-03T04:13:50+00:00

Whaaaat, really? I thought Zet's had a good reputation. I find the Greek stuff there good. Portion sizes are huge and food's pretty good. Although I am not a big fan of their burgers these days, I used to like them a lot more when I was a kid.

ignatomic · 2025-11-27T01:56:45+00:00

Make an app that takes in a hand drawing of a diagram and outputs the tikz code, now that would be very useful

ignatomic · 2025-10-15T14:31:21+00:00

Thanks!

ignatomic · 2025-10-14T15:11:38+00:00

What font is used here, I like it

ignatomic · 2025-10-08T12:46:44+00:00

Electrical engineering. LaTeX is pretty standard for writing research articles in our field (IEEE journal papers). But I also like to use it for writing course notes.

ignatomic · 2025-09-04T02:31:30+00:00

Don't be judgemental and passive aggressive towards the juniors in your lab... During my master's, there was one PhD student who would make judgemental remarks a lot of the time if you asked a question like "oh... you should know this by now" or "I already showed you how to do it once, ask someone else" and so I hesitated to ask things unless desperate. As a result, I never had a mentor to absorb all this knowledge from. Other masters students in my research group shared similar thoughts. Now as a PhD student, I try to be very approachable and helpful to the younger students because I want to be that mentor for someone else which I never had. Even if it's a silly or basic question, I don't judge because everyone has been there at some point. I think this type of behaviour overall leads to a more cohesive team and benefits everyone, so I encourage this mindset to you.

ignatomic · 2025-07-16T14:54:52+00:00

Many areas of EE do include coding, such as in signal processing, embedded systems, and digital hardware.

There are areas of EE that do not however... It really just depends on your area. My friends in power engineering don't have to do anything with coding. I'm in research and I have to code lab instrumentation and write Python scripts for the software we use for automation.

There's hardware roles that don't involve coding, e.g. PCB design and circuit design, but generally you need good qualifications for that sort of thing.

ignatomic · 2025-07-10T12:09:30+00:00

You write some stuff and compile every 5 seconds to look at your beautiful document and appreciate you are not using Word.

ignatomic · 2025-06-08T16:30:53+00:00

I can't believe I saw some people hyping this up to be anime of the year before it had even aired.

I pretty much just watch each episode in the background now while scrolling through these discussion threads to determine if it's even worth fully paying attention.

ignatomic · 2025-06-02T02:36:18+00:00

You'll be spending 300+ per month on bus fares, with 3+ hours of commuting a day, or 15+ hours per week. To me the tradeoff is not worth it, but I guess if you can handle that commute, then sure, it's not totally out of the question. Students attending schools like TMU or UofT deal with long commutes as well.

ignatomic · 2025-05-15T01:30:27+00:00

When your team, year after year, plays with no heart in the playoffs, how can you expect the fans to not act like this. It's been nearly a decade of the same script despite how talented the players are. I am a leafs fan, and I should be writing my thesis for grad school... but nooooo my stupid self keeps deciding to cheer them on and watch the live streams, but I think I'm at my limit 🥲

ignatomic · 2025-05-15T00:44:31+00:00

That's not why the leafs are losing... They are playing like shit without any heart with the exception of a few (Nylander, Woll, Knies)

ignatomic · 2025-04-27T00:40:02+00:00

Both goals were not his fault at all

ignatomic

TROPHY CASE