Skip to main content

Marker bands

Marker bands are the radiopaque rings that give the device its landmarks under fluoroscopy. They are positions along the shaft rather than sections, so they have a step of their own.

Tick Include marker bands on the Design step and a Marker Bands step appears after Construction. Unticking it removes the step and keeps the list for the rest of the session.

Marker Bands step​

The distal end is drawn to scale above the table, numbered to match it.

  • Name: What the band is called on the drawing.
  • From tip: Distance from the distal tip to the band's distal edge. The band extends proximally from there by its length.
  • Length: The band's width along the shaft.
  • Wall: The band's wall thickness. Must be thinner than the wall of the section it sits on.
  • Material: Metals first, with More materials... at the bottom for the full library. Defaults to Platinum/Iridium 90/10.
  • Section: Read-only. The section the band lands in, which follows the lengths.

Bands are always flush with the OD: the outside of the band sits level with the shaft, so the finished catheter has no step where a band is. The drawing states the tube and its position and says nothing about the process; how a band is fixed is yours to call out in the notes.

A band may sit anywhere on the shaft, over the pull ring and across a section boundary included. It may not span a change in the outside diameter, and no two bands may overlap.

Bands stiffen the shaft only where they sit

The Steering Simulation and Pushability carry a band as a short, much stiffer length of shaft. The section's own stiffness and every number built from it, including the Catheter Analysis tab, kink, crush and burst, are unchanged. A band's mass is not modeled.