Why do I receive "empty value" errors when optimizing with parallel computing in Antenna Designer R2025a?

I want to optimize my antenna using the "Optimize" function in Antenna Designer R2025a. My selected optimizer is "SADEA" and my mesh is auto-generated. In order to reduce computation time, I have checked the option for "Parallel Computing." However, when this option is selected, I receive the following error:

Attempt to call a method on an empty value

Why am I receiving this error and how can I parallelize my optimization successfully?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This error occurs when parallel workers attempt to access a value than has not been initialized yet. The high computational load of the "SADEA" optimizer combined with the very small mesh size that is automatically generated may slow down initialization of elements of the array so that they are not yet initialized when parallel workers attempt to access them, causing the error.

To avoid this error and improve the speed of simulations, you can do the following:

     1. Use the "TR-SADEA" optimizer instead of "SADEA," which is designed to carry reduced computational load. Please refer to Antenna Optimization Algorithms Documentation for information on the differences and trade-offs between these two optimizers.

     2. Increase the size of your mesh. This can be done in "Analysis Settings" in the Antenna Designer app or by using the "mesh" function.

To ensure the simulation will run, you can check the expected memory that a simulation will require for a given mesh by using "Memory Estimate" in the Antenna Designer app or by using the "memoryEstimate" function.