Release Notes for OPAL 2.0

Changes in OPAL 2.0.2

• Bugfixes
  • Issue #206 (closed) Cyclotron elements positioning
  • Issue #246 (closed) Add protection when all particles are in material
  • Issue #247 (closed) Collimator geometry check fixed
  • Issue #253 (closed) Probe, stripper and septum check fixed
  • Issue #267 (closed) RFCavity applied twice
  • Issue #271 (closed) Fixed OPAL getting stuck sometimes on multicore

Changes in OPAL 2.0.1

• Bugfixes
  • Issue #235 (closed) Optimiser crashes with HDF5
  • Issue #243 (closed) Collimator lost particle checks

New features in OPAL 2.0.0

• OPAL-T: 3D placement of elements
  • Overlapping fringe fields now supported
• Integration of optimizer
• OPAL-Cycl: general trim coils added
• OPAL-T: A flexible collimator with configurable hole placement (e.g. for multi-slit or pepper-pot) added
• Method for scalable generation of particle distribution now provided
• OPAL-T: Normalization of field maps can be switched off
• Scan option is removed
• Sample command added
• OPAL mode for highlighting in emacs added
• Many more features, for details see the manual

Input file related changes

• OPAL-T: Beamlines containing a cathode have to have a SOURCE element to indicate this fact.
• OPAL-T: The design energy of dipoles is now expected in MeV instead of eV
• The meaning of OFFSETZ of the command DISTRIBUTION has changed. It now indicates a shift of the particle bunch relative to the reference particle. Use the ZSTART attribute of the TRACK command to start the simulation at a position z > 0
• The attribute DISTRIBUTION of the command DISTRIBUTION has been renamed to TYPE
• The attributes LAT_RINIT and BEAM_RINIT of the element RINGDEFINITION have units [m] instead of [mm].
• OPAL-T: The attribute ROTATION of RBEND and SBEND has been replaced by PSI which now can be applied to all elements to rotate them about the reference trajectory
• OPAL-Cycl: The trim coil description has been changed and trim coils are now a separate element. A new recommended description based on a rational function has been added. The old description has changed its units for BMAX from [kG] to [T] and SLPTC has been inverted to [1/mm].
• OPAL-Cycl: DUMPFIELDS and DUMPEMFIELDS commands now uses metres and radians as input instead of mm and degrees.

Output file related changes

• OPAL-Cycl: -trackOrbit.dat file is now in [m] instead of [mm].

Input file related changes introduced in OPAL-1.6

• The attribute BFREQ of the BEAM command is now in MHz instead of Hz
• Input files must have a version tag, for example

  OPTION, VERSION=20000;

  indicating version 2.0.x and newer
• OPAL is now fully typed. Each variable has to have a type for example

  REAL Edes=.072;
  REAL gamma=(Edes+PMASS)/PMASS;

  Only REAL, REAL CONSTANT, REAL VARIABLE, STRING, STRING CONSTANT, BOOL, BOOL CONSTANT and REAL VECTOR are supported

Installation of the binary package

Note: The latest version of the binary package is OPAL 2.0.1-1.

1. The package can be installed wherever you want. Let's name this directory $PREFIX.
2. change your working directory to $PREFIX
3. Un-tar the package

   tar xf OPAL-2.0.1-1-x86_64-linux.tar.xz
   

4. Source the OPAL shell profile. For the time being only sh-like shells are supported.

source "$PREFIX/OPAL-2.0.1-1/etc/profile.d/opal.sh"

1. Now you are ready to run opal, opal converter tools and the visualization tool H5root.

MPI is included in the OPAL package. If you want to run OPAL with MPI, be sure to use the MPI utilities shipped with OPAL!