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vTAS

vTAS is a Three Axis Spectrometer simulator written in Java. It is aimed at making easier the understanding of the behavior of the instrument and its limits. It supports both the classical TAS geometry and that of the multiplexer FLATCONE (ILL). vIMPS and vUFO are part of the vTAS suite but address other multiplexed TAS geometries.

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vTAS

A Virtual Three Axis Spectrometer

by Martin Böhm, Alain Filhol and Yannick Raoul.

Using a Three Axis Spectrometer (TAS) is not easy since one has constantly translate parameters from real space to reciprocal space and vice versa
The goal of vTAS is to provide an interactive and graphical display of both the instrument configuration and the corresponding measured space thus making easier the understanding of the behavior of the instrument and its limits.
Simulation mode: vTAS allows experimentation with sample parameters, for example the Miller indices of the unit cell, whilst maintaining a representation of the instruments physical state, for example the location of the walls around the instrument, and its angular limits.

Data viewer mode: vTAS is capable of reading ILL TAS data files. It displays both the data and the corresponding instrument configuration.

The vTAS suite in short:

  • vTAS supports the classical TAS geometry and the multiplexed FLATCONE geometry.
  • vIMPS is a simulator for IN8-IMPS
  • vUFO is a simulator for IN12-UFO

The first version of vTAS was developped by Alain Bouvet in 1998.
The new vTAS project was funded by the ILL and NMI3.

Click HERE to launch vTAS v4.1

When installing a new version it is recommanded to delete the old preference files. E.g. for Mac OS X users, delete folder ~/Library/Preferences/ILL/vTAS
Special keys and options:

  • Instrument and scattering panes
    • right click+drag: paning
    • [Mac OS X] cmd-key+click+drag: paning
    • mouse wheel: zoom in/out at mouse position
    • click+drag : [Flatcone] to modify vectors kf and Q
    • opt-key+click+drag : [Flatcone] to change the active channel
  • Scattering pane
    • tau+q option active: shift to display the "q" constrain direction

Disclaimer

vTAS is a free application. Use it at your own risks. Neither the authors nor the ILL endorse or accept any responsibility for problems or wrong results you may obtain with it. No support is provided but feedback is warmly welcome -> <filhol(at)ill.eu>.


History

The vTAS team
Left from right: Alain Bouvet (creator), Yannick Raoul (main developer), Alain Filhol (project leader)

2010

vIMPS by Martin Boehm, Emmanuel Farhi, Alain Filhol and Yannick Raoul.

vUFO by Emmanuel Farhi, Alain Filhol, Yannick Raoul and W. Schmidt

2009

Yannick Raoul (ILL) fully rewrote the mathematical part and most of the core and GUI functions of vTAS. The application is now functional and new options are currently being added:

  • TAS data file (ILL format): vTAS can automatically display the data and instrument configuration read from a TAS file.
  • FLATCONE: this is a multiplexer (several analysers and detectors) which can be installed on ILL TAS spectrometers. vTAS fully supports this instrument geometry and the corresponding data file format.
  • Instrument zone: this can be edited through a dedicated dialogue.
  • On line help: in progress.

Projects:

  • IMPS support: this is the multiplexer of IN8 (ILL)
  • UFO support: this is an advanced multiplexer designed for IN12 (Julich-ILL). Its geometry being quite complexe, a simulation tool like vTAS should prove to be highly valuable or even essential to users.
  • 4D resolution: an early version of vTAS implemented a limited support for 4D resolution calculation and display. Our goal is to implement it again in a more correct and complete manner.

2007

Peter Braden (University of St. Andrews, UK) : As the codebase had become very messy, completely reimplemented the program to modern software engineering principles, expanded on the visualisations offered, and improved the usability of the interface. Report

Mac OS X, Eclipse 3.3.0, J2SE 5.0 (JAVA 1.5).

 

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2006

Noëlle Le Delliou (UFR IMA, Grenoble, France) resurrected the old code, updated the inteface using Swing, and added the ability to simulate walls around the instrument area. Development using: Mac OS X, Netbeans 4.1, JAVA 1.4.2.1. Report

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1998

First developed by Alain Bouvet in 1999 using an early Mac OS implementation of JAVA/AWT. Unfortunately the application was hardly usable due its buggy AWT interface. Report

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Updates: 9 Sept 2009, 20 Jan. 2011, A.Filhol, <filhol(at)ill.eu>