[mcstas-users] McStas 2.3 questions

Tue Aug 9 13:55:38 CEST 2016

Dear Georg,

On 03 Aug 2016, at 14:48 , Ehlers, Georg <ehlersg at ornl.gov<mailto:ehlersg at ornl.gov>> wrote:

I have installed McStas 2.3 on my desktop computer (Mac OSX 10.11.6).
I have also browsed the two manuals provided, mcstas-2.3-manual.pdf and mcstas-2.3-components.pdf.

Now I am wondering: The McStas homepage says that version 2.3 supports the mcpl binary event file format by Thomas Kittelmann (ESS). Where can I find more information? How would I use it? Where is the file format described? The manuals don’t say anything about that.

This is true, it can be argued that the documentation is lacking in that respect, sorry about that!

The easiest way to use it is trying out the example instrument files provided with McStas 2.3, called Test_MCPL_output  and Test_MCPL_input.
(Try mcdoc MCPL, this will give you a nice little HTML page with entries for both the instruments and the related components.)

If you want to look closer at the actual format and the code supporting it, the code should be in the libs/mcpl folder of your mcstas installation, i.e. /Applications/McStas-2.3.app/Contents/Resources/mcstas/2.3/libs/mcpl/ on your Mac.

We provide an example inputfile also that you may play with - sits in the same folder. Example output from mcpltool is shown at the bottom of this email.

Also, a few improvements were done to the MCPL support since McStas 2.3, so you might consider grabbing these bits and pieces from our GitHub? - See https://github.com/McStasMcXtrace/McCode/tree/master/common/lib/MCPL, corresponds to the above-mentioned folder.

Also, on page 18 (section “New features in McStas 2.3) the manual refers to the CHANGES document in “the relevant download folder at http://download.mcstas.org/”. I do not see such a document anywhere. Am I just not looking in the right place?

Oops my bad, never uploaded, now available at http://download.mcstas.org/mcstas-2.3/CHANGES

( It was on the other hand at the “other usual places” e.g. at http://www.mcstas.org/CHANGES_McStas . :-) )

All the best and let us know if / when you find any issues. :-)

Best,

Peter

——————
mcpltool example follows:

mcpltool /Applications/McStas-2.3.app/Contents/Resources/mcstas/2.3//libs/mcpl/voutput.mcpl
Opened MCPL file voutput.mcpl:

  Basic info
    Format             : MCPL-2
    No. of particles   : 1000
    Header storage     : 112 bytes
    Data storage       : 88000 bytes

  Custom meta data
    Source             : "McStas 2.3rc12 Test_MCPL_output"
    Number of comments : 1
          -> comment 0 : "Output by COMPONENT: vout"
    Number of blobs    : 0

  Particle data format
    User flags         : no
    Polarisation info  : yes
    Fixed part. type   : yes (pdgcode 2112)
    FP precision       : double
    Endianness         : little
    Storage            : 88 bytes/particle

index     pdgcode   ekin[MeV]       x[cm]       y[cm]       z[cm]          ux          uy          uz    time[ms]      weight       pol-x       pol-y       pol-z
    0        2112  1.0832e-09    -0.47701    -0.13413           0   -0.015716    0.020314     0.99967     0.96593  4.1792e+07           0           0           0
    1        2112  2.1229e-09     0.34045    -0.24001           0    0.024156    0.022291     0.99946     0.29699  1.3696e+08           0           0           0
    2        2112  2.7277e-09     -0.3155    0.050996           0    0.010951    0.007016     0.99992     0.38107  1.9587e+08           0           0           0
    3        2112  7.1137e-10    -0.28054     0.23675           0   -0.030732    0.016651     0.99939    0.043826   1.757e+07           0           0           0
    4        2112     7.7e-10   -0.025928    0.081737           0   -0.029816    0.003234     0.99955     0.45319  2.0806e+07           0           0           0
    5        2112  1.0522e-08    -0.27707     0.25467           0    0.027865    0.020891     0.99939    0.036383  4.2633e+08           0           0           0
    6        2112  2.5521e-08     0.29884     0.21733           0   -0.030425   0.0051656     0.99952      0.7315  6.7203e+08           0           0           0
    7        2112  1.6412e-09     0.18957    -0.20358           0    0.031165   -0.024229     0.99922    0.073959  8.9998e+07           0           0           0
    8        2112  2.1494e-09    0.062953    -0.23881           0   -0.012252    0.003233     0.99992      0.6175  1.3983e+08           0           0           0
    9        2112  1.0317e-08    -0.14511   -0.029506           0  -0.0037271   -0.047437     0.99887     0.28321  4.2566e+08           0           0           0

Peter Kjær Willendrup
Senior Research Engineer, Special Advisor

DTU Physics

Technical University of Denmark

[cid:image002.gif at 01CCCAF1.5E6331F0]

Department of Physics
Fysikvej

Building 307

DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby

Direct +45 2125 4612

Mobil +45 2125 4612
Fax +45 4593 2399

pkwi at fysik.dtu.dk<mailto:pkwi at fysik.dtu.dk>

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