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IRIS Explorer 5.0 - Release Notes

Introduction

Installer's and User's Notes can be viewed here.

The IRIS Explorer product is a system for combining components called modules to create powerful customized visualization applications. Modules linked this way form an IRIS Explorer Map. Modules in a map can execute on a collection of networked computers, with IRIS Explorer providing the distributed application framework.

The IRIS Explorer Map Editor utility is the primary way to interact with modules that are cooperating as an aggregate IRIS Explorer application. The Map Editor can be used to start and stop modules, make and break connections between modules, and operate controls for the modules themselves.

The mbuilder utility (Module Builder) can be used to build new IRIS Explorer modules from existing subroutines written in C, C++ or Fortran (even without source). With the Module Builder, you can create graphical user interfaces for modules without reprogramming their source code.

Help pages are provided for all modules and example maps.

IRIS Explorer documentation is available on-line as part of the product's distribution. The documentation includes an introductory tutorial, a four volume manual set, newsletters, user stories and example images.

New Features in this Release

This section details changes and additions to IRIS Explorer since Release 4.0. In summary these are:

• Compiling groups. This allows users to create new modules in the IRIS Explorer Map Editor by combining existing modules together. This leads to performance improvements through the better use of system resources such as CPU and memory, and reduces the overheads associated with module communications.
• More module source. Because the group compilation mechanism proceeds by returning to the source code of the constituent modules and compiling them together, IRIS Explorer 5.0 now contains the source to almost all of the modules in the distribution (prior to this release, only a subset was available as source). As well as as increasing the range of applicability of group compilation, this also provides users with a great deal more source, which can be modified or extended at will, or used as the starting point for new user-developed modules.
• Internal performance enhancements. The internal architecture of IRIS Explorer has been overhauled at version 5.0. Processes in the core have been merged, and redundant duplication of functionality has been removed. In addition, the internal communications mechanism has been updated to use the native Windows interface on that platform. The result is faster communication between modules, which is particularly noticeable for maps that contain loops.
• Module enhancements. Pyramid modules have been substantially improved in IRIS Explorer 5.0. These modules, which are used to visualize unstructured meshes (for example, from finite element analysis or computational fluid dynamics) using isosurfaces, contouring and slicing, have been rewritten to incorporate state-of-the-art algorithms. In tests, the new modules have run about fifty times faster than the old versions, offering users more interactive analysis of this type of data in IRIS Explorer 5.0. Additionally, more options for display have been added to the Legend, GenerateColormap and Render modules.
• New modules. There are around 70 new modules in IRIS Explorer 5.0 (representing an increase of about 25% over the previous release). Particle advection for regular grids has been supplemented by modules which visualize vector data on an unstructured mesh (stored in the IRIS Explorer pyramid datatype) using particle advection. New geometry manipulation modules enable permanent changes to be made to, for example, the material properties of geometry in visualization scenes. Other new geometry modules allow for different types of clipping to be performed on visualization objects in the scene. A new module which reads column oriented ASCII text files (for example, data exported from an Excel spreadsheet as text) into an IRIS Explorer lattice has also been added at version 5.0. Other modules allow users to perform simple arithmetic operations on lattice data within an IRIS Explorer map, and new modules have also been added for the output of animations to MPEG files or output of scenes to a ray-tracer for alternative rendering of visualizations.
• New tools. packmap takes a map file and builds a distribution containing the modules, data and IRIS Explorer components required for its operation on another machine. This gives developers a convenient way to share their application without distributing unnecessary parts of the system. QuickLat is a new tool in IRIS Explorer 5.0 that provides a simplified interface for building data reader modules. Working with QuickLat, the user specifies the form of the output lattice datatype together with other parameters such as input filenames. QuickLat then automatically generates template code in either C or Fortran which contains simplified hooks into the lattice data and coordinate arrays, and the user adds the code to read into these arrays, given the format of their input file. The last step is to compile and use the module to read the data into an IRIS Explorer map.
• Improved help. A new interactive demonstration facility has been added to show users the answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) - such as "How do I save an image of my visualization?". The main interface to the demos is the new FAQ page in the documentation. The demos run within the Map Editor using the new ViewDemo module and contain a running commentary that explains what is happening in the map at each step. The user can step through the demo interactively, or leave it to play through automatically; finally, the demo can be paused at any point and the map saved for later recall by the user.
• Module searching. A new search facility has been added which allows users to find all modules with a specific functionality (e.g. all modules which accept lattices and produce geometry). There is also the facility to search map files for specific modules.
• Example maps. The number of maps has been substantially increased in this release, with the aim being to provide an example of the use of each supported module. Around 115 new maps have been added, which has increased the total number of maps by a factor of about 3.5, compared to the previous release of IRIS Explorer. The example map for a module is now part of its resources, and so is accessible from the module icon in the Module Librarian (as well as from the list of maps in the Maps category).
• New interface. The Map Editor interface now defaults to coloring each connection according to the datatype which it is transferring between the modules. In addition, multiple connections between pairs of modules are displayed separately. The previous interface (all wires colored blue, single wires between modules) is still accessible, however.
• Improved layout algorithm. The algorithm used for laying out the widgets in the Module Control Panel Editor has been improved to give greater consistency with the layout as displayed in the Map Editor. The treatment of Decorations (frames, separators) in the control panel has also been improved.
• Hide parameter ports from port list. A new option has been added to the Module Control Panel Editor not to display individual parameter ports in the module port list. This can save space in the port list, especially if the module has a large number of parameters.
• More robust API. The IRIS Explorer Application Programmer's Interface has been enhanced for this release with the explicit declaration of any pointer to a constant as 'const'. This makes it harder to modify pointers inadvertently (for example, module port names are now declared as 'const char *' in API routines).
• New API routines. The routines which handled error checking after data allocation (specifically cxDataAllocErrorClear, cxDataAllocErrorGet, cxDataCheckErrorInfoDel, cxDataCheckErrorInfoGet, cxDataCheckErrorInfoMsgAppend, cxDataCheckErrorInfoNew, cxDataErrorMsgGet) have been replaced by a new routine, called cxDataManAbortOnError, which manages the error handling behaviour of the data manager.
• Enhanced module building. The Module Builder now automatically generates a header file which contains a declaration of a prototype of the user function (as specified in the User Function pane of the Module Builder) along with any hook functions. Including the header file - which is called .uf.h - in the module source file ensures that the user function (and hook functions) in files are consistent with the details entered in the Module Builder.
• Updated documentation. The IRIS Explorer documentation set has been completely overhauled and enhanced for this release. A new layout has been adopted, which gives greater consistency between the on-line and hardcopy form of the documentation.
• The HTML pages now link to a stylesheet which can be modified for each installation to change the appearance (font families, font sizes, colors, borders, etc) of all of the documentation. The stylesheet (in which, by default, all of its options are commented out) is at %EXPLORERHOME%\docs\html\style.css (Windows) / ${EXPLORERHOME}/docs/html/style.css (UNIX).
• Bug fixes and other system enhancements.

Known Problems with this Release

The group compilation process has been tested extensively and has been found to work with several groups of modules, but it cannot be guaranteed to behave correctly with every combination of modules. In particular, problems may occur for groups that include multiple instances of modules which are statically linked to libraries containing global or static data. Examples of these types of modules include those that use the NAG Graphics Library (discontinued), LatFunction-based modules and ImageVision modules on some platforms.