novice user: on track or not?

["r_dingo" <rd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all

I'm a novice to using FEMM. I'm finding that solutions often look a 
little unexpected. Probably this just means that I don't know much 
about magnetic fields. However, it would be good to know whether I 
have set up the program correctly.

For example: imagine a pair of cylindrical magnets, with their long 
axes collinear, and unlike poles facing each other across a moderate 
airgap (width similar to the diameter of the magnets). The solution 
shows that there is a circular locus of zero field strength 
surrounding the gap between the poles (ie, lying in the plane which 
bisects the air gap and is normal to the axis of symmetry). 
Furthermore, this ring of zero field strength is fairly close in - 
it's definitely part of the near field, not the far field. Without 
the benefit of any training in EM theory, I had expected the high 
local field strength between the poles would decrease monotonically 
out into the far field pattern, without any near-field minima.

Is the solution correct, or have I set up the model incorrectly?

Thanks, Ross