The goal of this project is to provide a coherent user interface for FLUKA. All aspects of user interaction will be addressed. At this point in time flukaGUI is limited to viewing standard FLUKA output produced using the USRBIN option and inspecting the implemented geometry following the traditional FLUKA 2D concept.

As a starting point, the program was realized within the root frame work. Rather simple, detailed instruction are given below in case root needs to be installed. Alternative tools can be found in the $FLUPRO/flutil directory to perform these tasks.



INTRODUCTION

traditional steps how to produce graphical output for USRBIN data
(coarse outline)

  • regular FLUKA run to perform our simulation and produce a USRBIN output

  • run FLUKA with the PLOTGEOM option to prepare a geometry output file

  • use a special program PAWLEVBIN to read back the data file, select and project one BINNING onto 2D, set ranges and integration limits for '3rd' coordinate

  • apply scripts within an analysis program (typically PAW) to a set of files produced by the steps above to obtain a 2D color plot

  • optionally overlay the geometry of the problem

    above steps are combined within a single tool now which greatly simplifies the above procedure
    (except running FLUKA to generate the data)


    flukaGUI

    goals:

  • user friendly approach
  • implement the functionality of the standard FLUKA user tools within a common frame work
  • graphical user interface (GUI)
  • make use of the root analysis environment
  • --- screen shot

    enlarge the screen shot (version .07, still beta)

  • current package: aFlukaGUI-v07.tgz


    updated: 08 aug'07


    INSTALLATION

    This program is supported under Linux running on Intel PCs only at this point. Both the FLUKA and the root package need to be installed in order to build and run flukaGUI. Please see the notes towards the end of this document for hints on 64bit systems.

    ) install the current FLUKA package
    If you do not have FLUKA installed yet please get it at www.fluka.org. After download you need to make a directory for it first, cd into that directory and then unpack the compressed file and setup the required environment variable FLUPRO. Assume we call the directory which holds FLUKA myFluka/.

    ... copy the compressed tar file containing the FLUKA package into this directory ... Here ....- is fluka2006.3b- as of this writing. The current version of flukaGUI supports FLUKA release 2006.3 only. You probably want to implement the last step of setting up the environment variable within your login procedure in order to make it permanent.

    ) install root package
    If you do not have root installed, or if your installed version is not current enough, go to http://root.cern.ch and follow the Download Binaries link (upper left side). You should select the Recommended version, as of this writing 5.15/06. There you will find binary packages for a variety of hardware and OS versions. Try to identify the 'closest' configuration to your local system - care must be taken since the packages are not all of the same root version.

    In case none of the binary package works for you, one can actually download the source and compile root from scratch. You will find and need instruction provided through the root website - the installation of root from the source package is not in the scope of this outline.

    Currently versions 5.14/00, 5.15/02, 5.15/04, 5.15/06, 5.15/08 and 5.16/00 are supported explicitly. Please make sure that your root installation exactly matches one of the supported versions listed here. We do encourage to use a fairly recent version because of the root development/release philosophy. After download you need to make a directory where to install root and setup the environment variable $ROOTSYS. Assume we call the directory which holds root myRoot/.

    ... copy the compressed tar file containing the root package into this directory ... As mentioned above, you probably also want to add the last step to your login procedure.

    ) build the flukaGUI program
    Download the current version of the program from the FLUKA website, as of this writing aFlukaGUI-v07.tgz You should unpack the obtained compressed tar file where you like to install it, lets assume in your home directory for the purpose of these instructions.

    ... this will create a new directory called aFlukaGUI-v07 ... If FLUKA and root are setup properly, following the above steps should succeed in building the flukaGUI executable in the src/ directory (still a few compiler WARNINGS seem to be issued at least running under Debian using the binary root package which can be ignored).

    The installation procedure should be rather straight forward now. However it is fairly new and there might be individual problems - please let us know. Contact: anton.empl@cern.ch


    execute flukaGUI

    In case the code built fine run this command at your prompt:

    You should be presented with a graphical user interface, a window which permits to inspect and manipulate information/data obtained by running FLUKA with the USRBIN option. Several examples are available for both data and geometry input in the directory examples/. Try to load hello.inp and/or hello.dat for a start.

    You are able to run the program from anywhere within your system by either specifying the absolute path or including the location of the executable (/home/user/aFlukaGUI-v07/src for the above example configuration) in your $path.

    You will find a root resource file rootrc in this directory. This is a flexible way to change the overall behavior/appearance of a and in particular this root applications. Here the file shows how to change font sizes for GUI elements - moderate font size changes are tested at this point (11-16). You also have access to the basic color scheme. To make use of it you need to rename the file to .rootrc and have a local copy or one in your home directory:

    Hopefully most of the features of the application are fairly obvious, some are still under development. At this point the user can save a script file in context of histogram manipulations (look under the FILE menu button) which in turn can be read in again or executed from within root. The geometry input is not supported from an interactive root session. The script is an excellent starting point if one wants to automate histogram production or learn how to use the USRBIN related data classes within root.


    still NEW

    Selecting a FLUKA input file now enables one to make use of the full featured Geometry Tab. Here one can obtain cuts (parallel to coordinate axes) through the setup in a simple way to inspect the implemented FLUKA geometry setup. This is a visual presentation of the implemented geometry which is identical (down to machine precision) to the view FLUKA itself has of it.

    When using the geometry canvas one is able to zoom in on the displayed geometry view with the left mouse button. Push down that button and drag until you selected the desired region to zoom into. Releasing the mouse button will perform a new scan of the geometry for the selected range. Executing these actions on an axis will only zoom with respect to that axis. One is able to 'jump' back and forth between performed zoom settings, either with the zoom +/- buttons in the GUI or by using short cut keys (>,n,<,p). Information on FLUKA materials and regions is available and one can ask to overlay, if present, data from the USRBIN option.

    special FLUKA user routine(s)
    If FLUKA makes use of special user routines in context of the geometry these need to be included in the build process. After normal installation one has to re-issue the configure command with the -u (or equivalently --user) option specifying the extra routine(s), typically lattic.f. Now run make flukaGUIuser which should create a different executable src/flukaGUIuser which was obtained by (compiling)linking against the extra user routines - the standard flukaGUI executable is still available.

    Please direct questions or suggestion to: anton.empl@cern.ch



    NOTES

    - please remove the deprecated FLUKA option COMMENT from your input file

    - when using a FLUKA input file, please be patient. It can take seconds of CPU time to parse the file and setup the geometry, depending on the complexity of the problem.

    - make sure to first setup both $FLUPRO and $ROOTSYS and then run ./configure with no arguments. In order to later use a different version of FLUKA and/or root please execute the following 2 steps again

    One should also rerun configure with no arguments if the directory containing flukaGUI is moved or renamed within the filesystem.

    - should the program (sometimes) quietly refuse to work with the FLUKA input file for the geometry, most likely there is a problem with the actual input file. Check first if the input file works with FLUKA of the same version.

    - please be aware that many changes were introduced with this latest release. FLUKA is executed as a child process in context of the geometry features. In case there are problems it should suffice to kill the main process, ie. stop flukaGUI, to remove any child processes.

    - hardly any reason is left to make use of the deprecated feature of using a pre-processed PLOTGEOM.STORE file. However, if one should be used, please remember: * only the view which was selected at file generation is available * the associated USRBIN data has to be present since the x/y ranges are fixed and taken from the corresponding histogram * a possible rotation between the coordinate system of the geometry and the histogram is ignored.
    The geometry tab/features are not available!

    - 64bit systems
    one needs to insure that the system has all required software in place to run applications in 32bit compatible mode. In addition a 32bit version of the root package needs to be installed. This is required since the FLUKA library is compiled with -m32 and flukaGUI does need both. However, if these two requirements are met flukaGUI will work fine.


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