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McStas - A neutron ray-trace simulation package

McStas is a general tool for simulating neutron scattering instruments and experiments. It is actively supported by DTU Physics, NBI KU, ESS, PSI and ILL. 

Simulated scattering from a hollow-cylinder vanadium sample.

The plot shows the intensity of scattered neutrons (red is highest intensity). The sample is at the center of the sphere with the neutron beam coming from the left. Clearly seen is the shadowing effect of the sample causing a lower intensity opposite the beam. Also seen is the effect of the non-symmetric geometry of the sample, causing lower intensity directly above and to the side of the sample.


Recent news

September 15th, 2016: Updated component library for McStas 2.3 released, including ESS_butterfly.comp

A updated component library has been pushed to the deb and rpm repositories, plus to the relevant platform folders at http://download.mcstas.org/mcstas-2.3. If you are on Windows or Mac OS, please simply locate the 

updates/
folder in the download site, find the relevant mcstas-comps-2.3 package and install it on top of your existing McStas 2.3.

Highlights are

  • An new implementation of the ESS moderator component called 
    ESS_butterfly.comp
    and test instrument 
    ESS_butterfly_test.instr
    The moderator is of course also available as a "DIY update archive" for people running older versions of McStas, and can be downloaded from a new update folder at the download site or from the share. For more information on the updated ESS moderator, its use and benchmark data, please consult http://ess_butterfly.mcstas.org. The website also contain (currently draft) documents written with Ken Andersen and Luca Zanini, explaining the reasoning behind changing from the BF2 design to the BF1 design, neutronical calculations and benchmarks. Please note that these are still in DRAFT status, are expected to be in their final shape around 2016-09-22.
  • Bug-fixed MCPL i/o components and library - see https://mctools.github.io/mcpl/ for more details.
  • ... plus other minor things, see the GitHub log for mcstas-comps for more information.

Development is also moving fast on our tools, so we are further planning to release a McStas 2.4 within forseeable future.

Enjoy! :)
Peter Willendrup

April 6th, 2016: McStas 2.3 released!

Here it is: McStas 2.3 is released and ready for download via http://downloads.mcstas.org/mcstas-2.3

Selected, important highligts from the release are listed below. The full list of changes is also available HERE.

  • General:
    • As of McStas 2.3, we support a new binary event file format: "MCPL" (Monte Carlo Particle List), developed by Thomas Kittelmann, ESS. The format aims to allow easier interchange of particle event data between monte carlo codes, and read/write functionality has been implemented for MCNP, Geant4 and McStas.
    • Interoperability with Mantid has been improved, as OFF-based detectors can be used to define detector geometries in Mantid-oriented simulation runs. See https://github.com/McStasMcXtrace/McCode/wiki/McStas-and-Mantid for more documentation on the use.
  • Infrastructure:
    • To build McStas from GitHub, you will now need a CMake version >= 3.0
    • At the ILL, Emmanuel Farhi has set up a nice web-service called cif2hkl, which allows to generate Laz/Lau structure data files from CIF files. See http://barns.ill.fr/cif2hkl.html
    • A new e-Learning infrastructure for neutron scattering has been set up at https://www.e-neutrons.org . Among other things, it features a web-simulator powered by McStas. Once you have signed up, you will have access to many interesting things, among these this "close to complete" list of McStas instruments that can be run on the web: https://www.e-neutrons.org/mcstas-distrib
  • Components:
    • New component SASview_model.comp by Jakob Garde and Torben Nielsen allows to use SASview scattering kernels from within McStas. See also the test instrument templateSasView.instr
    • New components MCPL_input and MCPL_output by Erik Knudsen. Used to read and write MCPL binary event files. See corresponding test instruments below.
    • New component Refractor.comp by Emmanuel Farhi and Bob Cubitt, ILL. Implements a single bulk material shape that can be used as a prism or lens.
    • PerfectCrystal.comp by Markus Appel, ILL / FAU Erlangen-Nuernberg. Perfect crystal component, primarily for use as monochromator and analyzer in backscattering spectrometers. Reflections are simulated using a Darwin, Ewald or Gaussian profile. Doppler movement of the monochromator is supported.
    • MultiDiskChopper.comp by Markus Appel, ILL / FAU Erlangen-Nuernberg. Models a disk chopper with a freely configurable slit pattern. For simple applications, use the DiskChopper component instead.
    • Updated version of Sample_nxs from Mirko Boin (HZB), including more nxs material definitions.
    • Bugfix to ESS_moderator from Jan Saroun (RESTRAX/Simres): missing focusing/direction cosine inserted. Please note that this component does not implement "engineering reality" and currently uses a coordinate system centered on the moderator assembly. An updated moderator component which references the "Moderator focus coordinate system" will be released later during the spring of 2016.
  • Instruments:
    • New test instrument templateSasView.instr, documenting use of SASview_model.comp
    • New test instruments Test_MCPL_input.instr and Test_MCPL_output.instr, documenting use of the MCPL components
    • New test instrument Test_PowderN_Res.instr, demonstrates difference of using 'banana, theta' and 'banana, divergence' in Monitor_nD - and can be used to show influence of sample size on detected line with in diffractometers.
    • New test instrument LLB_6T2.instr by Xavier Fabreges, LLB. Model of the LLB 6T2 thermal single crystal diffractometer.
    • New ILL_IN13.instr by E. Farhi and A. Dennison, ILL. Models the IN13 Thermal neutron backscattering spectrometer.
    • New SAFARI_MPISI.instr by Deon Marais, Necsa. Models the SAFARI instrument 'Materials Probe for Internal Strain Investigations'
    • New SAFARI_PITSI.instr by Deon Marais, Necsa. Models the SAFARI instrument 'Powder Instrument for Transition in Structure Investigations'
IMPORTANT: Please ensure to use our "migration scripts" for McStas 2.0 and 1.12c if you want these to co-exist with 2.3. See https://github.com/McStasMcXtrace/McCode/tree/master/tools/migration-tool

March 7th, 2016: Most mcstas-2.2a instruments available at e-neutrons.org

If you take a look at this e-neutrons.org page, you will see that it resembles the examples part of a McDoc documentation page - with one exception: The Run simulation links on the right side of the table points to virtual instruments that may be run through the new McStas web frontend.

As usual, you must have an account at e-neutrons.org to execute these simulations.

March 3rd, 2016: Announcement of e-neutrons.org, e-learning platform for neutron scattering

Dear all,

We are happy to officially announce the availability of e-neutrons.org: An e-learning platform for neutron scattering.

The platform was developed with support from NMI3-II (EU-FP7) and features an introductory course in neutron scattering and muon spin spectroscopy. The courses contain a varied selection of interactive learning material using three main technologies

  1. A "WIKIbook" built on Mediawiki with various extensions, e.g. for producing mathematical expressions. It is used as the main source of textbook-material
  2. A Learning Management System (LMS) built on Moodle which , provides exercises, quizzes and evaluation
  3. A web simulator for the McStas neutron instrument simulation program, allowing users to perform virtual neutron scattering experiments on predefined instruments
The platform will be further developed and the learning material expanded in connection with SINE2020 (EU-H2020).

To access the e-learning portal, go to https://www.e-neutrons.org, choose "Get an account" and fill in your personal information.

We hope that you will enjoy this new resource and encourage you to try it out!

On behalf of the e-neutrons.org team,

Peter Willendrup

For background information on the platform, the teaching material and didactical considerations, please read the related article from Neutron News Volume 24, Issue 1, 2013 - DOI:10.1080/10448632.2013.751795.

- - - - - - -

Funding:

The main funding for the project is provided by the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under the NMI3-II Grant number 283883 and from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654000.

We are also grateful for the financial support recieved from the University of Copenhagen via the "Good Education" and "Education 2016" programmes and from Interreg IV via the OMIC programme.

Development:

The people behind the e-neutrons.org infrastructure are

Project leader: Linda Udby, Associate Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Platform development leader: Peter Willendrup, Senior Research Engineer, Technical University of Denmark

Course content and didactical developers: Julie Hougaard, PhD student, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen & Jesper Bruun, Assistant Professor, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen

Content management and development: Pia J. Ray, PhD student & Linda Udby, Associate Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Software engineer: Jakob Garde, Software developer, Technical University of Denmark

Running server administrator: Jörg Pulz, Technical University of Munich

Learning material:

Contents was contributed by

University of Copenhagen: Kim Lefmann, Linda Udby, Pia Jensen Ray, Julie Hougaard, Lise Arleth, Kell Mortensen, Bente Lebech, Jesper Bruun

Institut Laue-Langevin, ILL: Andrew Wildes, Alain Filhol, Helmut Schober

Technische Universität München: Jörg Pulz, Jürgen Neuhaus

European Spallation Source, ESS: Markus Strobl

February 16th, 2016: Patch for Tk::wrap errors from mcgui

If you ever encounter an error like 
Tk::Error###: This shouldn't happen at /usr/share/perl/5.18/Text/Wrap.pm line 84.
 Tk callback for .toplevel
 Text::Wrap::wrap at /usr/share/perl/5.18/Text/Wrap.pm line 84
 main::run_dialog_create at /usr/local/bin/mcgui line 752
 main::run_dialog at /usr/local/bin/mcgui line 824
 main::my_system at /usr/local/bin/mcgui line 985
 main::menu_run_simulation at /usr/local/bin/mcgui line 1320
 main::__ANON__ at /usr/local/bin/mcgui line 1752
 Tk callback for .frame1.button
 Tk::__ANON__ at /usr/lib/perl5/Tk.pm line 251
 Tk::Button::butUp at /usr/lib/perl5/Tk/Button.pm line 175
 
 (command bound to event)
- then the fix is to replace run_dialog_create in your local mcgui by follwing the instructions described here.

Previous news items: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003,2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998.

Last Modified: Thursday, 15-Sep-2016 16:10:01 CEST
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