Does anybody know of a more or less free magnetic design and simulation software package? This would involve both static and AC fields.

 

Maybe worth a look?

https://www.opensourceimaging.org/project/open-ems-a-free-and-open-electromagnetic-field-solver/

Fun but maybe not applicable:

https://falstad.com/vector3dm-old/

 

A possibility? Works with Octave as well.

https://www.scilab.org/electro-magnetics-femm

 

EZNEC is free and open source for antenna modeling and seeing radiation patterns.

 

QuickField

 

Thank you all of these excellent recommendations. I see a steep learning curve ahead, and that is to be expected for something like this. Thanks again!

 

Fasten the object with magnetism to a rotary table centered half the height of the Z axis.
A hall sensor is fitted to a stepper driven Z axis calibrated high and low for flux density.
As the table turns one complete rotation it samples 360 times then it drops 1/10 of an inch and repeats until complete.
A set of 360 readings having 3 elements each revolution is read into a file and saved. ( Strength, Angle, Z_height )
Choose an open source 3D model software. (draw a simple example and decipher the file. (learning curve))
Convert data called Strength to correspond to a color, open the file in the modeling software.

Sorry about the over simplification.