VITESS 3.1  Release Note
------------------------

General:
--------
colour is now uniquely used in the way:
-1: all colours  (default in monitor and eval)
 0: no colour
Note that colour '0' is now regarded as a specifique colour. For this choice, neutrons with colours
greater equal 1 will not be considered  
With the first use of Vitess 3.1, colour=0 will be changed to colour=-1 in the monitor and evaluate modules,
where it has been used differently so far. But it is recommended to check it.

Optimization:
-------------
Numerical optimization is included now. Two gradient methods and a Metropolis algorithm can be used
in this first version, others will follow.
The handling is quite easy. In many cases, it can be used by just editing the ASCII control files
that can be found in the folder 'OPTIMIZATION'. 
Its use is described in detail in the document 'Optimization.pdf' in the folder 'Concepts'. 

Visualization:
--------------
All modules generate a geometric representation, some  got a specific improvement.

Grid runs:
----------
If you save a .grd file of your instrument, you may start a parallel simulation on a
grid of computer nodes. These must be Linux servers, accessed by ssh or the sun grid
engine, and have a common home directory. The framework will split the simulation 
into n jobs, and the results (monitor files, binary output) can then be combined. 
See TOOLS/gridrun -h and Concepts/clusterjobs.txt for details.  

GUI:
----
The GUI silently stores the state of the active session at reasonable times.
You may recover these snapshots after changing something, e.g. after accidentially
deleting some modules.
You may give the actual module a specific name. The actual module in the right frame
is emphasized in the module list. Name tags help to distinguish modules in a list
of equal modules, for example monitor series.

New modules:
------------
filter            : should be used instead of using filters in monitor modules.
read_in           : reads trajectories in ASCII format as written by writeout in VITESS or McStas format
source_csns       : moderator characteristics of the 'Chinese Spallation Neutron Source'

New tools:
----------
Generate Extraction System:  This tool generates an input file for the sm_ensemble module, describing
a (e.g. bispectral) extraction system consisting of up to 50 mirrors which can be combined with
max. 4 guide walls (intransparent mirrors).

Upgraded detector module:
-------------------------
3D volume detector instead of 2D area, tube geometry possible for flat detector, cylindrical detector
with axis along x or y added, wavelength dependent efficiency now calculated from material or taken
from input file, possibility to add resolution effects, new constant delta phi mode added,
detector array can be build with several detector modules, event mode output file can be written.

Bug fixes, improvements:
-----------------------
monitor1D         : The generic monitor1D can now write out up to 3 neutron parameters simultaneously
                    in 3 different monitor files with a common filename pattern.
mon1              : option to write files for all colours simultaneously
source            : better moderator descriptions for ISIS and HMI
spacewindow       : positioning in x-direction
sample_reflectom  : handles offspecular scattering now, see Help file.
writeout          : writes trajectories now also in McStas format

Moderator data:
--------------
Moderator characteristics have been updated for ESS, SNS, HZB and ILL and the structure
of the FILES folder has been changed.
For ESS and SNS, a version of the data set has been included to allow using recent or earlier characteristics.
For the same reason, HZB and ILL  input files exist now with names describing the version.

(June 26 2013, subversion 433)
