Revision Histories for Versions 8.0.0 - 10.2.0

Shown below are VISRAD revision summaries for:

• Version 10.2.0
• Version 10.1.0
• Version 10.0.0
• Version 9.1.0
• Version 9.0.0
• Version 8.6.0
• Version 8.5.0
• Version 8.1.0
• Version 8.0.0

Version 10.2.0

• An option to force the "Up" vector in Main Graphics Window to align with the Target Chamber z-axis has been added to the Graphics tab in the Preferences dialog (see below). In version 10.1.0, the "Up" vector was allowed to deviate from the Target Chamber z-axis to avoid a discontinuous "flipping" of the view when the viewing direction became approximately aligned with the z-axis.

• Snapshot Viewer: the locations of View 3 and View 4 have been switched to support future development of a viewer having a flexible number of rows and columns of views.
• The ability to print or export multiple views from the Snapshots Viewer has been added. This is done using the items under the File Menu of the Snapshots Viewer. The views can be exported (printed) separately or to a single file (sheet).

• Support for LMJ target chamber has been added. This includes positioning for the laser beams (long pulse and short pulse beams) and the diagnostic port locations.

• Bug fixes:
  • A problem where object material properties (e.g., albedos, x-ray conversion efficiencies, or laser reflectivities) were sometimes not being displayed in the Main Graphics Window has been fixed.
  • The link for the Help button on the Setup Movie Views dialog has been fixed (problem occurred for Mac and Linux platforms only).

Version 10.1.0

• Support for generating movies (animations) has been added. This involves generating a series of image files that can easily be converted to a single movie file using a standard commercial tool (such as Apple's Quick Time Pro). To generate movie files, select the Tools | Create Movie menu item (or press the new button on the tool bar). Movie files are generated by moving through a list of Movie Viewing Positions. The movie viewing positions are set up using a dialog similar to that used to set the viewing position in the Main Graphics Window.
  • Views can be added, deleted, duplicated, or moved up/down in the list at the top of the Setup Movie Views dialog (see below).

• Views can be displayed in the Main Graphics Window, and saved. The saved parameters are written to the workspace file.
• After a list of Movie Viewing Positions has been set up, the files are created by hitting the Create Files for Movie button (which displays the dialog below). The files are written to the specified directory, and with the naming convention: "name_NNNN.jpg", where name is the base file name and NNNN is a 4-digit integer value.
• Using the set of image files created, a single movie file (e.g., *.mov file) can be created using low-cost commercially available software. To do this with Apple's Quick Time Pro, simply open QT Pro, select File | Open Image Sequence, and then File | Save As a self-contained movie (*.mov).



To view the sample animation below, right click on the image and select Play.

 

• Several upgrades have been made to the dialog used to set the viewing position in the Main Graphics Window:
  • The dialog used to set the viewing position relative to a specified target component from along one of its coordinate system axes (shown with the button) has been merged with the main dialog used for setting the viewing position (displayed with Set | Viewing Position menu item or the button.)
  • When setting the viewing position relative to a target component, the distance to the target component (the Offset) can now be specified by the user.
  • The migration to the new viewing position can now be displayed in a series of frames (or animation). By default, this option is turned on. The use of animation when setting the viewing position can be turned off in Preferences (see below).
  • When setting the new viewing position, the mouse-controlled translation and rotation parameters, including those specified in the Viewer Orientation Widget, are set to zero.

• Setting User Preferences: Animation parameters used when setting the viewing position in the Main Graphics Window can be adjusted on the Graphics tab of the Preferences dialog. Animation parameters include:
  • Turning animation on/off.
  • The number of frames used when moving to a new viewing position.
  • The maximum CPU time used (when exceeded the viewing moves immediately to the new position).

• Main Graphics Window: The algorithm implemented for setting the "up" direction (vector) has been updated. This affects the view in cases where the vector from the eyes to the scene is nearly parallel to the target chamber z-axis. This avoids "flipping" of the view when the view is closely aligned with the z-axis.
• Viewer Orientation Widget (selected with the button): Now supports refinement of angle rotation about viewing axis to 0.1 degrees. The value of the rotation angle is now shown in the label.
• Target Components List: The scroll position is now maintained when modifying various aspects of target components (e.g., show/hide).
• Snapshot Viewer: Image capture has been updated so that only the portion of the image displayed in the Main Graphics Window is captured to the viewer.
• Greek symbols in user interface: Upgrades were made to better handle case for platforms that do not support Symbol font.
• When Target Components are duplicated, the new components are now placed in same folder as the original components.
• Target Positioning Viewers: Reticle data exported to data files (*.vrd files) can now be imported. Also, the exported reticle data now contains a color ID for each reticle.
• NIF TAS Viewer:
  • The view scaling has been changed so that the entire field-of-view box is initially displayed.
  • The zooming has been adjusted so that target components do not disappear when zooming has a high value.
  • When exporting or printing an image that is not currently being displayed in the NIF TAS Viewer, the requested view is now raised to the front so that it is displayed correctly in the Print Previewer and the image is processed correctly.
• When the name of a Target Component is changed, all Clipping Volumes that use that component as a reference coordinate system now continue to use it after the name change (previously, the reference coordinate system had been changed back to the Target Chamber coordinate system). If the Clipping Volume Parameters Dialog is open, it is automatically updated to reflect the name change.
• Exporting SFR beam data to an XML file: Pointing parameters are limited to two digits after the decimal point.
• Bug fixes:
  • A problem associated with computing the occultation of laser light for surface elements far from focus by surface elements near the focus has been fixed. The resulting changes to the laser ray-trace algorithms can produce small differences in the laser intensity distribution onto the grid of surfaces elements.
  • Target Components Library: Sub-folders are now created as needed when storing a component in a sub-folder of the Target Components Library.
  • A bug the prevented the distance and angle measuring tools from being displayed in the Main Graphics Window has been fixed (bug occurred in Ver. 10.0.0 only).
  • A bug occurring when setting the viewing position such that it views a specified target component from along one of its coordinate system axes has been fixed.
  • A bug causing a crash in Ver. 10.0.0 when editing a text box in the Snapshot Viewer has been fixed.
  • A bug causing a crash in Ver. 10.0.0 when editing the color bar overlay in the Main Graphics Window has been fixed.
  • The tab order for a number of the widgets has been updated.
  • Surface Elements Table Data: Problems occurring when generating contour plots for Torus objects has been fixed.
  • Tool tip text for Main Window tool button used to open OMEGA X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer has been fixed.
  • A crash occurring when importing a Custom Laser Beam into a workspace where Target Chamber = None has been fixed.
  • A round-off problem that sometimes caused a crash when the Position and Orientation Angles were automatically updated when changing the Reference Coordinate System has been fixed.
  • Problem associated with opening a workspace with a target chamber that is different than the one currently in use has been fixed. Sometimes caused "Bad Target Mount pointer found" message to appear.
  • When adjusting laser beam pointing by right-clicking in the Laser Beams List and selecting Set Pointing, the Reference Coordinate System and Coordinate System type are now initialized properly so that when the Auto Update Position... box is checked, the coordinates are updated appropriately.
  • On Mac platforms, a problem sometimes occurring when showing a dialog (e.g., for target chamber selection or displaying license warnings) prior to the Main Window being constructed and displayed has been fixed.
  • On Mac platforms, a crash that sometimes occurred when re-showing a line plot of spectra for a picked surface element has been fixed.
  • Bug fixes related to general plotting (line and contour plots):
    • In line plot widget, bug fix for Ver. 10.0.0: line plot dragged from one widget to another was not shown.
    • In line plot widget, bug fix for Ver. 10.0.0: undefined line color problem fixed.
    • Color bar ticks for logarithmic scales have been updated.

Version 10.0.0

• A Windows 64-bit version of VISRAD is now supported. During installation on Windows platforms, if a 64-bit system is detected, the 64-bit version is automatically installed on the system.
• When rendering laser beams and/or computing beam-target intersection points, algorithms that calculate laser beam cone intersection points with target components have been updated to support multi-threading (to invoke multi-threading, select Edit | Preferences menu item, and see Simulations tab). In test calculations involving all NIF 192 beams, speed-ups of ~ 7.5 were observed on a Windows system with an Intel i7 processor.
• A Color Bar Overlay can now be shown in Main Graphics Window when using Orthographic projection. The parameters can be edited by double-clicking on the color bar box. Note that the color bar limits, color map, and specification of linear vs. log plotting are still specified in the Color Bar Settings dialog (displayed with the Set | Color Bar menu item or double-clicking on the color bar located below the Main Graphics Window). An example of a window with a color bar overlay, and the color bar editing (Color Bar Parameters) dialog are shown below.

• A NIF TAS Viewer has been added, accessed by selecting the View | NIF TAS Viewer in the the Main Window. This viewer is analogous to OMEGA X-YVS/Y-TVS Viewer. In future documentation, we will refer to these as Target Positioning Viewers.
  • The parameters used for the four NIF TAS views are:

Name	Polar Angle (deg)	Azimuthal Angle (deg)	Field of View (mm)
Top (UTAS)	0	0	7.01 x 5.26
Bottom (LTAS)	180	0	7.06 x 5.30
Top Jaw Side (USIDE)	90	109.5	9.73 x 7.29
Bottom Jaw Side (LSIDE)	90	95.0	10.27 x 7.70



• For NIF TAS Viewer, field of view can be shown (to show/hide, use the Show | Field of View menu item in the NIF TAS Viewer).
• Parameters for setting the rotation of the Top and Bottom TAS views can be specified on the User Interface tab of the Preferences dialog.

• NIF TAS viewing angles have been added to list of diagnostic ports used in setting main window viewing position, as well as other dialogs that use diagnostic port angles.
• The lighting system for the Target Position Viewers has been updated to provide improved lighting of surface elements.
• NIF CPPs:
  • The radii for all NIF CPPs have been adjusted so that the radii correspond to HWHM values, as opposed to 1/e values. When reading in old NIF workspaces and the use of 1/e values is detected, the user is prompted to see whether the spot size model for beams that use 1/e should be automatically switched to HWHM.
  • Two phase plates have been added to the NIF phase plate library. Their parameters are (supergaussian n = 2.0 is temporary value until updates are provided):

• Polar views in Main Window: When the view is directly from the bottom or top of the target chamber, the y-axis now points up.
• When closing Target Positioning Viewers using "X" at upper right of window, a warning message to save reticle parameters is now presented only if reticle parameters have changed. Also, when saving the workspace file, a warning message to save reticle parameters is now presented only if reticle parameters have changed.
• Parameters controlling the showing/hiding of Graphics Items (text boxes and arrows) and the Color Bar Overlay in the Main Graphics Window are now stored in the workspace file.
• In dialogs that show diagnostic port angles, the sub-ports (and their assignments, when shown) are now displayed by default (i.e., the port trees are opened).
• When viewing OMEGA laser beam data with the SRF Laser Beam Parameters widget (viewed by selecting menu item OMEGA-OPS | View SRF Laser Data or by double-clicking on a RID number in the SRF Shot List Viewer), a comparison of pointing parameters in the VISRAD workspace with those in the SRF database can also be displayed. To do this, in the SRF Laser Beam Parameters widget, check the box labeled: Compare SRF vs. VISRAD Pointing in the upper right portion of the dialog. To facilitate viewing, beam data are highlighted as follows:
  • Yellow: beams having different pointing parameters where either the VISRAD or SRF beam is turned On.
  • Dark gray: beams having different pointing parameters, and both the VISRAD and SRF beams are turned Off.
  • Light gray: beams having the same pointing parameters, and both the VISRAD and SRF beams are turned Off.
  • No highlighting: beam pointing parameters are the same.

• Laser Beams List: For the NIF laser system, when selecting one or more beam Clusters, the right-click pop-up menu now supports turning on/off and showing/hiding of beams for selected cone type (blue, green, red, or all).
• Main Window Graphics:
  • When the optical axis (defined by ray from the Viewer position to the Scene position) is parallel to the z-axis, the x-axis is now oriented such that it points to the right in the Main Graphics Window.
  • A new widget has been added that supports changing angles related to the Viewer orientation. To display the widget, select the ( ) button on the right side of the Main Window.
    • On the left side of the widget, the viewer's eyes can be rotated up, down, left, and right. The amount of rotation is given by the position of the blue dot, which is controlled by dragging with the mouse.
    • On the right side of the widget, the rotation of the view along the optical axis (which is defined by the vector from the Viewer to the Scene) can be adjusted.
    • The small buttons located in the upper left and upper right corners of the widget are used to reset the rotation angles to zero.

    The Viewer and Scene positions can be specified in the Set Viewing Position Dialog. Rotating the eyes up, down, left, and right can by useful when viewing elements that are close to the Viewer (e.g., when viewing the inside of a target component).

• On Windows platforms, the Main Window position and size are now saved upon exiting. When re-starting VISRAD, the saved settings are used to place the Main Window.
• When saving a workspace using File | Save As, the current workspace filename is presented as the default name in the file selection dialog.
• Duplication of multiple Target Components, Clipping Volumes, and Folders in the Target Components List is now supported. Duplication of multiple items is supported only when all selected items are of the same type (folder, target component, or clipping volume).
• Duplication of Chamber Components is now supported. To do this, select one or more Chamber Components in the Chamber Components List, right-click and select the Duplicate menu item.
• Surface Elements Table and Color Contour Plots:
  • Color contour plots generated from the Surface Elements Table can now display a wider range of surface elements of a target component. This includes the inner and outer walls for most objects (when using walls with non-zero thickness), and the edges and rims of objects. For Hohlraums and Halfraums, this includes the ability to display the areas around LEHs (i.e., its disk-like ends; see images below). The coordinate system used to display the results depends on the region of the object being show (specified by its Wall Type).
  • A button has been added to the Surface Elements Table dialog which updates the color contour plot for the selected Target Component and Wall Type. This is convenient when viewing results for the same quantity (e.g., Laser Power Deposited) for a wide variety of Target Components and Wall Types.
  • In color contour plots, axes titles have been updated to avoid use of abbreviations. Also, parameters used to set the polygon shading and wire frame are now not automatically reset when contour plots are updated.

• When target components are specified to be included in a calculation -- invoked by either right-clicking in the Target Components List and selecting Include in Calculations or selecting the Target | Include All Objects in Calculations menu item -- the affected target components become visible in the Main Graphics Window.
• The quantity being displayed in the Main Graphics Window is now automatically changed to Grid whenever laser beam parameters are changed. This is because any results shown in the Main Graphics Window (e.g., radiation temperature) are out of date due to the changed parameters.
• Bug fixes:
  • Connection to LLE SRF database has been updated to use OCI driver. This fixes problems associated with extracting strings from the database.
  • Fixed problem for computing polar nodes used in 2-D color contour plots for Spherical Hohlraums.
  • Modality of windows displaying SRF Laser Beam Parameters and Available SRF Data have be updated so that they maintain their focus appropriately.
  • Object Parameters Dialog: When Apply button is hit, sliders for Orientation Angles on Position tab are updated to be consistent with values in boxes above them.
  • Problem associated with displaying Beam Spot Overlays in the color contour plots associated with the Surface Elements Table has been fixed. A scaling problem had resulted in the position of the beam spot labels being drawn in an incorrect position in VISRAD version 9.1.0 (only).
  • For halfraums with non-zero wall thickness, number of nodes used to specify the grid for the bottom disk is now being set appropriately.
  • Problem associated with area normalization of cylindrical hohlraums and halfraums has been fixed. The problem occurred in version 9.1 only, and resulted in barrel radii that were slightly too large in cases where R-corner = 0. The size of the error decreased as the number of azimuthal nodes increased.
  • When selecting the Target | Show All Objects, the Target Components List is now refreshed to update the icons to the left of the names.

Version 9.1.0

• Target setup: Several features have been added to facilitate the setup of target components:
  • Attaching one target component to another: To use this feature, right-click on an object in the Target Components List, and select the Attach to Target Component menu item. Items can be attached at key points (e.g., the corner of a rectangle or top of a cylinder). The Reference Coordinate System of the object being moved can also be changed to use the component to which it is being attached. The Orientation Angles of the object can then be adjusted in the Object Parameters Dialog.

  

  • Object Parameters Dialog: Sliders have been added in the Position tab for setting the Orientation Angles. As the sliders are adjusted, the orientation of the target component in the Main Graphics Window is updated.

  

  • Polygon shapes have been added to the list of available target component items. Polygons must be convex, but can be regular (equal length sides and angles) or irregular. Polygons can be zero-thickness or have a user-specified height. For irregular polygons, polygon node positions can be adjusted using the mouse.

        

• Cylindrical Hohlraums and Cylindrical Halfraums with non-zero wall thicknesses are now supported. Two thickness parameters are used: one for the cylindrical barrel, the other for the LEH. An example image is shown below:

• The Diagnostic Ports for the OMEGA and OMEGA-EP target chambers have been updated (assignments and sub-port angles).
• Pre-reflection beam cones:
  • The pre-reflection portion of short-pulse laser beams (i.e., the portion of a short pulse beam from its entrance port to its parabolic reflecting mirror (OAP) in the OMEGA-EP, OMEGA, and ORION chambers) are now not displayed if their beam power is Off.
  • An option has been added to compute the laser power deposited in target components from the pre-reflection portion of short-pulse laser beams.
    • To include this in the laser power deposition calculations, check the box in the Short-Pulse Beams tab of the Set Laser Power Calculation Parameters dialog (accessed with the Lasers | Set Power Calculation Params menu item).
    • Results for the power deposited by the pre-OAP portion of the beams can be viewed in the Power Summary Table and the Surface Elements Table (under the "Pre-OAP Las Pwr" columns).
    • The power in the post-OAP portion of the beam is reduced by the power deposited by the pre-OAP portion of the beam. The precise nature of the reflection of light off the OAP is not modeled in detail.

• Displaying properties of individual surface elements (by picking with mouse with selected):
  • When AMR grids are employed, the centroid position displayed is now that of the AMR (i.e., subdivided) surface element.
  • In addition to showing the centroid position of the picked surface element in the Surface Element Parameters dialog, the node positions are now shown in Node Positions tab (see image below, right). The nodes are also shown in the Main Graphics Window, using different colors (red, green, blue) that map to the values shown in the table. The purpose of displaying node position information is to facilitate obtaining more accurate information on positioning, such as identifying the edge or corned of a clipped target component.



• A splitter has been added to the VISRAD Main Window between the Main Graphics Frame and the Target Components List. This facilitates reading target components names that are long.
• Randomized beam power multipliers. The ability to apply a random multiplier to beam powers has been added. The motivation for this is to support studies that address the sensitivity of results to statistical variations in actual beam powers that occur in experiments. A single multiplier is generated for each beam. For time-dependent calculations, the same multiplier is used throughout the beam pulse.
• The randomized multiplier option is turned On or Off in the Power Calc tab of the Set Laser Power Calculation Parameters dialog (accessed with the Lasers | Set Power Calculation Params menu item). If On, the user will be prompted with a warning message when updating various quantities under the Display menu.
• User input includes the standard deviation (in percent) for the beam powers, and a seed value for the random number generator (optional).
• To re-generate multipliers, the Setup Randomized Beam Powers button must be pressed.
• The values of the multipliers are listed in the Laser Beams Summary dialog (in the column just after the beam power).

• The PLX chamber is now supported. A PLX sample workspace is in the "/examples" folder. Chamber components for the PLX chamber (shown below) have been added to the Chamber Components Library.

• CAD file import: STL-formatted CAD files with units of inches are now supported.
• When importing NIF CMT file data, for beams contained in the file, the power and visibility for each beam is set to On for all cones (blue, green, red). For beams not included in the file, their power and visibility is set to Off for all cones.
• Bug fixes:
  • Problem occurring when running multi-threaded simulations on Linux platforms has been fixed.
  • Fixed problem in setting NIF red and green cone power fractions when reading in old (< ver. 7.2.0) workspace files.
  • Cylinder object with non-zero wall thickness: problem fixed for case when R_corner > 0.
  • Problem associated with exceeding array bounds which occurred in time-dependent problems with updating the display for power source and radiosity results at new times steps has been fixed.
  • Surface Element Parameters for picked surface element: On the Laser Pwr tab, the percentage of incident laser power from each laser beam cone hitting the surface element is now properly adjusted to account for beam power normalization. Results now sum to exactly 100%.
  • Geometry-dependent symbols for q and j have been fixed in various dialogs.
  • Problem occurring when duplicating CAD (GENERALIZED_MESH) objects (using either the Target | Duplicate or the right-click Duplicate menu items) has been fixed.

Version 9.0.0

• A new viewing window has been added that saves Snapshots of various views from the Main Graphics Window. The Snapshots Viewer supports holding up to 4 individual snapshots (fixed images), and can be overlain with text boxes and arrows (i.e., Graphics Decorators). Snapshots can be viewed individually on a tabbed widget (select ) or on a 4-panel widget (select ). Images from the Main Graphics Window can be captured into the Snapshots Viewer by either selecting the Capture button () or by dragging the image from the Main Graphics Window with the mouse.

Each Snapshot is composed of an image (stored as a jpeg) and its Graphics Decorators (text boxes and arrows). The properties of each Snapshot are saved when the workspace file is saved. The images are stored in files named <filename>_ViewN.jpg, where <filename> is the workspace file name, and N is the view number (1, 2, 3, or 4).

• The units used for specifying positions and sizes can now be specified by the user. Previously centimeters (cm) was used in most widgets. To instead use millimeters (mm), set the Default Units in the User Interface tab of the Preferences dialog. Widgets affected are:
  • Object Parameters Dialog (Positions and Sizes)
  • Clipping Volume Parameters Dialog (Positions and Sizes)
  • Laser Beam Parameters Dialog (Pointing)
  • Coordinate Transformation Tool
  • Line-Target Intersection Points Tool
  • Surface Element Parameters Dialog
• Graphics Decorators (text boxes and arrows) can also be added to the Main Graphics Window. This is currently supported only when viewing the Main Graphics Window using Orthographic projection.

• The projection model used in the Main Graphics Window at startup can now be specified in Preferences. To do this, select the Edit | Preferences menu item, go to the Graphics tab, and set Default Projection at Startup to either Perspective or Orthographic.
• The default value for the perspective projection opening angle has been changed from 80 degrees to 20 degrees.
• Main Graphics Window: The viewing parameters are now saved to the workspace, so that at startup the same view is presented.
• Time-dependent laser beam powers, P_L(t), for one or more laser beams can now be plotted by right-clicking in the Laser Beams List and selecting Plot Power vs. Time. For NIF beams, the individual contributions from the blue, green, and red cones can also be plotted.

• NIF Laser Beam System: Characteristics of the red, green, and blue (RGB) cones are setup in a beam-dependent manner (as opposed to previous system-wide approach):
  • Powers (constant and time-dependent) are setup beam-by-beam, with several options being provided (see below) to define the power in each cone.
  • RGB cones powers can be turned on/off on a beam-by-beam basis. To do this, select one or more beams in the Laser Beams List, and either select the Lasers | Turn On (Off) menu items or right-mouse click and select Turn On (Off).
  • Individual RGB cones can be shown or hidden on a beam-by-beam basis. To do this, select one or more beams in the Laser Beams List, and either select the Lasers | Show (Hide) menu items or right-mouse click and select Show (Hide).
• For the NIF system, new icons are shown in Laser Beam List which facilitate seeing which RGB cones are visible in the display and which have their powers on. For each beam, the 3 small blue, red, and green squares on the top level indicate whether the cone power is on, while the 3 squares on the bottom level indicate whether the cone is visible in the Main Graphics Window.

• Laser Beam Powers: For the NIF system, the widget used to set the beam cone powers has been updated (see below). One of four models can be used to specify the powers in the red (R) and green (G) cones:
  • None: All power is in the blue (B) cone.
  • Absolute Power: The power for the red and green cones are specified in TW (P_R(t) and P_G(t)).
  • Fraction of Total Beam Power: The fraction of power in the red and green cones is specified (f_R(t) and f_G(t) specified, where f_i(t) = P_i(t)/P_TOT(t)).
  • Relative to Blue Cone Power: The red and green powers are specified relative to the blue power value (R_R(t) and R_G(t) specified, where R_i(t) = P_i(t)/P_B(t)).
  The total power in the four models, in terms of the quantities specified, is given by:
  • None: P_TOT(t) = P_B(t).
  • Absolute Power: P_TOT(t) = P_B(t) + P_G(t) + P_R(t).
  • Fraction of Total Beam Power: P_TOT(t) = (f_B(t) + f_G(t) + f_R(t)) * P_TOT(t), where f_B(t) = 1 - f_G(t) - f_R(t).
  • Relative to Blue Cone Power: P_TOT(t) = P_B(t) * ( 1 + R_G(t) + R_R(t)).

The parameters used to specify the Green and Red powers can be entered either as constants or as (tabular) time-dependent variables. The parameters used to specify the Total or Blue powers are the same as in previous versions of VISRAD.

• The dialog box displayed with the Lasers | Set NIF Beam Parameters, used to set fractional powers for the RGB cones and show/hide RGB cones, is no longer used.
• Laser Beam Summary Table: When the pointing for a beam is defined using a Cylindrical or Spherical coordinate system, the position angles are now displayed in units of degrees (as opposed to radians). Note that this also affects the data in files created when exporting data from the Laser Beam Summary Table.
• The right-click menu items for the Target Components List and the Laser Beams List (previously available on Windows and Linux) are now available on Mac platforms.
• Target Components List: Support has been added to conveniently reset the Reference Coordinate System of one or more target components to one of the Target Mounts of a target chamber. To do this, select one or more target components in the Target Components List, and select the right-click menu item Attach to Target Mount. Components attached to a Target Mount can be rotated/translated in the X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer.

• X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer:
  • Reticle data is now automatically saved prior to exporting or printing reticle data (using either File | Export Reticle Data or File | Print All).
  • Mouse-controlled translation of the X-TVS and Y-TVS views is now supported. To set the mouse mode for translation, click on the () tool button at the top of the X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer. To reset the translation offsets to zero, right-click on the button.
  • The reticle line thickness is now scaled to the image zooming.
  • The default for rotating views by 180 degrees has been set to Off.
  • The rotation label now notes the counter-clockwise (→CCW) direction.
• Laser power deposition calculation: The number of rays used to calculate the fraction of laser power (in a given laser beam cone) that hits the target grid can now be adjusted by the user. To adjust the parameters, select the Lasers | Set Power Calculation Params menu item, and go to the Power Calc. tab (see below).

• The widget displaying the parameters used in calculating laser light reflection (formerly displayed using the Lasers | Glint Params menu item) has been moved to the Reflection tab in the Set Laser Power Calculation Parameters dialog (see above).
• Coordinate Transformation Tool: Boxes containing Transformed Position values values are now cleared (to avoid confusion) whenever the Base Coordinate System or New Coordinate System parameters have changed.
• The Print Previewer has been updated to include scroll bars for previewing large images.
• A slider for controlling zooming in the Main Graphics Window has been added to the lower left corner of the Main Window. Note that this feature complements the mouse-controlled zooming capability (initiated with the button ).
• Editing Clipping Volumes: When Clipping Volume parameters are edited, the laser beams in the Main Graphics Window are now automatically updated.
• Beam Spot Overlays: Custom Laser Beams are now labelled by "C" in Beam Spot Overlays.
• Time Selector grid setup: When entering times into the Simulation Time Grid using the Grid Setup feature, only times which are not duplicated are shown in the table.
• Support has been added for 64-bit Windows 7 platforms.
• Bug fixes:
  • Reading/Writing Time-Dependent Data: The problem associated with writing Two-Column Table Data that occasionally occurred on Windows platforms in Version 8.5.0 has been fixed.
  • Laser Beam Pointing Params: Problem associated with editing multiple beams and using spherical or cylindrical geometry to specify beam pointing angles (q or j) has been fixed.
  • Short-pulse laser beams: Problem occuring when viewing laser beam pre-reflection cones when the nominal portion of the beam is not visible has been fixed.
  • Setting the background color: Problem occurring when setting the background color using Set | Background Color | To New Color has been fixed.
  • Displaying Pre-Reflection Laser Beam Cones: Problem occurring when displaying Pre-Reflection Laser Beam Cones when the number of display points along the z-direction > 1 (set in Preferences) has been fixed.
  • X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer: The problem (crash) occurring in ver. 8.5.0 when attempting to print the X-TVS and Y-TVS images together along with the reticles list (using File | Print All) has been fixed.
  • Importing/Exporting Custom Laser Beam Data: Problem associated with importing Custom Laser Beam data for NIF beams has been fixed.
  • When printing or exporting images from the Main Graphics Window, the color background is now not reset to black when the background color for Printing/Exporting is not specified in Preferences (Graphics tab).

Version 8.6.0

• The units used for specifying positions and sizes can now be specified by the user. Previously centimeters (cm) was used in most widgets. To instead use millimeters (mm), set the Default Units in the User Interface tab of the Preferences dialog. Widgets affected are:
  • Object Parameters Dialog (Positions and Sizes)
  • Clipping Volume Parameters Dialog (Positions and Sizes)
  • Laser Beam Parameters Dialog (Pointing)
  • Coordinate Transformation Tool
  • Line-Target Intersection Points Tool
  • Surface Element Parameters Dialog
• Target Components List: Support has been added to conveniently reset the Reference Coordinate System of one or more target components to one of the Target Mounts of a target chamber. To do this, select one or more target components in the Target Components List, and select the right-click menu item Attach to Target Mount. Components attached to a Target Mount can be rotated/translated in the X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer.

• X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer:
  • Reticle data is now automatically saved prior to exporting or printing reticle data (using either File | Export Reticle Data or File | Print All).
  • Mouse-controlled translation of the X-TVS and Y-TVS views is now supported. To set the mouse mode for translation, click on the () tool button at the top of the X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer. To reset the translation offsets to zero, right-click on the button.
  • The reticle line thickness is now scaled to the image zooming.
  • The default for rotating views by 180 degrees has been set to Off.
  • The rotation label now notes the counter-clockwise (→CCW) direction.
• Laser power deposition calculation: The number of rays used to calculate the fraction of laser power (in a given laser beam cone) that hits the target grid can now be adjusted by the user. To adjust the parameters, select the Lasers | Set Power Calculation Params menu item, and go to the Power Calc. tab (see below).

• The widget used to set the parameters used in calculating laser light reflection (formerly displayed using the Lasers | Glint Params menu item) has been moved to the Reflection tab in the Set Laser Power Calculation Parameters dialog (see above).
• Coordinate Transformation Tool: Boxes containing Transformed Position values values are now cleared (to avoid confusion) whenever the Base Coordinate System or New Coordinate System parameters have changed.
• A slider for controlling zooming in the Main Graphics Window has been added to the lower left corner of the Main Window. Note that this feature complements the mouse-controlled zooming capability (initiated with the button ).
• The default value for the perspective projection opening angle has been changed from 80 degrees to 20 degrees.
• Bug fixes:
  • Laser Beam Pointing Params: Problem associated with editing multiple beams and using spherical or cylindrical geometry to specify beam pointing angles (q or j) has been fixed.
  • Setting the background color: Problem occurring when setting the background color using Set | Background Color | To New Color has been fixed.
  • X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer: The problem (crash) occurring in ver. 8.5.0 when attempting to print the X-TVS and Y-TVS images together along with the reticles list (using File | Print All) has been fixed.

Version 8.5.0

• Updated compilers are now used for Windows versions of VISRAD. In many cases, this results in a reduction in CPU time required for calculations (a factor of 1.4 was found for a typical hohlraum calculation.)
• The (3rd party) user interface software used by VISRAD had been updated, resulting in a slightly different style for widgets.
• Multi-threading support for simulations has been added, which can produce significant speed-ups when running VISRAD on multi-core desktop computers. The multi-threading affects: (1) the calculation of laser intensity distributions on a target, and (2) the calculation of view factors used in computing radiation fluxes/temperatures. To set parameters for performing multi-threaded calculations, go to the Simulations tab in the Preferences Dialog (invoked with Edit | Preferences). Test calculations performed on a desktop PC with dual-quad processors showed speed-ups of nearly a factor of 8.

• Laser Beam Spatial Profiles for Square Beams: Beam spatial profiles have been updated to support the use of supergaussian profiles for square beams (e.g., NIF beams with CPPs). Modeling details are provided in the documentation (see Power Sources | Laser Beam Parameters Dialog | Spatial Profile Tab). The spatial profile for a square beam can now transition smoothly from a square uniform intensity at the final optics to a supergaussian profile (circular or elliptical) at the focal plane. The images below show beam patterns for a test case. Results are shown for disks located at the focus (left), 0.75 cm before focus, 2 cm before focus, and 10 cm before focus (right). (The size of the disk is different in each case.) The eccentricity of the beam is greatest at the focus, and gradually tends towards a square beam as the disk is moved away from focus.

The updated laser beam profile modeling affects both the calculated intensity onto a surface and the beam cones displayed in the Main Graphics Window.

• NIF Target Chamber:
  • The beam names have been changed to reflect the names commonly used at NIF (B111, B112, ...).
  • Import of XML-formatted CMT data files is now supported. Data supported include beam pointing positions and defocus.
  • The option to use laser beams with a Custom Supergaussian spatial profile has been added.
  • NIF Continuous Phase Plates (CPPs) have been added. At present, spatial profiles are elliptical and modeled assuming a supergaussian exponent of 2.0. The following lists the parameters for each CPP:

A rotation angle of zero corresponds to the case where the major axis is nearly horizontal; specifically, it is coincident with the upper edge of the square beam as it enters the target chamber.

• OMEGA-EP Target Chamber: Custom Supergaussian profiles are now supported for OMAGA-EP beams.
• Laser Beam Parameters Dialog: An option is now provided to automatically update the pointing position coordinates when the Reference Coordinate System is changed.

• Laser Beam Spots Overlay: The algorithm used to generate beam spot overlays (invoked by Show | Beam Spots Overlay) has been updated:
  • Intensity contours are now computed using the same algorithms as those used in displaying the laser beams in the Main Window.
  • The number of contours displayed and the contour values can be adjusted in the Laser tab of the Preferences dialog.
• Laser Power Deposition calculation: The algorithm used for setting up Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) grid nodes and surface elements has be updated to be significantly more efficient.
• Main Graphics Frame: Default values for the background color for viewing in the Main Window and printing or exporting to a file can be specified by the user. To do this, select Edit | Preferences, and go to the Graphics tab. The default color is used when starting a new workspace. Note that the viewing background color is stored in each Workspace File. Thus, when reading in an old Workspace File, the background color is set to the color stored in the file. To set the background color for the Main Graphics Frame to something different than the default viewing background color, select the Set | Background Color menu item.

• The default dimensions for newly-created hohlraums and halfraums for NIF have been changed.
• Picked Surface Element Dialog (shown when displaying results for individual "picked" surface elements):

  • Incident radiation flux contribution from each object is now shown as a percentage.
  • The contribution to the incident laser intensity from each beam cone is now shown on the Laser Pwr tab.

• Surface Element Contour Plots: Intensity patterns for individual beam cones can now be displayed.
• User Preferences Data: The Preferences data reader was upgraded to more robustly handle problems that can occur reading the Preferences data file (e.g., reading a Preference data file created by a newer version of VISRAD).
• Opening a new workspace: The last directory accessed is now saved. When starting to browse for a new workspace to open, users now have the option to use either the last directory accessed or a user-specified directory. To set parameters for this, select Edit | Preferences, and go to the Directories tab.
• Target Components List: When the color of a Target Component is very light, the color shown Target Components List is adjusted to make to easier to read.
• Bug fixes:
  • Two-Column Table Data Dialog:
    • The problem associated with copying time-dependent laser power data from one beam to another (using Copy table to... or Copy table from... buttons) has been fixed. In recent versions, the listed beams could not be selected.
    • The problem occurring when entered table values were out of the allowed range for a parameter has been fixed. Previously, an unallowed value could lead to a crash.
  • Object Parameters Dialog: The problem associated with saving object material parameters when the Material Props. tab is not shown when OK or Apply is pressed has been fixed.

Version 8.1.0

• Main Window Graphics Frame :
  • The Main Window graphics can now be displayed using orthographic projection. To do this, select the Show | Orthographic Projection menu item.
  • When using orthographic projection, rulers and grid lines can now be shown overlying the graphics. To view this, select either the Show | Rulers or Show | Rulers and Grid Lines menu item. Use the Set | Ruler Units menu items to change the tick spacing.
  • When using orthographic projection, distance () and angle () measuring tools become available, with buttons located on the right side of the graphics frame. To measure a distance, select the button and position the mouse at a starting point and click. A line appears and follows the cursor until the mouse is clicked again. When measuring an angle, select the button and click the mouse at two points to provide a reference line. The reference line is then shown, as is a second line extending to the cursor. The value for the measurement appears in a box to the upper right of the graphics.

• X-TVS/Y-TVS Viewer: Distance () and angle () measuring tools are now available, with buttons at the top of the viewer. Distance and angles can be measured using the same procedure as in the Main Window Graphic Frame.
• Laser Beam Energetics: The use of laser facility Laser Pulse Shapes is now supported. Pulse shapes are selected in the Energetics tab of the Laser Beam Parameters Dialog. Data files for available pulse shapes are contained in the "/data/laser_pulse_shapes" folder distributed with each VISRAD release. Initially, only a limited number of pulse shapes for OMEGA will available. Additional pulse shapes will be added as they become available.
• Grouping Laser Beams into Clusters: Laser beam cluster configurations can now be saved in a Laser Beam Clusters Library.
  • Beams in an active session of VISRAD can group beams into a cluster configuration by selecting a configuration contained in the library. To do this, select the Lasers | Open Configurations Library menu item.
  • Users can specify a default configuration to use when starting a new session of VISRAD. To do this, select the Edit | Preferences menu item, and set the default configuration in the Lasers tab.

• Target Components: A Rugby Hohlraum has been added to the list of available target components.

• Surface Elements Contour Plot Window:
  • Label for EP beam in OMEGA target chamber is now labeled "EP" (instead of "70").
  • Beam spot label colors can now be changed. To do this, select the Text | Beam Spot Label Color menu item in the Surface Elements Contour Plot Window.
  • Support for using sinusoidal-like projection for Sphere objects is now supported. To do this, select View | Plot Type | Sinusoidal menu item in the Surface Elements Contour Plot Window.

• Surface Elements Statistics Dialog :
  • For Sphere objects, the calculation of Legendre coefficients and spherical harmonics based on best fits to surface element data for Total Laser Power Deposited and Direct Laser Power Deposited is now supported.
  • Procedure for calculating Legendre polynomials from least squares fit has been modified, so that quantity values are now area-weighted. Calculation is also now more robust for spatial distributions with widely disparate values. Compared to the previous model, slight differences were seen in test calculations of the incident radiation flux on a sphere, where differences, d, were found to be < 1% for A₀, and ~ a few percent for A₂ and A₄ [dA_i = (A_i^new-A_i^old)/A_i^new].
• Target Components List: Right-click menus have been updated so that all target components contained in a folder can be edited, shown/hidden, included/ignored in calculations, and exported to a CAD files or the Chamber Components Library.
• Duplicating Target Components: When duplicating target components with clipping volumes, if a clipping volume uses the parent target component as a reference coordinate system, the clipping volume of the new target component will use the new target component as the reference coordinate system.
• The procedure for opening recently-accessed workspaces has be updated. Duplicate filepaths are removed.
• CAD file import: When importing an STL-formatted CAD file, the user can now specify the units (m, cm, mm, or microns), and the file format (binary, ascii, or automatically detect). When automatically detecting whether the file is binary or ascii, the testing procedure has been updated. The test now reads two lines, and checks whether "solid" is contained in the first line, and "facet" is contained in the second. If both are true, it is expected to be ascii.
• Bug fixes:
  • Laser Beams List: When multiple clusters are selected, parameters being adjusted are now set for all beams in all selected clusters.
  • Laser beam power deposition calculation: When an object uses a coarse grid such that a beam spot that is much smaller than the surface element it is hitting, and the beam misses all points on the integration stencil of the surface element, the beam power is now deposited onto the element of that particular object.
  • Surface Elements Contour Plot Window: View | Beam Spots menu item now properly initialized so that it does not need to be selected twice to show the beam spot overlays.
  • Surface Elements Properties Dialog: When first showing the dialog, the table data shown now correctly corresponds to the time in the Simulation Time Selector. Previously, this was not the case when the selected simulation time was not the first simulation time.
  • When creating Chamber Components from Target Components, when reading and writing the Chamber Components Library file, all target components are set to visible (unhidden).
  • Fixed bug which sometimes occurred when not all of the parts in a STEP CAD file were loaded.
  • Fixed graphics bug associated with rendering front and back sides of polygons that appeared on Mac systems running OSX 10.5.7 or greater.

Version 8.0.0

• Chamber Components: VISRAD now supports the use of Chamber Components, which are items composed of one or more primitive objects (e.g., spheres, boxes, etc.) or items contained in STP- or STL-formatted CAD files. In VISRAD, Chamber Components:
  • are primarily used for CAD and visualization purposes;
  • are not considered in laser deposition or radiation flux calculations;
  • are held in a Chamber Components Library, which includes sample components (including target chambers, diagnostic components, and laser components) for several laser systems (e.g., OMEGA, NIF), and supports the use of custom user-supplied components (generated either by VISRAD or CAD programs).
  Example images of Chamber Components for OMEGA and OMEGA-EP are shown below.

• Laser Deposition and Radiation Flux Calculations: In the previous version of VISRAD, Target Components could be set to be Included or Ignored in calculations. This affected both laser deposition and radiation flux calculations. It is now possible to include/ignore Target Components in various types of calculations:
  • Direct laser energy deposition
  • Reflected laser light energy deposition
  • Radiation flux
  As an example, this allows a component to be placed over a laser beam port, and allow direct laser light to pass through it, while still being included in a calculation of the reflected laser light. Calculation settings for a target component are contained the Materials tab of the Object Parameters Dialog.
• Specular reflection of laser light in VISRAD is computed using a Phong reflection model. Users can now vary the Phong reflection parameter, which affects the how the reflected laser light is distributed with angle. A higher value of the Phong reflection parameter results in the reflected laser light being contained in a smaller cone of light, while leads to a smaller surface area seeing the reflected light and a higher peak reflected power at a surface. To set the Phong reflection coefficient, select the Lasers | Glint Parameters menu item to show the Laser Reflection Parameters Dialog, and set the value for the Phong specular reflection parameter.

• Laser Beam Summary Table: The beam pointing positions in the Target Chamber coordinate system (Cartesian geometry) are now written to the table. Some entries, such as the spot size major/minor radii for elliptical beams, have been separated into separate columns to facilitate table editing by spreadsheet software.
• Importing/Exporting Laser Beam Data: Laser beam data can now be exported and imported to CSV-formatted files (comma separated value). These files can be edited with Excel and read back into VISRAD. Data can be exported from the Laser Beam Summary Dialog.
• The Target Components Library data is now written as multiple files contained in a folder in the user's home directory. Previously, the data was contained in a single file. If the new library system has not been previously initialized, the user is prompted to copy target components from the old library to the new library.
• Several upgrades were made to the Target Components Library Dialog. Drag-n-drop can be used to move files into different folders in the library.
• Object Parameters Dialog (Position tab) : The capability to automatically re-adjust the Position values of an object when changing the Coordinate System in the Position group box (e.g., Cartesian, Cylindrical, or Spherical) has been added. This is done when checking the box at the bottom of the Position tab. The Position values are transform from the old geometry to the new geometry (e.g., from Cartesian to Spherical) such that the target component does not move.
• NIF Laser Beam System:
  • When starting a new application for NIF, by default the beams are grouped into 8 Laser Beams Clusters: Ring_023, Ring_030, Ring_045, Ring_050, Ring_130, Ring_135, Ring_150, and Ring_157.
  • TARPOS and CRYO TARPOS are included as Target Mounts for NIF. They can be used as a Reference Coordinate System for target components.
  • The Diagnostic Port System has been updated. Port assignments have been added.
• Workspace file: A new format is used in specifying parameters for target components. The updated format will support future developments in VISRAD.
• Documentation:
  • Updated to describe platform-dependent problems the sometimes occur when importing STEP-formatted CAD files on Mac platforms.
• Bug fixes:
  • The problem associated with the flipping of the view when zooming in extreme amounts in the main graphics window has been fixed.
  • When computing laser deposition, surface element located behind the beam port are no longer considered.
  • When computing distribution of reflected laser light, target components which are set to "Ignore in Calculations" are now ignored.
  • In dialogs that have the option to use Diagnostic Ports as a Reference Coordinate System, the default port name is now set to valid name for the current target chamber (OMEGA, NIF, ...), and checks are made to assure that the entered port name is a valid diagnostic port.
  • The problem associated with excessive AMR modeling grid refinement for surfaces parallel to the y-z plane (target chamber coordinates) has been fixed.
  • In the Available RID Data Viewer, the list of available RIDs is now updated when changing to the Dates button.
  • Image file format for the About Box has been changed to support display on all platforms.
  • The location of the Surface Element Parameters dialog, displayed when picking a surface element with the mouse, has been adjusted so that it is readily visible on single-monitor platforms when the VISRAD Main Window is maximized.
  • A STEP file with no axes specified now opens correctly.
  • SRF Laser Beam Parameters Dialog: Bad pointer associated with showing/hiding beams on right-mouse click has been fixed.
  • Rendering of objects in the Main Window Graphics has be re-ordered to improve rendering of partially transparent objects.