Visual Workshop 3B User Guide

The ANSWERS
Software Package
VISUAL
WORKSHOP
The ANSWERS product to
prepare and verify models,
launch jobs and visualise results for
MONK, MCBEND, RANKERN, and WIMS.
User Guide for Version 3B
ANSWERS/VISUALWORKSHOP/REPORT/005
The distribution of this document is limited to subscriber members of ANSWERS.
The information which this document contains is accurate to the best of the knowledge and
belief of Energy, Safety and Risk Consultants (UK) Limited (hereafter referred to as AMEC),
but neither AMEC nor any person acting on behalf of AMEC make any warranty or
representation expressed or implied with respect to the use of the computer program
described, nor assume any liabilities with respect to the use of, or with respect to any
damages which may result from the use of information, method or data disclosed in this
document.
COPYRIGHT Energy, Safety and Risk Consultants (UK) Limited, part of AMEC plc
ENQUIRIES ABOUT COPYRIGHT AND REPRODUCTION SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO:
The ANSWERS Software Service Manager,

AMEC
Kimmeridge House
Dorset Green Technology Park
Winfrith Newburgh
Dorchester
Dorset DT2 8ZB
VISUAL WORKSHOP Amendment Record
Issue Date Section Description
1 Sept 2014 Original Issue for Version 3B
Issued by: T Fry
The ANSWERS Software Service 1 VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1

Amendment Record VISUAL WORKSHOP
This page is intentionally left blank
VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 2 The ANSWERS Software Service

VISUAL WORKSHOP Contents
Contents
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Compatibility ............................................................................................................. 7
1.2 Use of Views for Model Checking ............................................................................ 8
1.3 New Features in Version 3B .................................................................................... 9
1.4 New Features in Version 3A .................................................................................. 10
2. The Visual Workshop GUI ............................................................................................ 13
2.1 Starting Visual Workshop ....................................................................................... 13
2.2 Main Window Overview ....................................................................................... 13
2.3 Main Window Menus ........................................................................................... 15
2.3.1 File Menu ........................................................................................................... 15
2.3.2 View Menu ......................................................................................................... 16
2.3.3 Tools Menu ........................................................................................................ 16
2.3.4 Help Menu .......................................................................................................... 16
2.4 Main Window Overview Tree .............................................................................. 16
2.5 Preferences Dialog ................................................................................................. 18
2.5.1 Application Options Tab ..................................................................................... 19
2.5.2 Libraries Tab ...................................................................................................... 19
2.5.3 Event Log Files Tab ........................................................................................... 21
2.5.4 Queue Tool Tab ................................................................................................. 22
2.6 File Editor ............................................................................................................... 22
3. Viewing Models ............................................................................................................. 25
3.1 The 3D Wire Tab .................................................................................................... 25
3.1.1 Image Canvas and Interactive controls ............................................................. 26
3.1.2 Display Toolbar .................................................................................................. 26
3.1.3 Options Toolbar ................................................................................................. 27
3.2 The 3D Ray Tab ..................................................................................................... 33
3.2.1 Image Canvas and Interactive controls ............................................................. 34
3.2.2 Display Toolbar .................................................................................................. 35
3.2.3 Info Toolbar ........................................................................................................ 37
3.2.4 Options Toolbar ................................................................................................. 38
3.2.5 Snapshot Window .............................................................................................. 45
3.3 The 2D Ray Tab ..................................................................................................... 46
3.3.1 Image Canvas and Interactive Controls ............................................................. 47
3.3.2 Display Toolbar .................................................................................................. 48
3.3.3 Info Toolbar ........................................................................................................ 49
3.3.4 Overlays Toolbar ................................................................................................ 50
3.3.5 2D Ray Slice Editor Dialog................................................................................. 51
3.4 The 2D WIMS Geometry Tab ................................................................................. 53

Contents VISUAL WORKSHOP
3.4.1 Image Canvas and Interactive Controls ............................................................. 54
3.4.2 Options Toolbar ................................................................................................. 55
3.4.3 Display Toolbar .................................................................................................. 55
3.4.4 Info Toolbar ........................................................................................................ 56
3.5 Handling of Alphanumeric Names.......................................................................... 57
3.6 Loading and Saving Views ..................................................................................... 57
4. Displaying Results ........................................................................................................ 59
4.1 Loading Results ...................................................................................................... 59
4.1.1 Exporting an Archived Interface from WIMS...................................................... 60
4.2 Displays Available from the 3D Wireframe View .................................................... 60
4.2.1 Display Types Available ..................................................................................... 61
4.2.2 Controlling the Displays ..................................................................................... 67
4.3 Displays Available from the Ray Trace Views ....................................................... 70
4.3.1 Results Scored by Region ................................................................................. 71
4.3.2 Event Data Display ............................................................................................ 71
4.4 Displays Available from the 2D WIMS Geometry View.......................................... 75
4.4.1 Display Style ...................................................................................................... 75
4.4.2 Controlling the Displays ..................................................................................... 76
4.5 The Graph Utility .................................................................................................... 77
4.6 The Graph Utility GUI ............................................................................................. 77
4.6.1 Graph Panels ..................................................................................................... 78
4.6.2 Graph Options Dialog ........................................................................................ 80
5. Running Calculations ................................................................................................... 81
5.1 Launchpad .............................................................................................................. 81
5.2 Run Monitor ............................................................................................................ 83
5.3 Queue Tool ............................................................................................................. 84
6. The Verification Tool .................................................................................................... 87
6.1 Code Selection ....................................................................................................... 87
7. Running VRFORT in Standalone Mode ...................................................................... 91
7.1 Location and Name of the VRFORT Standalone Code ......................................... 91
7.2 Running Instructions............................................................................................... 92
7.3 Methods of Volume Calculation ............................................................................. 93
7.3.1 Tracking Method ................................................................................................ 93
7.3.2 Peppering Method .............................................................................................. 95
7.4 Input Flow Charts for Volumes Calculations .......................................................... 96
7.5 FG Body Face Numbers ...................................................................................... 100
7.6 The TETPOL Function ......................................................................................... 101
7.6.1 Identifying Boundary Surfaces ......................................................................... 101
7.6.2 Input Flow Chart for the TETPOL Function ..................................................... 102
7.6.3 Example TETPOL Case................................................................................... 104

VISUAL WORKSHOP Contents
7.7 The OBJ CONVERT Function .............................................................................. 104
7.7.1 The EXCLUDE option in the OBJ CONVERT function .................................... 105
7.7.2 Input Flow Chart for the OBJ CONVERT Function .......................................... 106
7.7.3 Example IBJ CONVERT Case ......................................................................... 108
7.8 Support for WIMS Cactus 3D models .................................................................. 108
8. Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................... 109
8.1 Start-up Problems ................................................................................................ 109
8.2 Display related problems ...................................................................................... 110
8.3 Problems detecting installed ANSWERS products .............................................. 111
8.4 Problems while using Visual Workshop ............................................................... 112
8.5 Performance Considerations ................................................................................ 114
8.6 Ray Trace Output Files ........................................................................................ 116
Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 117
Appendix A - Start-up Arguments ..................................................................................... 117
Appendix B - Performance Start-up Arguments ................................................................ 118
Appendix C - Environment Variables ................................................................................ 119
Appendix D - Supplied Examples ...................................................................................... 120
ANSWERS Hotline ............................................................................................................... 127

Contents VISUAL WORKSHOP

VISUAL WORKSHOP Introduction
1. Introduction
Visual Workshop is the ANSWERS product designed to prepare and verify
models, launch jobs and visualise results for the MONK, MCBEND,
RANKERN, and WIMS codes. It contains the following functionality:
To display a wire frame image of a models fractal geometry (FG)

bodies, scatter/reflect bodies, importance mesh and dose points.
To display a ray traced 2D image of a models zones, materials or
regions, holes, importance mesh, dose points, unified source, simple
source, complex source, zonemat, forced flight interfaces,
scatter/reflect bodies, multiple definitions and undefined volumes.
To display a ray traced 3D image of a models zones, materials or
regions, holes, unified source, simple source, complex source,
scatter/reflect bodies, forced flight interfaces, multiple definitions and
undefined volumes.
To display 2D geometries from a WIMS input.
To visualise the results of a calculation.
To view and edit the input model data using a syntax colouring editor.
To search for installed code versions and libraries on the local
system. Scan the model input data and create a datsets file. Run
and monitor calculations or submit to a job queue and view output
files.
This User Guide provides details of the functionality of the Visual Workshop
Graphical User Interface (GUI) and a reference to the available dialogs and
options.
1.1 Compatibility
Visual Workshop 3B_RU0 is provided with ray trace libraries compatible with
the following code versions:
MCBEND10A_RU1
MCBEND11A_RU0
MONK8A_RU1 (Windows only)
MONK9A_RU1
MONK10A_RU0
RANKERN15A_RU1

Introduction VISUAL WORKSHOP
WIMS10A_RU0
1.2 Use of Views for Model Checking
One of the major uses of Visual Workshop is as a tool for checking that a
model is a correct representation of the intended geometry and that it is valid
for use by the chosen code. When using Visual Workshop to check a model
it is important to note the capabilities of the various views and their
applicability.
Only the 3D and 2D Ray Trace Views can be used to determine whether a
models geometry is valid for use by MCBEND, MONK or RANKERN. This is
because the VRFORT Ray Trace engine is built using the same code as the
analysis codes and can therefore accurately check the input for errors. When
checking a model using the 3D or 2D Ray Trace Views the VRFORT output
file should always be checked for errors. This is accessed by clicking the
Output button on the right hand side of the Ray Trace Info Bar (See Section
3.2.3).
The 3D Wireframe View should not be used to determine whether a models

geometry is valid because, unlike the Ray Trace views, it has no concept of
how FG Bodies make up Parts. It also cannot handle Hole Geometries.
The 3D Wireframe View, through its display of the individual FG bodies that
make up a geometry, can be used to check that a model represents the
intended geometry. This can be useful when building a geometry as the 3D
Wireframe View can be used to display incomplete geometries that are not
valid for display by the Ray Trace views.

1.3 New Features in Version 3B
Support for WIMS10A_RU0
The input parser has been updated to handle the new modules and
input features in WIMS10A_RU0.
The 2D and 3D Ray Trace views have been updated to display
CACTUS3D geometries, complete with the ability to display geometry
sub-meshing and CACTUS results.
The WIMS interface reader has been updated to extract Reaction
Rate and Heating data from an archived WIMS interface file in
addition to the existing Flux results.
2D WIMS View Improvements
The 2D WIMS view is now able to display geometries for the PRIZE,
GAM and NEWMAX modules. See Section 3.4
When an archived interface containing mesh volumes is attached,
the 2D WIMS view is also able to display geometries for the DSN,
FLURIG and THESEUS modules.
The 2D WIMS view is now able to display CACTUS results scored by
sub-mesh from an archived WIMS interface file. See Section 4.4.
Support for CRITEX
Visual Workshop is now able to detect a CRITEX installation and

allows the user to run a CRITEX case using the Launchpad view.
Time/Power and Time/Temperature results can be extracted from a
CRITEX tabular output file and graphed using the Graph Utility. See
Section 4.5.
Note: CRITEX support is a development feature for evaluation only.

1.4 New Features in Version 3A
Support for MCBEND11A_RU0
The launchpad function of Visual Workshop has been updated so

that it now supports the full set of MCBEND11A_RU0 nuclear data
library channels. This fixes Visual Workshop error memo 006.
Support for MONK10A_RU0
The input parser has been updated to handle the new input units in
MONK10A_RU0.
The 3D Wireframe view can display Action Tallies scored in Unified
Tally bodies. See Section 4.2.
K(THREE) by stage and Shannon Entropy values can be graphed
using the built in graphing functions. See Section 4.6.1.
The contents of Birth Store and Birth Dump files can be viewed as
point data in the 3D Wireframe and 3D and 2D Ray Trace views. See
Section 4.2.1.7.
Support for WIMS9A_RU1
The new 2D WIMS view is able to view geometries for the CACTUS,
HEAD, PERSEUS, PIJ, PROCOL and TWOTRAN modules. See
Section 3.4.
The new 2D WIMS view is able to display CACTUS flux scored by
mesh from an archived WIMS interface file. See Section 4.4.
Results Display for RANKERN
The 3D Wireframe view can display RANKERN flux and activation

results scored using an array of dose points. See Section 4.2.1.6.
Ray Trace Results Display
The 3D Ray Trace view is able to display MCBEND flux and

response results scored by FG region. See Section 3.2.4.6.
Parser Improvements

The input parser has been extensively re-written to correctly handle
looping cases and inputs which use the embedded file functionality.
See Section 2.3.1.
3D Wireframe Improvements
The 3D Wireframe view can now display the FG POLY Body

including the STL import option..
Results displayed in the 3D Wireframe view can be displayed using
the new 3D Cell Plot style. See Section 4.2.1.2.
Error values for results can now be displayed in the 3D Wireframe
view. See Section 4.2.2.3.
Results displayed in the 3D Wireframe view using a cell plot can now
be restricted to showing results within a specified range or where the
respective error values are within a given range (where error values
are available). See Section 4.2.2.3.
Results displayed in the 3D Wireframe view using a contour plot can
now display a single contour representing the area for which the
results values are less than or equal to a specified value. An
additional contour can be displayed which shows the specified value
+/- a specified standard deviation (where error values are available).
See Section 4.2.1.4.
Verification Tool
Visual Workshop now includes a version of the Launchpad

Verification Tool. See Section 6.
Standalone VRFORT
The new TETPOL function of VRFORT allows a TETMESH file to be

converted into a set of POLY bodies for adding to an FG input. See
Section 7.6.
VRFORT is now able to combine multiple MCBEND history log files,
created by running multiple instances of MCBEND in GRID mode,
into a single file.


VISUAL WORKSHOP The Visual Workshop GUI
2. The Visual Workshop GUI
2.1 Starting Visual Workshop
Visual Workshop is started using the executable in the exec directory of the
Visual Workshop installation directory (either VisualWorkshop.exe on a
Windows PC or VisualWorkshop on Linux).
When Visual Workshop is started, it searches for installed ANSWERS codes

and loads its required graphics libraries. While this process is taking place,
the start-up window (Figure 1) is displayed.
Figure 1 - Start-up Window
When Visual Workshop has finished loading, it will display the main window.
2.2 Main Window Overview
Once Visual Workshop has finished loading, the main window is displayed. If
no model is used as a load argument, a window similar to that seen in Figure
2 is displayed. If a model is passed as a load argument the model is loaded
and the window populated accordingly.
The window consists of a number of features:
A menu bar. (See Section 2.3)

A tree component used to navigate an overview of a loaded model.
(See Section 2.4)
A tabbed pane which holds the major functional GUIs for viewing or
running a loaded model. (See Sections 3 and 4)

The Visual Workshop GUI VISUAL WORKSHOP
Menu Bar
Views Tab
Pane
Overview Tree
Figure 2 - Main Window
By choosing an option in the preferences dialog (See Section 2.5), a sub-

view can be added below the Views tab pane which can hold file editors, run
monitor windows and graph panels. An example of the main window with
sub-views enabled is shown in Figure 3.
Sub-View
Pane
Figure 3 - Main Window with Sub-View

2.3 Main Window Menus
2.3.1 File Menu
New File
Displays an Open dialog window to allow a user to create a new empty file
into which a model can be entered.
Open File
Displays an Open dialog window to allow a user to load a model into Visual
Workshop.
Select Loop
When a model has been loaded which contains looping parameters, this
menu option allow users to select which loop of the model is currently being
displayed.
Import Output File

Displays an Open dialog window to allow a user to load an output file for the
currently loaded model.
Import View
Loads a saved view position for either the 3D Wireframe, 3D Ray Trace or 2D
Ray Trace view and applies it to the currently displayed model. (See Section
3.6).
Export View
Saves the current view from either the 3D Wireframe, 3D Ray Trace or 2D
Ray Trace view to allow it to be used again in the future. (See Section 3.6).
Save Screen Image

Allows the user to save the current 3D Wireframe, 3D Ray Trace, 2D Ray
Trace or 2D WIMS image in either JPEG (.jpg) or PNG (.png) format.
Preferences
Displays the Preferences window.
Recent Files
Allows a user to reload one of the last 8 loaded files.

Exit
Closes Visual Workshop.
2.3.2 View Menu
Show Overview Tree

Controls whether the Overview Tree (See Section 2.4) is displayed.
Display Sub-Views in Main Window

Controls whether sub-views are displayed below the main view in the Visual
Workshop GUI.
2.3.3 Tools Menu
Graph Utility
Displays the graph creation utility (See Section 4.5).
Verification Tool
Starts the code installation verification tool (See Section 6)
Check Multiple Files for MDs

Displays a File Load dialog which allows the user to select a number of files
which are then checked for multiple definitions. The results are then
displayed in the form of 3D Ray Trace images.
2.3.4 Help Menu
About
Displays the About dialog which contains licence and QA status information.
2.4 Main Window Overview Tree
On the left hand side of the main window is the Overview Tree. Examples of
this are shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5. The Overview Tree shows a
hierarchical overview of the currently loaded model.

The Overview Tree splits the files related to the loaded model into three
sections. These list the datsets and related paths file (if appropriate), the
input files and the output files.
Input files can be expanded to show the sections of input text in the file which
are labelled depending on whether the wireframe parser has attempted to
parse the unit and whether the attempted parse caused any warnings or
errors to be produced.
Visual Workshop will list possible output files in grey; these can be loaded by
double clicking.
Loaded output files can be expanded to see the results data which has been
loaded.
The Overview Tree is also used to access snapshot images which have been
created for the model.
If an Input File
is loaded, the
datsets branch
of the tree is Input File and
disabled constituent units
Double clicking
the Add File
node is Possible Output
equivalent to Files are listed in
the File > grey. Double click a
Import Output possible output file
File menu to load it
option
Figure 4 - Example of the Overview Tree
Double clicking on any input or loaded output file will create a file editor (see
Section 2.6) displaying the contents of that file. If the Display Editor in Main
Window preference is selected the editor will be added to the sub-view pane
at the bottom of the main window. If not, a new editor window will be opened
to display the file.

Right clicking on an item in the Overview Tree will display an options menu
for that object (where appropriate). Input files and units with parser errors or
warnings will provide an option to allow the errors or warnings to be listed,
results data extracted from output files will provide an option to load the data
into the graph tool. Some WIMS input modules will provide an option to
display the module geometry in the 2D WIMS View.
Loaded Datsets file
Results Data
extracted from a
located output file
Figure 5 - Example of the Overview Tree
The tree view can be resized by dragging the separator between the tree
view and the tabbed pane.
2.5 Preferences Dialog
The Preferences dialog allows the user to configure options which affect
more than one part of Visual Workshop.

2.5.1 Application Options Tab
Figure 6 - Preferences Dialog Application Options Tab
The controls on the Application Options Tab (Figure 6) allow the user to
control options which affect text editors throughout Visual Workshop.
The Use Syntax Highlighting option toggles whether the text editor uses
syntax highlighting when displaying loaded model text. Disabling this can
improve the performance of the application when loading and modifying some
large inputs. Changes made using this option may not take effect until the
next time a model is loaded or reloaded.
2.5.2 Libraries Tab
User Specified
VRFORT
Library selector
Figure 7 - Preferences Dialog Libraries Tab

The 3D and 2D Ray Trace functionality of Visual Workshop is provided by an
external library called VRFORT. The VRFORT library uses exactly the same
code to parse the input files as is used in the ANSWERS physics codes. This
ensures that the images created are exactly the same image that the physics
codes see. Different libraries are available for each release of each
ANSWERS code to ensure that the images correctly reflect the way that the
code will view the model when run. While it is therefore possible that a user
will have a number of different libraries available, only one library can be
loaded each time Visual Workshop is run.
The Libraries Tab (Figure 7) allows the user to select whether a specific
library is used to Ray Trace images (regardless of whether it is the correct
library for the code being used) or if Visual Workshop should choose a library
based on the code and version currently selected in the Launchpad tab,
which gives the user flexibility in how Visual Workshop is used.
Selecting the Extra diagnostics from library option will cause diagnostic
information from the library to be output to the console window attached to
Visual Workshop. This option will normally only be used when requested by
the ANSWERS Software Service to help diagnose a problem.
Selecting the Test input data by pre-loading option will mean that a model
data file is first loaded into a separate program to check for input errors
before loading into the Ray Trace library. Some model errors are regarded
as too severe for MONK, MCBEND or RANKERN programs to continue
processing and they will abort prematurely if one of these errors is found. As
the Ray Trace library consists of the same software that MONK, MCBEND
and RANKERN use to read and process model data, if one of these errors is
encountered Visual Workshop will be closed by the library. To guard against
this possibility the input model data can be tested by pre-loading into a
separate process. The disadvantage is that loading the input model will take
twice as long, which can be an issue with some large models. If pre-existing
models are being viewed or minor changes are being made then it is not
necessary to use this option. However, if major changes are being made
then it is advisable to use this option.
The Trim splitting mesh on 3D ray option will trim the splitting mesh to the
current model bounds. This is useful if the mesh boundaries extend a long
way beyond the model, for example when the DUMMY option is used in the
splitting mesh definition.

2.5.3 Event Log Files Tab
Figure 8 - Preferences Dialog Event Log Files Tab
The Event Log Files tab (Figure 8) controls options related to the display of
event and track data. For each of the different types of event log file, options
are provided to control the maximum amount of data that is read from a
loaded log file as well as optionally setting whether an ASCII formatted log file
is written by Visual Workshop as part of the reading process.
Selecting Produce formatted file will cause Visual Workshop to produce a

formatted version of the event file when the event file is first loaded. The
formatted file will be written to the same directory as the event file and will
have .fmt appended to the filename. To prevent the formatted file
becoming too large the Max Records field can be used to specify a
maximum number of records that will be written to the formatted file.
Selecting Process events from file will cause Visual Workshop to read the
events directly from the file instead of loading the data into memory.
If events are read into memory and Visual Workshop is unable to reserve
memory for the data it will automatically switch to reading the events from the
file. The Max Events field can be used to set a limit on the number of events
that will be read before switching to processing the events from the file.

2.5.4 Queue Tool Tab
Figure 9 - Preferences Dialog Queue Tool Tab
The controls on the Queue Tool Tab (Figure 9) allow the user to control
options which affect the operation of the Queue Tool.
The Queue Directory controls the location to which Visual Workshop writes
and from which the Queue Tool reads job information. The Queue Directory
must be set before the Queue Tool can be used.
2.6 File Editor
Visual Workshop contains a basic text editor which can be used to edit
loaded models. The editor can either be used as an external editor window
or used as an internal sub-view beneath the main graphical views. Editors
can be swapped from internal to external mode and vice versa by using the
Pop Out and Pop In buttons on the toolbar. Examples of both types of
editor are shown in Figure 10 & Figure 11.
Display Search Bar Button Pop Out Button Close Editor Button
Save/Revert
Controls
Figure 10 - Sub-View File Editor Window

Cut/Copy/Paste Controls
Pop In Button
Close Search Search Field

Bar Button Figure 11 - External File Editor Window with Search Toolbar
The File Editor can be used to view the contents of both input and output
files. When viewing output files, the file cannot be edited and the editing
toolbar buttons are disabled.
The file editor includes basic syntax highlighting, limited undo/redo

functionality and a search function. When an edited file is saved it is
automatically reloaded.


VISUAL WORKSHOP Viewing Models
3. Viewing Models
3.1 The 3D Wire Tab
The 3D Wire tab enables the user to produce three dimensional wireframe
images of the geometry bodies and additional features (such as dose points
or a splitting mesh) in a loaded FG model.
The 3D Wireframe view is also used to display results.
The model can be controlled by the mouse or by controls on the tab itself. An
example of the 3D Wire tab viewing the model workn6_full.dat can be seen
in Figure 12.
Display Toolbar
Image Canvas
Options Toolbar
Figure 12 - 3D Wireframe View
The 3D Wireframe GUI consists of the following major components:
The Image canvas (See Section 3.1.1).
The Display toolbar (See Section 3.1.2).
The Options toolbar (See Section 3.1.3).

Viewing Models VISUAL WORKSHOP
3.1.1 Image Canvas and Interactive controls
The image canvas is the area in which the wireframe image is drawn. The
user can interact with the canvas using a mouse in order to manipulate the
image being drawn.
Clicking on the canvas with the left mouse button and then dragging rotates
the image.
Clicking on the canvas with the right mouse button and dragging controls the
zoom function. Moving the mouse upwards zooms in, and moving the mouse
downwards zooms out.
Clicking on the canvas with the middle mouse button and then dragging
translates the model on the canvas.
List of interactive controls for the 3D Wireframe window:
left mouse drag Rotates the model.

right mouse drag Moving mouse upwards zooms in, moving
mouse downwards zooms out.
middle mouse drag Pans the model.
mouse wheel scroll Scrolling the wheel upwards zooms in, scrolling
3.1.2 Display Toolbar
The Display toolbar (Figure 13) controls whether the model is displayed as a
wireframe outline, or as translucent or solid bodies (additionally overlaid with
the wireframe outline). The projection of the display (Parallel or Perspective)
can also be selected.
Display Mode Controls Projection Controls
Figure 13 - Display Toolbar

The Full Screen option enlarges the 3D Wireframe display to a full screen
display. When in full screen mode, only the canvas is visible and the toolbars
and controls are removed. To exit full screen mode, press the Escape key.
See Important Information about Full Screen and Stereo below.
The Enable Stereo option controls whether the display can be displayed in
3D Stereo using compatible hardware. See Important Information about Full
Screen and Stereo below.
Important Information about Full Screen and Stereo
The VTK toolkit used by Visual Workshop to provide the 3D Wireframe view
contains the option to display content in stereo using OpenGL Quad Buffering
when Visual Workshop is run on compatible hardware with a compatible pair
of 3D glasses.
The full screen and stereo functionality of the 3D Wireframe view is not QA
Tested and is disabled by default. To enable stereo functionality, use the
following argument when starting Visual Workshop:
--enable-stereo
ANSWERS can provide advice on the setup and use of the stereo option and
the hardware required, but cannot fully support the use of this option.
All toolbars on the 3D Wire, 3D Ray and 2D Ray tabs can be floated to
increase the size of the image and can be rearranged inside their respective
tabs. To float a tab, click on the tab background with the left mouse button
and drag it away from its current position.
3.1.3 Options Toolbar
The Options toolbar has a number of tabs which contain controls which affect
the image displayed on the canvas. For the 3D Wireframe view, the options
toolbar contains tabs providing access to the following functionality:
Move, rotate and zoom the image being displayed. (See Section
3.1.3.1)

Set the image style; alter the degree to which the move, rotate and
zoom controls affect the image and display model dimensions. (See
Section 3.1.3.2)
Set the position of cut planes in the image. (See Section 3.1.3.3)
Select which Parts and Bodies to display in the image. (See Section
3.1.3.4)
Set the visibility of non-geometry features of the model (for example

the Splitting Mesh). (See Section 3.1.3.5)
Select results data to display on the image. (See Section 3.1.3.6)
3.1.3.1 Options Toolbar - View Tab
The View Tab (Figure 14) contains controls used to alter the view of the
model being displayed. The controls allow the user to rotate the view around
the model, to zoom in to or out from the model and to select from a number of
hard coded projections to view the model from along one of the primary axes.
Rotation Controls
Zoom Controls
Projection Controls
Figure 14 - Options Toolbar View Tab

3.1.3.2 Options Toolbar - Options Tab
Style Control
Dimension Controls
Option Controls
Figure 15 - Options Toolbar Options Tab
The Options Tab (Figure 15) allows a user to select the style used for the
display (original, neutral or neutral with a white background for report
images), to enable or disable the display of global model dimensions along
the three primary axes and to alter a number of properties that affect either
the model being displayed (for example the polygon detail) or the controls
which affect the view (for example the rotation factor).
3.1.3.3 Options Toolbar - Cut Plane Tab
The controls on the Cut Plane tab (Figure 16) allow a number of cut-away
planes to be defined through the loaded model geometry. These specify a
volume in space bounded by user-defined planes and only the section of the
model that lies within this volume is displayed. In Visual Workshop, the user
is able to specify the position of the six planes that form the faces of a box,
the edges of which are aligned to the axes of the global co-ordinate system.
To move the cut-away planes, drag the sliders.

Cut Plane Sliders
Figure 16 - Options Toolbar Cut Plane Tab
3.1.3.4 Options Toolbar - Selection Tab
The Selection tab (Figure 17) allows the user to include or exclude specific
parts and bodies of the model in the displayed image. This can be useful to
focus on a specific part of a model.
Part
Constituent Bodies
Action Buttons
Figure 17 - Options Toolbar Selection Tab

The tab contains a selectable list of model parts and bodies. Each body or
part as a whole can either be visible (included) or invisible (excluded). The
visibility can be toggled by single clicking the Part or Body in the tree.
3.1.3.5 Options Toolbar - Features Tab
Hidden Feature
Visible Feature
Expanded Feature Group
Figure 18 - Options Toolbar Features Tab
The Features tab (Figure 18) allows the display of non-geometry features of
a model in the view to be controlled. Features which have been extracted

from the loaded input file and are available for display are listed and marked
with a tick if they are visible in the view or a cross if they are hidden. Single
clicking on a feature will toggle its visibility. Some features are grouped
together and by expanding the feature in the list by clicking the + icon, the
group components can be controlled individually.
The following features can, when available, be displayed:
MCBEND Splitting Mesh RANKERN Scatter Bodies

MCBEND Splitting Mesh Target Meshes RANKERN Reflection Bodies
MCBEND Multimap Meshes RANKERN Forced Flight Bodies
MCBEND Multimap Target Meshes RANKERN Dose Points
Unified Tally Bodies & Meshes Simple Source Bodies
3.1.3.6 Options Toolbar - Results Tab
Results Display Selector
Figure 19 - Options Toolbar Results Tab
The Results Tab (Figure 19) allows the user to select which results are
displayed on the model image. When results data is extracted from a loaded
output file it is automatically passed to the 3D Wireframe View. If the results
data is suitable for display on the current model it is added to the Results to
Display drop down control for user selection. When a set of results data is
selected from the drop down control, the results are displayed in the image
and the Results Tab is populated with additional controls used to configure

the results display. These additional controls differ depending on which style
of results display is currently selected and are outlined in Sections 4.2.2.
3.2 The 3D Ray Tab
The 3D Ray tab enables the production of three-dimensional images of a

fractal geometry (FG) model using simple ray tracing techniques. The
images can display the geometry and importance mesh of a loaded model,
which can be viewed by material, region or zone, any of which may be
included or excluded from the image at any time.
Both the 3D and 2D Ray tabs work by passing and receiving messages to a
reading engine. This engine (VRFORT) is provided as an external library
which is loaded when the user first selects the 3D Ray or 2D Ray tabs. The
VRFORT library uses exactly the same code to parse the input files as is
used in the ANSWERS physics codes (MCBEND, MONK and RANKERN).
This ensures that the images created are exactly the same image that the
physics codes see.
Display Toolbar
Image Canvas
Options Toolbar
Info Bar
Figure 20 - 3D Ray Trace View
An example of the 3D Ray tab viewing the model workn6_full.dat can be

seen in Figure 20.
The 3D Ray Trace GUI consists of the following major components:

The Image Canvas (See Section 3.2.1)
The Display Toolbar (See Section 3.2.2)
The Info Toolbar (See Section 3.2.3)
The Options Toolbar (See Section 3.2.4)
3.2.1 Image Canvas and Interactive controls
The Image canvas is the area in which the image is drawn. The user can
interact with the canvas using a mouse in order to manipulate the image
being drawn.
Clicking on the canvas with the left mouse button and then dragging rotates
the image.
zoom function. Moving the mouse downward zooms out, and moving the
mouse upwards zooms in, causing the image to be magnified. Clicking and
releasing the right mouse button without dragging produces a popup menu
with options to:
Exclude the material/region or zone that is under the cursor.

Ghost the material/region or zone that is under the cursor.
Set the point of interest (POI) to the point under the cursor.
Change the colour of the material/region or zone under the cursor.
Produce a graph of results for the region that is under the cursor. For
more information about graph panels, see Section 4.6.1. (If results
scored by region have been loaded from an output file.)
Produce a live graph which will change as the user moves the
mouse cursor to display results for the region over which the cursor is
currently positioned. For more information about graph panels, see
Section 4.6.1. (If results scored by region have been loaded from an
output file.)
Copy the current image to the system clipboard.
Clicking on the canvas with the middle mouse button and then dragging

List of interactive controls for the 3D Ray Trace View:

middle mouse drag Pans the model.
right mouse click Produces popup menu
<Shift> + left mouse drag Draws a measurement line on the model.
Each line appears as an overlay. Display of
individual measurement lines can be
controlled using the Overlays tab.
<Ctrl> + left mouse drag Draws a selection box. This is used by the
magnification button on the Display Toolbar
and optionally the copy image to clipboard
option and when saving an image.
wheel button Zooms the model
The display toolbar (Figure 21) contains a set of controls to select whether
the produced image is displayed by model materials, scoring regions or FG
zones.
The Seek MD checkbox enables or disables searching for multiple

definitions. When multiple definition searching is requested, the image is
drawn with the currently selected type and with the currently selected
Include/Exclude and Cutaway settings. A grey ghost or transparent
image of the model is produced. Any multiple definitions found within the
model are rendered in a colour representing the overlapping zone numbers.
The Holes checkbox enables the hole tracking routines and therefore
whether holes are displayed in the resulting image.
The Sources drop-down box selects whether unified source bodies are
displayed. There are seven available options.
1. No Source Does not display source bodies.
2. Source as Red - Any source bodies detected are rendered in red. If a

source body is hidden by another object then it is not displayed.

3. Source on Grey Colours for all zones, regions or materials

displayed are set to a mid grey value. Any source bodies are
coloured by their source number. If a source body is hidden by
another object then it is not displayed
4. Source on Ghost Colours for all zones, regions or materials

displayed are set to white, thus a grey ghost or transparent image
is produced. Any source bodies are then coloured by their source
number. This method has the advantage that source bodies hidden
by other objects in the display are drawn.
5. Bodies as Red This option is similar to the Source as Red option.

The source bodies are displayed ignoring any additional restriction to
Materials or Zones.
6. Bodies on Grey - This option is similar to the Source on Grey option.

The source bodies are displayed ignoring any additional restriction to
Materials or Zones.
7. Bodies on Ghost - This option is similar to the Source on Ghost

option. The source bodies are displayed ignoring any additional
restriction to Materials or Zones.
The other buttons on the display toolbar allow a snapshot to be created (See
Section 3.2.5), a mouse drawn selection of the image to be magnified and
allows the rendering of an image to be stopped.
Source Display Control Snapshot Button Stop Ray Trace Button

Display Type
Seek Multiple Definitions On/Off Hole Visibility On/Off Magnify Button
Figure 21 - 3D Ray Trace View Display Toolbar

3.2.3 Info Toolbar
The information toolbar (Figure 22) provides information and feedback about
the image. When the mouse cursor is placed over a part of the displayed
model, the information fields change to reflect the information about the
model at the location of the cursor. The fields display the following
information:
M: Material P: Part LR: Local Region

LZ: Local Zone R: Region Z: Zone
X: X Co-ordinate Y: Y Co-ordinate Z: Z Co-ordinate
SM: Cactus Sub-Mesh CM: Cactus Mesh Val: Result Value
The Cactus mesh (CM) and Cactus Sub-Mesh (SM) are only active when a
WIMS Cactus 3D model is displayed. The Cactus Sub-Mesh is only active
when a WIMS interface file is attached, then the sub-mesh numbers are
consistent with those in the WIMS output file.
The Result Value (Val) field displays the result in the current region or Cactus
Mesh / Sub-Mesh along with the statistical error if that is applicable.
When the information toolbar is floated the display fields are increased
providing more precision for the co-ordinates and display of alpha-numeric
material names.
The progress bar shows how much progress has been made in drawing the
image. How quickly the image is rendered is dependent on the available
hardware, the size of the image and the complexity of the model.
The output button produces a window which displays the text output from the
VRFORT rendering process. This text output contains debug information and
will list detected errors and double definitions.
Info Fields Progress Bar Output Button
Figure 22 - 3D Ray Trace View Info Toolbar

The options toolbar has a number of tabs which contain controls which affect
the image displayed on the canvas. For the 3D Ray Trace view, the options
toolbar contains tabs providing access to the following functionality:
Set the position of cut planes in the image. (See Section 3.2.4.1)
Set the position of the cut brick planes (See Section 3.2.4.2)
Select which Materials, Regions and Zones to include or exclude
from the image. (See Section 3.2.4.3)
Select the visibility of available overlays. (See Section 3.2.4.4)
Select the view position and alter common settings. (See Section
3.2.4.5)
3.2.4.1 Options Toolbar Cut Plane Tab
Cut Plane Sliders
Cut Plane Position Fields
Figure 23 - Options Toolbar Cut Plane Tab
The controls on the Cut Plane tab (Figure 23) allow a number of cut-away
planes to be defined through the loaded model geometry. These specify a
volume in space bounded by user-defined planes and only the section of the
model that lies within this volume is displayed. In Visual Workshop, the user
is able to specify the position of the six planes that form the faces of a box,
the edges of which are aligned to the axes of the global co-ordinate system.

To move the cut-away planes, either drag the sliders or manually enter the
Min/Max model co-ordinates in the fields at the bottom of the tab and click
Apply.
3.2.4.2 Options Toolbar Cut Brick Tab
The controls on the Cut Brick tab (Figure 24) are used to define slice planes
aligned to the axes of the global co-ordinate system, which together with
either the maximum or minimum extent of the model define a rectangular sub
volume (brick) of the model that will be cut-away.
Plane Position Sliders
Plane Position Fields
Pre-set Buttons
Figure 24 - Options Toolbar Cut Brick Tab
To alter the cut-away brick, either drag the sliders, enter the Min/Max model
co-ordinates in the fields and click Apply or select one of the eight buttons at
the bottom of the tab which removes one of the bricks that are created by
creating planes through the model origin along its principal axes.
3.2.4.3 Options Toolbar Include/Exclude Tab
The Include/Exclude tab (Figure 25) allows the user to include or exclude
specific materials, regions or zones (depending on the whether the model is
being displayed by materials, regions or zones) in the displayed image. This

can be used to remove extraneous materials in order to focus on a specific
part of a model.
The tab contains a selectable list of model materials, regions or zones

(depending on which has been selected as the display type). Each material,
region or zone can either be visible (or included), ghosted (where the colour
is set to grey and made transparent) or invisible (excluded).
The visibility of materials, regions or zones can be changed by selecting the

item in the list (or group selecting multiple items by holding down the shift
key) and clicking the relevant button at the bottom of the tab.
Excluded Material
Shaded Material
Selection Buttons
Figure 25 - Options Toolbar Include/Exclude Tab
Visible materials, regions or zones can be ghosted or excluded by right

clicking on the canvas and selecting an item from the resulting pop-up menu
to ghost or exclude the material, region or zone under the mouse cursor.
3.2.4.4 Options Toolbar Settings & View Details Tab
The Settings & View Details tab (Figure 26) contains controls to alter the
detail, performance and position of the image being displayed.
The Settings section controls the detail of the generated image and the
drawing performance of Visual Workshop. Increasing the Hole Step Size
can decrease the detail of displayed holes; this depends on the hole and can

have a large effect on the rendering performance of the hole. Turning off
Hole Shading increases rendering performance by not shading hole
geometries. Altering the number of Ray Trace Passes does not increase the
speed at which the final image is created but controls the number of
intermediate images that are produced. Increasing these will cause coarse
but full images to be generated quickly which can aid model positioning.
General Settings Controls
Eye Position
Selection Controls
Point of Interest Axis Alignment

Selection Controls Presets
Magnification Slider
Figure 26 - Options Toolbar Settings and View Details Tab
The View Details section controls the position of the model in the generated
image. It contains controls to alter the eye position from which the model is
viewed which can be expressed in either Cartesian or Polar co-ordinates.
Buttons are available to view the model down either of the primary axes. It
also allows the point of interest (which is the positioning of the model on the
canvas) to be set. For both the point of interest and eye position, the relevant
Apply button must be pressed to save the co-ordinates while the Reset
button reverts to the default values for the model. Finally, a control is
provided to alter the magnification of the image. Note, however, that
magnifying the image with this control will not generate the same results as
zooming the image with the right mouse button since zooming with the right
mouse button moves the eye position towards and away from the point of
interest.

3.2.4.5 Options Dialog Overlays Tab
The Overlays tab (Figure 27) contains controls that alter the overlays which
are drawn over the 3D ray image when rendering completes.
The available overlays are displayed in the tree structure and are labelled
depending on whether they are set as visible or not. Overlays which are set
as visible are marked with a green tick icon, overlays which are set as hidden
are marked with a red cross icon, overlays which represent items from the
model that are currently unavailable for display are represented by a white
icon. An item may be unavailable for display because it is out of the field of
view or not present in the current loop being viewed of a looping case.
Hidden Overlay
Figure 27 - Options Toolbar Overlays Tab
The Hidden line removal check box controls whether visible overlays are
drawn on top of the 3D ray image or drawn with a simulated z plane allowing
the 3D ray image to obscure the overlay.
3.2.4.6 Options Dialog Results Tab
The Results tab (Figure 28) contains controls relating to the display of
results on the Ray Trace displays.

A result type is selected from the Results Selector drop down menu. The
supported result types are Flux by Region and Responses by Region from
MCBEND. The same controls are used for the 2D Ray Trace display.
Result Selector
Display Options controls
Display style selector
Figure 28 - Options Toolbar Results Tab
The Results Selector drop down contains a list of available results to display.
The Display Options controls that appear below this option menu depend on
the result type chosen. The example shown in Figure 28 is for particle flux
results scored in FG regions.
The display styles available are:

On Normal The colours of materials, regions or zones in the display are
rendered as they normally would be.
On Grey Colours for all zones, regions or materials are set to a mid grey
value.
On Ghost Colours for all zones, regions or materials displayed are set to
white, thus a grey ghost or transparent image is produced.
Log Scale: Controls how the mapping between result value and colour scale
is performed. It is either Log or Linear.

Group Scale: The maximum and minimum values used to scale the mapping
between result and colour are taken from all the flux results in all regions and
all groups. If this option is selected then only the current group is used. This
option is not applicable to Response results.
Shade Result: If this option is selected the normal 3D shading effect is

applied to the results display. Otherwise the shading is effectively flat. This
option has no effect on the 2D Ray Trace display.
Darken with error: If this option is selected an additional darkening is

applied to the result in proportion to the statistical error on the result such that
0% would have no effect and 100% would be black.
Error Cut Off: Results with a statistical error greater than this value will be
omitted from the display.
Max Value, Min Value: The maximum and minimum values used to scale
the mapping between result and colour. See also Group Scale above.
3D ray trace of a Dose response

function scored in the regions of
a subdivided box. A cut away
plane is used to remove the top
half of the model.
Using the Shade Result option.
Using the Darken with Error

option.

Excluding results with a statistical

error greater than 20%
Figure 29 Examples of a 3D Ray Trace results display
3.2.5 Snapshot Window
When the Snapshot button is pressed, a new Snapshot Window (Figure 30)
is displayed. A snapshot is a copy of the currently displayed image plus its
associated data store and is used to store images for viewing later.
A snapshot window has the same information toolbar found in the 3D Ray
Trace View and can be used in the same way. Right clicking on the image
allows the image to be copied onto the system clipboard for inserting into
documents or other applications.
When a snapshot is created, it is added to the Overview Tree under the

heading Snapshots. If a snapshot window is closed it can be reopened by
left clicking a snapshot in the tree. Alternatively it can be opened by right
clicking a snapshot in the tree and selecting Show from the resulting pop-up
menu.
Figure 30 - Snapshot Window

A snapshot can be deleted by right clicking the snapshot in the overview tree
and selecting Delete from the resulting pop-up menu.
3.3 The 2D Ray Tab
The 2D Ray tab enables the production of two-dimensional images of a

Fractal Geometry (FG) model using simple ray tracing techniques. The
images can display the geometry, dose points, simple source, unified source,
complex source, forced flight interfaces, scatter / reflect bodies, zonemat and
importance mesh of a loaded model, which can be viewed by material, region
or zone, any of which may be included or excluded from the image at any
time.
An example of the 2D Ray tab viewing the model workn6_full.dat can be

seen in Figure 31.
The 3D Ray Trace GUI consists of the following major components:
The Image Canvas (See Section 3.3.1)

The Display Toolbar (See Section 3.2.2)
The Info Toolbar (See Section 3.3.3)
The Overlay Toolbar (See Section 3.3.4)
Display Toolbar
Image Canvas
Overlays Toolbar
Info Bar
Figure 31 - 2D Ray Trace View

3.3.1 Image Canvas and Interactive Controls
The canvas is the area in which the image is drawn. The user can interact
with the canvas using a mouse in order to manipulate the image being drawn.
Clicking on the canvas with the left mouse button and then dragging moves
the image. Clicking on the canvas with the right mouse button and dragging
controls the zoom function. Moving the mouse downward zooms out, and
moving the mouse upwards zooms in, causing the image to be magnified.
Clicking and releasing the right mouse button without dragging produces a
popup menu with options to:
Change the colour of the material/region or zone under the cursor.

If results scored by region have been loaded from an output file, to
produce a graph of results for the region that is under the cursor. For
more information about graph panels, see Section 4.6.1.
Produce a live graph which will change as the user moves the
mouse cursor to display results for the region over which the cursor is
currently positioned. For more information about graph panels, see
Section 4.6.1. (If results scored by region have been loaded from an
output file.)
Copy the current image to the system clipboard.
If the Shift key is held down while the right mouse button is pressed and
dragged, the model can be stepped through. This alters the position of the
currently viewed slice in the direction of the axis which the slice is looking
down. The image can also be altered by using the controls on the 2D Ray
Slice Editor dialog. The number of ray trace passes that are performed by
the 2D Ray Trace is one less than the value selected for the 3D Ray Trace.
The canvas is bordered on its left and bottom edges by rulers which show the
scale of the image being displayed. When the image is zoomed, the rulers
are changed to reflect the new scale.

List of interactive controls for the 2D Ray Trace Window:
left mouse drag Pans the model, moves the centre

point of the slice along the U
(horizontal) and V (vertical) vectors of
the slice.
right mouse drag Zooms, moving the mouse upwards
zooms in, moving the mouse
Right mouse click Produces popup menu.
<Shift> + right mouse drag Moves the slice through the model.
Moving the mouse up moves the
centre point of the slice into the model
along a vector normal to the slice
plane. Moving the mouse down
moves the centre point of the slice out
of the model.
<Shift> + left mouse drag Draws a measurement line on the
model. Each line appears as an
overlay. Display of individual
measurement lines can be controlled
using the Overlays tab.
<Ctrl> + left mouse drag Draws a selection box. This is used
by the magnification button on the
Display Toolbar and also affects the
copy image to clipboard option and
when saving an image.
<Alt> + left mouse drag Draws a measurement line locking the
ends to boundaries. On Linux
systems use <Alt-Windows>
The display toolbar (Figure 32) contains a set of controls to select whether
the produced image is displayed by model materials, scoring regions or FG
zones.
Magnify Button Source/Scatter Body Display Resolution

Display Type
Seek Multiple Definitions On/Off Hole Visibility On/Off Trace Direction
Figure 32 - 2D Ray Trace View Display Toolbar

The Seek MD checkbox enables or disables searching for multiple

definitions. Any multiple definitions found within the model are rendered
using the colours representing all the overlapping zone numbers.
The Holes checkbox enables the hole tracking routines and therefore
whether holes are displayed in the resulting image.
The magnify button can be used to zoom and centre the view on a selection
box drawn with the mouse.
The Source/Scatter Res drop-down box alters the resolution at which solid
volumes of visibly overlays are shaded.
The trace direction control specifies the direction in which the ray trace scan
is performed.
3.3.3 Info Toolbar
The information toolbar (Figure 33) is the same as that in the 3D Ray Trace
View and provides information and feedback about the image. When the
mouse cursor is placed over a part of the displayed model, the information
fields change to reflect the information about the model at the location of the
cursor. The fields display the following information:
M: Material P: Part LR: Local Region

LZ: Local Zone R: Region Z: Zone
X: X Co-ordinate Y: Y Co-ordinate Z: Z Co-ordinate
SM: Cactus Sub-Mesh CM: Cactus Mesh Val: Result Value
The Cactus mesh (CM) and Cactus Sub-Mesh (SM) are only active when a
WIMS Cactus 3D model is displayed. The Cactus Sub-Mesh is only active
when a WIMS interface file is attached, then the sub-mesh numbers are
consistent with those in the WIMS output file.
The Result Value (Val) field displays the result in the current region or Cactus
Mesh / Sub-Mesh along with the statistical error if that is applicable.

When the information toolbar is floated the display fields are increased
providing more precision for the co-ordinates and display of alpha-numeric
material names.
The progress bar shows how much progress has been made in drawing the
image. How quickly the image is rendered is dependent on the available
hardware, the size of the image and the complexity of the model.
The output button produces a window which displays the text output from the
VRFORT rendering process. This text output contains debug information and
will list detected errors and double definitions.
Info Fields Progress Bar Output Button
Figure 33 - 2D Ray Trace View Info Toolbar
3.3.4 Overlays Toolbar
The 2D Ray Trace View does not have a full Options Toolbar as the 3D Ray
Trace View does; instead it has only the option to select the visibility of
available overlays.
The Overlays Toolbar (Figure 34) contains controls which alter the overlays
which are drawn over the 3D ray image when rendering completes.
The available overlays are displayed in the tree structure and are labelled
depending on whether they are set as visible or not. Overlays which are set
as visible are marked with a green tick icon, overlays which are set as hidden
are marked with a red cross icon, overlays which represent items from the
model that are currently unavailable for display are represented by a white
icon. An item may be unavailable for display because it is out of the field of
view or not present in the current loop being viewed of a looping case.

Hidden Overlay
Visible Overlay
Unavailable Overlay
Figure 34 - 2D Ray Trace View Overlays Toolbar
The overlays which the 2D Ray Trace View can display are different to the
set that the 3D Ray Trace View can display.
Currently, this list of overlays includes:
Importance / Splitting mesh including multi-map

Complex source
Scatter / Reflection bodies
Event logs including History Log, Source log & Collision log
Forced Flight Interfaces
Simple source
Unified source
Unified tally bodies
Dose points
Zonemat
3.3.5 2D Ray Slice Editor Dialog
The 2D Ray Slice Editor dialog (Figure 35) is displayed when the 2D Ray
tab is selected. It allows the image being displayed on the 2D Ray canvas to
be altered.

Title Field
Slice List
Fix Axis Buttons
Slice
Position
Fields
Action Buttons
Figure 35 - 2D Ray Slice Editor Dialog
The slice editor allows the setups for a number of 2D images to be stored and
retrieved. Initially, the editor contains three predefined slices, X Slice, Y
Slice and Z Slice which display the whole model through the origin on each
of the three primary axes.
Saved slices are displayed in the Slice List on the right of the dialog.
Selecting a slice will cause the image on the 2D Ray canvas to change
accordingly.
The Title field allows the title of a saved or new slice to be altered.
The position of the slice can be set by entering the desired x, y and z values
for the top left, top right and bottom left of the image using the slice position
fields. Alternatively the X, Y and Z buttons can be used to fix the slice
parallel to the relevant axis at the value entered in the top left position field for
that axis.
The action buttons clear the current position values, add the current settings
as a new slice in the Slice List, update the currently selected slice with the
currently entered position, undo changes made to the currently selected slice
and delete the currently selected slice from the Slice List.
Changing the slice by interacting with the 2D Ray Trace canvas will cause the
settings for the current slice to be changed in the Slice Editor.

3.4 The 2D WIMS Geometry Tab
The 2D WIMS geometry tab enables the user to view two dimensional
images of the geometry input in the following modules in WIMS:
HEAD
CACTUS
DSN
FLURIG
GAM
PERSEUS
PIJ
PROCOL
PRIZE
SPECTROX
NEWMAX
THESEUS
TWOTRAN
When a WIMS input is loaded the view will display the geometry from the first
of these modules in the input file. Other geometries can be displayed by right
clicking the appropriate module in the overview tree and selecting Display
Geometry.
The view can be controlled using the mouse. An example of the view can be
seen in Figure 36.

Options Toolbar
Image Canvas
Display Toolbar
Info Toolbar
Figure 36 - 3D Wireframe View
The 2D WIMS Geometry view consists of the following major components:
The Image Canvas (See Section 3.4.1).

The Options Toolbar (See Section 3.4.2).
The Display Toolbar (See Section 3.4.3).
The Info Toolbar (See Section 3.4.4).
3.4.1 Image Canvas and Interactive Controls
The Image canvas is the area in which the image is drawn. The user can
interact with the canvas using a mouse in order to manipulate the image
being drawn.
Clicking on the canvas with the left mouse button and then dragging
zoom function. Moving the mouse upwards zooms in, and moving the mouse
downwards zooms out. The mouse wheel can also be used to zoom the
image.
List of interactive controls for the 2D WIMS Geometry view:


The Options toolbar (Figure 37) provides controls to select the quality of the
image being displayed and the geometry features being displayed.
Display Controls
Figure 37 - Options Toolbar
The Anti-Alias option controls whether the image being displayed is anti-
aliased (smoothed). This can improve the quality of the displayed image.
The Display Sub-Meshes option toggles whether sub meshes are displayed
on the geometry (if available). If sub-meshes are not present in the currently
loaded geometry, this option will be disabled.
The Display Differential Materials option toggles whether differential material

numbers (if available) are used in the displayed image. If the currently
loaded geometry does not contain differential materials, this option will be
disabled.
The Display toolbar (Figure 38) contains controls used to control what is
displayed on the Image Canvas.
By default, the canvas displays the geometry coloured by material and the
Display Toolbar displays the material key. It also allows the material colours,
line colour and sub-mesh colours to be customised. Clicking on any of the
listed key items will bring up a colour selection dialog which allows a new
colour to be chosen. Colour selections are stored when Visual Workshop is
closed and reread on start-up. Clicking the Reset Selections button will
reset colour selections to their initial default values.
Display Selector
Figure 38 - Display Toolbar
When applicable results have been loaded, the Display Selector is used to
switch between displaying the geometry by material or by results values (see
Section 4.4)
3.4.4 Info Toolbar
The Display toolbar (Figure 39) provides information and feedback about the
model. When the mouse cursor is placed over a part of the displayed model,
the information fields change to reflect the information about the model at the
location of the cursor.
Figure 39 - Info Toolbar
The fields display the following information:
X: X Co-ordinate
Y: Y Co-ordinate
Z Co-ordinate
Z:
(visible for 3D geometries only)
M: Material Number

Mesh Number
Mesh:
(CACTUS only)
Sub-Mesh Number
SM:
(CACTUS only, after interface has been attached)
Results Value
Val:
(when results data is being displayed)
For 3D geometries, a Z button is added to the Info Toolbar. This allows the
current Z slice value to be selected. By default, the Z value is set at the
centre of the geometry.
3.5 Handling of Alphanumeric Names
The VRFORT library that provides the 3D and 2D Ray Trace functionality
does not read the Material Data input unit.
If the material definitions are supplied using the Material Specification input
unit then the alphanumeric names in the ray trace display are numbered in
the order they appear in that unit.
If material definitions are absent from the model being viewed or they are
provided by the Material data input unit then they will be numbered in the
order they appear in the Material Geometry unit.
If a mixture of alphanumeric names and numbers are used in the model they
can only be resolved correctly if the Material Specification input unit is used.
In other cases the alphanumeric names are numbered from the highest
material number encountered. This will usually mean that more materials are
listed than are in the model.
3.6 Loading and Saving Views
The Import View and Export View options on the File menu allow a
view from either the 3D Wireframe, 3D Ray Trace or 2D Ray Trace view to be
saved or restored. When either of these options is selected, a standard file
selection dialog is displayed allowing the user to save or load a view (which
has a .vwv file extension). This functionality has the following limitations:

Only the current view is saved. For the 2D Ray Trace view this
means that only the current slice is saved.
When a view is loaded, it overwrites the current view settings without
asking the user to confirm the action. For the 2D Ray Trace view, the
loaded slice is added to the Slice List and is then displayed.
Only the view position is saved. Other user selectable options such
as which bodies are visible are not stored.
Due to the differences between the 3D Wireframe, 3D Ray Trace and

2D Ray Trace views, a saved view from one of the view types can
only be loaded back into that same view type. Trying to load a view
into an incompatible view type will result in an error.

VISUAL WORKSHOP Displaying Results
4. Displaying Results
Visual Workshop has a number of ways in which a user can visualise the
results of a calculation. This section details the results displays available and
how they are used.
4.1 Loading Results
For MCBEND, MONK and RANKERN models, output files can be loaded
either via either the File > Import Output File menu item or the Add File
option in the Overview Tree.
When an output file is loaded, it is automatically scanned for results data

which can be displayed by the Wireframe, Ray Trace or WIMS Geometry
views. Results data which can be displayed is extracted and passed to the
relevant view for display.
A list of data which has been successfully extracted from an output file can be
seen by expanding the Output file node in the Overview Tree.
Due to the nature of a WIMS calculation, loaded results are not applicable to
the calculation as a whole but rather to the particular module from which they
were output. As a result, in order to display results from an archived WIMS
interface file, the file must be loaded by right clicking the relevant module
from the Overview Tree and selecting Attach Results from Archived
Interface.
WIMS Gamma results can be displayed but only when both a gamma and a
neutron interface file are attached. This is done by holding down the CTRL
key when selecting interfaces in the Select Archived Interface dialog to
select multiple files.
Currently only results from the CACTUS module can be displayed.

Displaying Results VISUAL WORKSHOP
4.1.1 Exporting an Archived Interface from WIMS
Visual Workshop reads WIMS results data from an archived interface file
created using the ARCHIVE module in WIMS. An archived interface can be
created using the following input:
ARCHIVE n
STORE AS filename
BEGIN
This will archive the contents of interface number n into a file with the given
filename. Visual Workshop does not expect an archived interface to have a
specific file extension. The archived interface can then be attached to the
module preceding the ARCHIVE module which created it.
In order for 2D CACTUS to output results by submesh, the

RESULTS_OUTPUT keyword must be used in the CACTUS module. This is
currently only available in WIMS10A_RU0 and later.
4.2 Displays Available from the 3D Wireframe View
The following results can be displayed on the 3D Wireframe View:
Cell Mesh Results:
MCBEND Flux and Response results scored on an XYZ or RTZ

splitting mesh which is defined in the input. (Note that when Flux and
Response are estimated by both Track Length and Collision Density,
only values for the first estimator can be displayed)
MCBEND Particle Inflows counted on a splitting mesh which is
defined in the input.
MCBEND Flux, Response and Particle Inflows counted in a global
1
Multimap Mesh .

1
MCBEND Importance Values scored in a Multimap Mesh .
RANKERN Scatter Contributions.

Point Mesh Results:
RANKERN Flux and Activation results scored on a Dose Point

1
mesh .
Body Results:

2
MCBEND Flux and Response results scored in a Unified Tally body .

3
MONK Action Tallies scored in a Unified Tally body .
Track and Point Results:
Track and Point data read from a MCBEND history log, collision log,
source log or leakage log file.
Track and Point data read from a RANKERN forced flight log file.
Point data read from a MONK birth dump log file.
4.2.1 Display Types Available
Results displayed on the Wireframe View can be viewed in one of the

following types of display.
It is important to note that not all results are suitable for all types of display.
When a set of results is not suitable for all types of display, Visual Workshop
will only allow suitable display types to be selected.
1
RANKERN Dose Point mesh results can be read from outputs produced by RANKERN16A
onwards.
2
The Tally Data and Multimap Data units are new units available in MCBEND11A.
3
The Tally Data and ATINUT Data units are new units available in MONK10A.

4.2.1.1 2D Cell Plot
Figure 40 - 2D Cell Plot
Applicable to:
Cell mesh results scored on a mesh with sub-divisions in each

dimension.
Body results scored in a BOX, ROD or SEC body with sub-divisions
in each dimension.
For regular 3D arrays of results, a plane though the results data can be used
to display a non-interpolated cell plot (Figure 40). Planes are always aligned
to the X, Y or Z axis, but their position on the axis can be specified.
Additional planes can be added and removed. Cells can be excluded from the
display by specifying the range of result values to display.
4.2.1.2 3D Cell Plot
Figure 41 - 3D Cell Plot

Applicable to:

dimension.
in each dimension.
For regular 3D arrays of results, the entire data array can be displayed as a
block of 3D cells coloured by result (Figure 41). The display can be cut by
altering the position of six cut planes (aligned to the X, Y and Z axes) and
cells can be excluded from the display by specifying the range of result
values to display.
4.2.1.3 Cell Plot
Applicable to:
Cell mesh results scored on a mesh without sub-divisions in all

dimensions.
Body results scored on an ARC, DISC, PLANE or SPHERE body.
The Cell Plot is similar to the 2D Cell Plot but is applicable to results which do
not have subdivisions in three dimensions.
4.2.1.4 2D Contour Plot
Figure 42 - 2D Contour Plot (Multiple Contours)

Figure 43 - 2D Contour Plot (Single Contour)
Applicable to:

dimension.
in each dimension.
For regular 3D arrays of results, an interpolated 2D Contour Plot (Figure 42)

can be generated by displaying one or more planes through the results data.
When only one contour is selected (Figure 43), the display shows the area
for which the results values are less than or equal to a specified value.
Additional contours can be displayed which show the specified value +/- a
specified standard deviation (when error values are available). Planes are
always aligned to the X, Y or Z axis, but their position on the axis can be
specified. Additional planes can be added and removed.

4.2.1.5 3D Contour Plot
Figure 44 - 3D Contour Plot (Multiple Contours)
Figure 45 - 3D Contour Plot (Single Contour)
Applicable to:

dimension.
in each dimension.
For regular 3D arrays of results, an interpolated 3D Contour Plot (Figure 44)

can be generated. When only one contour is selected (Figure 45), the
display shows the area for which the results values are less than or equal to a
specified value. Additional contours can be displayed which show the
specified value +/- a specified standard deviation (when error values are
available). The display can be cut by altering the position of six cut planes
(aligned to the X, Y and Z axes).

4.2.1.6 Contour Plot
Applicable to:
Cell mesh results scored on a mesh without sub-divisions in all

dimensions.
Body results scored on an ARC, DISC, PLANE or SPHERE body.
Point mesh results.
The Contour Plot is similar to the 2D Contour Plot but is applicable to results
which do not have subdivisions in three dimensions.
4.2.1.7 3D Event Plot
Applicable to:
Track and point results.
Figure 46 - 3D Wireframe View Event Plot
For 3D event data, a 3D Event Plot (Figure 46) can be used to display track
and point data read from a loaded event file at the corresponding locations in
the model. The range and type of data displayed can be controlled along
with the variables used to shade the display.

4.2.2 Controlling the Displays
Results displayed on the Wireframe View are controlled from the Results Tab
of the Wireframe View Options Toolbar.
If the results data is suitable for display on the current model it is added to the
Results to Display drop down control for user selection. When a set of
results data is selected from the drop down control, the results are displayed
on the image and the Results Tab is populated with additional controls
required to configure the results display. These additional controls differ
depending on which style of results display is currently selected and are
outlined below.
4.2.2.1 Options Toolbar - Results Tab - 2D Plane Results
Results Selector
Data Selection
Display Customisation
Controls
Figure 47 - Typical Options Toolbar Results Tab for 2D Results
When a 2D contour plane or cell plane display is chosen, the Results Tab will
resemble that shown in Figure 47. For a 2D contour or cell display, the user
can control the planes which are displayed, whether a linear or logarithmic
scale is used and the minimum value, maximum value and number of
contours used in the display.
4.2.2.2 Options Toolbar - Results Tab - 3D Results
When a 3D contour display is chosen, the Results Tab will resemble that
shown in Figure 48. For a 3D contour display, the user can specify the
position of 6 cut planes which affect the extent of the results display which is

displayed, whether a linear or logarithmic scale is used and the minimum
value, maximum value and number of contours used in the display.
Clip Plane Controls
Figure 48 - Typical Options Toolbar Results Tab for 3D Results
4.2.2.3 Display Customisation Options
Depending on the type and size of results available, the available options in
the Display Customisation section will be a subset of the table below. Note
that if an option is presented without an editable selection control, then there
is only one value available for that option.

Option Title Description
Display Style Selects the type of display. Only suitable types are listed. Options
can be 2D Cell, 3D Cell, Cell Plot, 2D Contour, 3D Contour or
Contour Plot.
Display Selects whether results values or error values (if available) are
displayed.
Exclude Selects whether to exclude a range of results or errors (if available)
from the current display.
Exclude Below Sets the lower bound of the exclusion range.
Exclude Above Sets the upper bound of the exclusion range.
Planes Opens the Plane Selection Dialog to allow the planes used in the 2D
Cell and 2D Contour plots to be altered. (See Section 4.2.2.4)
Title Sets a customised title for the display.
Scale Type Selects between a logarithmic or linear scale.
No. Colours Selects the number of colours used in the current display.
Min Contour Selects the lower bound of the range between which values are
shaded.
Max Contour Selects the upper bound of the range between which values are
shaded.
Value Sets the indicated value for the 2D Contour, 3D Contour and Contour
Plot displays
Show SD Selects whether an additional contour is displayed on the 2D Contour,
3D Contour and Contour Plot displays to indicate the standard
deviation range.
Colour Sets the colour used for the 2D Contour, 3D Contour and Contour Plot
displays.
4.2.2.4 Plane Control Dialog
Axis Selection Sets the Plane Position
Add Plane Button

Removes the Plane
Figure 49 - Plane Control Dialog
The plane control dialog (Figure 49) allows the planes used in the 2D Cell
and 2D Contour plots to be altered. The Axis and Axis Position for each
plane can be set and planes can be added and removed. However one
plane must exist at all times and the dialog will not allow the last plane to be
removed.

4.2.2.5 Options Toolbar - Results Tab - 3D Event Results
Opens the Selection

Dialog
Figure 50 - Options Toolbar Results Tab for 3D Event Results
When a 3D event display is chosen, the Results Tab will resemble that shown
in Figure 50. The provided controls allow the user to change the size of
points displayed in the results and to open the Event File Filter dialog (see
Section 4.3.2.1).
4.3 Displays Available from the Ray Trace Views
The following results can be displayed via the 3D and 2D Ray Trace Views:
Region Results:
MCBEND Flux and Response results scored by region.

MONK Flux results scored by region.
Cactus Mesh and Sub-Mesh WIMS Results:
Gamma & Neutron Flux in Mesh & Sub-Mesh.

Fission rate & Absorption rate by group in Mesh & Sub-Mesh.
Total Fission rate & Absorption rate in Mesh & Sub-Mesh.
Fission, Neutron Only and Neutron-Gamma heating by group in
Mesh & Sub-Mesh.

Total Fission, Neutron Only and Neutron-Gamma heating in Mesh &
Sub-Mesh.
Track and Point Results:
Track and Point data read from a MCBEND history log, collision log,
source log, forced flight log or leakage log file.
Track and Point data read from a RANKERN - MCBEND link file.
Point data read from a MONK birth dump log file.
4.3.1 Results Scored by Region
Applicable to:
Region results.
The controls and options available for the display of Results scored by
Region are described in Section 3.2.4.6.
If MCBEND Flux or Response results scored by region have been loaded

from an output file, options are added to the right click popup menu for the 2D
and 3D Ray Trace views to produce a graph of results for the region clicked
on and to produce a live graph which will change as the user moves the
mouse cursor over the Ray Trace image, to display results for the region over
which the mouse is currently positioned.
When a graph option is selected, a new graph panel is produced (See

Section 4.6.1).
4.3.2 Event Data Display
Applicable to:
Track and point results.
For event, track and point data extracted from a MCBEND event log or
MONK birth store, available data is added as an Overlay to the 2D and 3D
Ray Trace (Figure 51) views. The display can be displayed or removed in
the same way as other overlays.

Figure 51 - 3D Ray Trace View Event Plot
Right clicking the display in the overlay tree produces a pop-up menu which
provides access to the Event File Filter dialog.
4.3.2.1 Event File Filter Dialog
The Event File Filter dialog (Figure 52) provides a method of filtering the data
from the MCBEND history log, collision log, source log or MONK birth store to
be displayed.
It allows the user to select the range of samples and types of event to be
displayed and to control how the data is coloured. Changes can be applied
to the current display by pressing the Apply button. Pressing the Undo
button reverses any changes made to the dialog since the last time the
Apply button was pressed.
Sample Selection Controls
Display Style Controls
Point Size
Control
Action Buttons
Figure 52 - Event Filter Dialog
For History Log data, it is assumed by default that loaded data is for neutron
events. If the loaded data is for gamma events, the Treat as Gamma
checkbox must be selected in order for the data to be displayed correctly.

Figure 53 - Advanced Event Log Filter
Pressing the Advanced button brings up the Advanced Event Log Filter
Controls dialog.
The Advanced dialog (Figure 53) allows the data displayed to be further
filtered by limiting the range of specific fields. These fields will change
depending on what type of data is being displayed.
Pressing the Colours button brings up the Event Log Colour Selection
dialog.
Colour Selection
Figure 54 - Event Log Colour Selection Dialog
The Colour Selection dialog (Figure 54) allows the customisation of the
colours used by the event displays to display different event types (and the
plain colour optionally used to draw track data). Clicking on a colour
selection produces a dialog which can be used to select a new colour.

Colour selections are stored between uses of Visual Workshop. The Restore
Defaults button restores default colours to all available options.
Description of the other options on the History log event file filter.
Maximum Events This option will prevent a single long lived sample from
per Sample
overloading the display.
Show start events These are any starting events including source events
of a sample read from a collision or leakage file in a
linked calculation.
Show escape These are any events that mean a particle leaves the
events
system, for example an absorption, leakage or roulette
event.
Display Tracks Defines how the tracks will be displayed. The options
are to colour by Energy, Weight or Time, use a plane
colour or exclude.
Event Selection Selects which types of event will be displayed. The

options depend on the particle type:
Neutrons

4
Elastic Scatter PCN 2
Non-elastic scatter PCN all except 2
Fission PCN 18 and 19
(n,n) PCN 5 15 and 31 60
Absorptions PCN 18, 19, 25, 27 and 101 109
Gamma-rays
Compton Scatter PCN 2
Pair Production PCN 16
Photo-electric absorption PCN 101
.
Description of additional options on the Collision log event file filter.
Display Events Defines how the events will be displayed. The options
5
are to colour by Energy, Weight, Time , plain or colour
by reaction type.
4
PCN stands for Particular Classification Number which is a unique number given to a type of
reaction. See the MCBEND user guide section 4.2 or the MONK user guide, chapter 2
appendix H for a list of PCN values.
5
The Energy, Weight and Time are when the particle arrives at the event.

Description of additional options on the Source, Leakage and forced

flight log event file filters.
Show Direction If this is selected, a line will be drawn indicating the

direction of travel of the particle after the event. The
length of the line will depend on the magnitude of the
Energy, Weight or Time if it is used to colour the event.
Description of additional options on the Birth Store event log filter.
Stage Selects which stage of the MONK calculation will be

displayed. Unlike other controls on the event log filter
this slider does not require use of the apply button to
update. This means that the user can interactively
animate the stages of the calculation.
Millisecond delay The time delay in milliseconds between steps in the
animation when the animate button is used.
Animate Animates the birth store display from first to last stage.
4.4 Displays Available from the 2D WIMS Geometry View
The following CACTUS results can be displayed on the 2D WIMS Geometry

View:
Neutron and Gamma Flux (by Energy Group) scored by mesh or sub-
mesh.
Fission and Absorption Rates (Total and by Energy Group) scored by
mesh or sub-mesh.
Heating Rates (Total and by Component) scored by mesh or sub-
mesh.
WIMS results are read from attached interface files (see Section 4.1.1).
4.4.1 Display Style
Flux scored by 2D mesh number in CACTUS can be displayed by choosing

to colour the 2D WIMS Geometry View by result rather than by material. The

result values are passed through a selectable colour palette mapped to a
specified results value range.
Figure 55 - WIMS 2D Results Display
4.4.2 Controlling the Displays
Results displayed on the 2D WIMS Geometry View are controlled from the
Display Toolbar.
If results data suitable for display on the current model is loaded, the Display
Selector drop down control will contain an option to display loaded results.
When a set of results data is selected from the drop down control, the results
are displayed on the image and the toolbar is populated with additional
controls required to configure the results display.
Data Selection Controls
Scale Selection Controls
Colour Selection Options
Figure 56 - WIMS 2D Results Display Controls

The controls allow the scale type and palette maximum/minimum colours to
be to be set. The colour palette maximum/minimum can be set to the global
maximum/minimum range of the selected results, the narrower range of the
currently selected energy group or a custom range.
4.5 The Graph Utility
The Graph Utility can be used to produce graphs of loaded results data. The
Graph Utility can handle all types of results data extracted from output files
including those which arent suitable for display on the Wireframe, Ray Trace
or 2D WIMS views.
The Graph Utility can be started by selecting Graph Utility from the Tools
menu (See Section 2.3.3) or by right clicking a block of loaded results data in
the Overview Tree and selecting Graph Results.
4.6 The Graph Utility GUI
The Graph Utility GUI (Figure 57) is used to select the data you want to
graph. This is done by first selecting a set of results data and then the
dimension indices within the selected results data.
If the Graph Utility is started by right clicking a block of loaded results data
then the results will be pre-selected in the Dataset section of the GUI.
Once the results dataset has been selected, the Variable Dimension (graph x
axis) needs to be selected. Once the variable dimension has been selected,
the Other Dimensions section of the GUI is populated with details of the other
dimensions in the dataset to allow indices of each dimension to be selected.
The Create Graph button will only be enabled when enough data has been
selected to create a graph. The minimum set of data is two or more indices
from the Variable Dimension. These can be selected by clicking an item in
the indices list and dragging up or down to select other indices or by selecting
an index and then selecting a second while holding the Shift key. Selections
in the list must be continuous.
Clicking the Create Graph button when enabled will create a new Graph
Panel displaying the currently selected data.

Results
Selection
Other
Dimension
Variable Selections
Dimension
Selection
Create
Graph
Figure 57 - Graph Utility Button
4.6.1 Graph Panels
Graphs created by the Graph Utility or by the results by region popup menu
of the 2D or 3D Ray Trace image are displayed in a Graph Panel. An
example graph panel is shown in Figure 58.
Each graph panel is a sub-view like the file editor, so it can be displayed
under the main graphical view or popped out into its own window.
Toggle Grid Lines Pop Out Button Close Editor Button
Graph
Options
Button
Graph
Figure 58 - Graph Panel
Each graph panel contains the following:
The graph display. Right clicking on the graph display brings up a

popup menu which allows the user to save an image of the graph or
copy the graph to the clipboard.
A Toggle Grid button enables or disables whether grid lines are
displayed on the current graph.

Pressing the Graph Options button will display the Graph Options
dialog (See Section 4.6.2). This allows configuration of options which
affect only the graph being displayed.
Different graph types are displayed depending on the results data and
dimensions selected. As examples, Figure 58 shows a graph of flux in a
specific region for a number of energy groups, Figure 59 shows a graph of
flux in a specific energy group in a number of regions and Figure 60 shows a
graph of K(THREE) by Stage for a MONK calculation.
Figure 59 - Example Flux by Region Graph
Figure 60 - Example K(THREE) by Stage Graph

4.6.2 Graph Options Dialog
Title Field
Colour Selectors
Axis Label Field
Axis Scale
Type
Controls
Max/Min
Contour Fields
Figure 61 - Graph Panel Options Dialog
The Graph Options dialog allows the user to configure options that affect the
graph currently being displayed. A screenshot of the dialog is shown in
Figure 61.
The Graph Options dialog contains three tabs.
The Graph tab allows the user to set the main graph title and to
configure the colours used for the plot, error bars, background and
grid.
The X Axis and Y Axis tabs allow the user to select the label, the
scale type (linear or logarithmic) and the minimum and maximum
values for either the X or Y axis respectively.

VISUAL WORKSHOP Running Calculations
5. Running Calculations
5.1 Launchpad
Launchpad provides a graphical means to start a MCBEND, MONK,

RANKERN or WIMS calculation. It is able to scan a prepared input file,
decide which data libraries and other files are required, and automatically
generate the datsets file required to run the case.
Launchpad can be accessed from the Launchpad tab. The Launchpad GUI
can change dramatically depending on the type and complexity of the loaded
model. An example of the GUI is shown in Figure 62.
Code and Version Selectors
Space Selector
Library Type
Selectors
Output Directory
Selector
Other Input File
and Library
Selectors
Output Files List
Custom Input
Channel Button
Run and Queue

Buttons
Figure 62 - Launchpad View
The Launchpad GUI consists of the following major components:
The top section allows the selection of the ANSWERS code and code version
to use when running the calculation, along with the value of the space
(memory) parameter passed to the code when run. The image in the top left
hand corner will change to reflect the currently selected code.

Running Calculations VISUAL WORKSHOP
The Input File field displays the currently loaded filename. It cannot be
edited.
The Paths File field is used to specify a paths file for the calculation. This is
only enabled when the currently loaded file is a pre-created datsets file which
requires a paths file to run. When the field is active, the Browse button
opens a file selection dialog to allow the paths file to be selected.
The Output Directory field shows the path to the directory in which the
calculation will be run (sometimes called the working directory). This defaults
to the directory containing the loaded model but can be changed by clicking
the Browse button and selecting an alternative directory.
When a relevant model is loaded, the library type selectors will contain a list
of available nuclear data library types which can be assigned to the identified
input channels. The list does not restrict selection to suitable libraries; it
simply presents a list of available library types.
The Input Channels section lists a number of channels which Launchpad has
identified as required for the case to run. Each channel is listed next to a
drop-down box listing suitable libraries detected on the system. The available
libraries depend on the currently selected nuclear data library types and may
also depend on other library selections. Launchpad will not detect selected
but incompatible libraries. If Launchpad displays a channel which is not
required by the calculation it can be disabled by clicking the enable/disable
button to the right of the channel selector. Disabled channels are not written
to datsets files created by Visual Workshop.
If Launchpad fails to detect a channel required for a calculation, it can be

added by clicking the custom channel button. This will present a dialog into
which the channel name and absolute path of the required file can be added.
Custom channels do not have a disable button; instead they have a delete
button which removes the custom channel from the GUI.
The Output Files section lists the output files which will be created by the
calculation and their names. These files will be created in the selected output
directory. Output filenames cannot be modified. Custom output channels
can be created in the same way as custom input channels.

The Queue Tool and Add to Queue buttons control adding and monitoring
calculations added to the Visual Workshop job queue. Visual Workshop can
start a queue tool (See Section 5.3) which can be used to run calculations in
batches between set times of day. Clicking Add to Queue will add the
current calculation to the calculation list; it will not however start the queue
tool. Pressing the Queue Tool button will start the queue tool which will then
begin processing the calculation queue.
The Run button causes the current model to be run with the currently
selected output directory and libraries. It will open a monitor window (See
Section 5.2) to provide feedback on calculation progress.
5.2 Run Monitor
When the Run button is pressed on the Launchpad tab and a case is run, a
monitor window (Figure 63) is created to display the progress of the
calculation and provide a way of viewing the results.
View Output
Button
Stop Button
Figure 63 - Run Monitor
The case name, start time, executable, datsets file, amount of allocated
space and output folder are displayed in the body of the window. This area
also changes to reflect when the calculation has completed (whether
successfully or not). Once a calculation has finished, the text (Finished) also
appears in the window title.
The View Output button is only available after a calculation has completed
and allows the output file to be loaded into Visual Workshop and displayed in
an editor window.
The Stop Running button can be used to stop execution of the calculation by
using the stop file facility. This facility sends a stop signal to MONK or
MCBEND calculations requesting the calculation stop cleanly at the earliest

opportunity. The button is only enabled while the calculation is running. If a
case is being run which doesnt have a clean stop facility, the button will
terminate the run instead.
When a WIMS case is being run, an additional control is displayed allowing

the user to decide whether any interface files created during the run should
be deleted afterwards.
Note that closing the monitor window does not stop the execution of the
calculation; however closing Visual Workshop completely can cause the
calculation to be terminated.
5.3 Queue Tool
The queue tool (Figure 64) provides a mechanism to run a number of

calculations in a batch, one after the other. The operation of the tool can be
restricted by specifying a pair of times and/or dates between which
calculations can be run. Calculations can be added to the queue from the
Launchpad tab.
The Queue tab features two lists, the top of which lists the jobs currently in
the queue (where the front of the queue is the top of the list). When
operating, the queue sequentially runs through the list of calculations in the
Pending Jobs list. When a calculation is running, its label in the list is
appended with - Running.
When a calculation has been completed it is moved into the Finished Jobs
list.
Calculations in the queue can be reordered using the queue position controls
at the top of the queue tab. The Up button moves the currently selected
calculation up the queue. The Down button moves the currently selected
calculation down the queue. The Remove button removes the currently
selected calculation from the queue. Deleting the currently running
calculation does not stop it from running.

Queue
Position
Controls
Pending
Jobs List
Finished
Jobs List
Timing Selection
Controls
Update
Interval
Control
Apply Timing Button
Figure 64 - Queue Tool
The Timing tab contains the options which control when the queue can run.
Timing can be controlled by time, date or a combination of both. The time
section allows the user to enable/disable time based operation and set the
start and stop times.
The date section allows the user to enable/disable date based operation and
set the start and stop dates.
Time and date based operations can be combined to specify that the queue
only runs between certain times between certain dates.
Note that limits imposed on the queue only affect new calculations starting. If
a calculation has started when the queue switches off, the calculation will not
be stopped and will run to completion no matter how long this may take.
The queue tool regularly checks for new calculations and checks to see
whether the currently running calculation has finished. The interval at which
these checks are made can be altered using the Update Interval control.

When either of the time, date or interval controls is changed, the Apply
button must be pressed in order for the changes to take effect.
The Options menu contains an Update option, which forces the queue tool
to check for new jobs and check on the status of the current job. Selecting
this menu item has no effect on the regular update interval.

VISUAL WORKSHOP Verification Tool
6. The Verification Tool

The Verification Tool provides an easy to use way of running the standard
verification tests shipped with the ANSWERS codes MCBEND, RANKERN
and MONK. It is intended that the user would use the tool once for each
ANSWERS code that has been installed, to test that installation has been
completed successfully.
For an ANSWERS code that has been installed in the standard ANSWERS
directory structure, operation of the Verification Tool will require little
additional effort.
The Verification Tool can be started by selecting Verification Tool from the
Tools menu (See Section 2.3.3).
The Verification Tool in Visual Workshop is a replacement for the Verification

Tool previously available in Launchpad. It is able to verify code versions
MCBEND10A, MONK8B and RANKERN14D and later. In order to correctly
verify the installation of some code versions a verification configuration file
will need to be downloaded and installed. Contact the ANSWERS Hotline or
look on the Visual Workshop FAQ page of the ANSWERS Customer Website
for more information.
6.1 Code Selection
Initially the Verification Tool (Figure 65) looks much like Launchpad with
controls available to select a code and code version and to set the space
(memory) to allocate the code for each run. The GUI also lists the folders it
has identified as containing the datsets files and reference outputs it will use
during verification and the working directory that test outputs will be written to.
These directories cannot be changed.
If, for the selected code version, the Verification Tool can read the contents of
the datsets and reference output directories, write to the working directory
and has found a validation configuration file then the Select button will be
enabled. Otherwise the Select button will be disabled and the Verification
Tool will display an error.
Clicking the Close button will close the Verification Tool.

Code
Selection
Select Close
Button Button
Figure 65 - Verification Tool Code Selection
When the Select button is pressed, the Verification Tool will load the
verification tests for the selected code and display them in a table along with
buttons for running the tests (Figure 66).
Test
Table
Start
Stop
Summary
Selection and Close
Buttons Buttons
Figure 66 - Verification Tool
The test results table lists the verification tests along with their status and
results. The columns show the following information:

VISUAL WORKSHOP Verification Tool
Column Description
Selected Contains a checkbox to allow the test to be selected
or deselected depending on whether it should be
run.
Title The name of the test.
Status The status of the test. This will commonly be one of
Not Selected, Queued, Running or Complete.
View Summary For completed tests, this contains a View link which
will display a dialog containing a summary of the run
tests. For tests which have failed, this will list the
reasons for failure.
<1, 1-2, 2-3, 3+ (MCBEND Only) If the case uses the built in verification function of
<2, 2-3, 3+ (RANKERN Only) MCBEND or RANKERN these columns will display
the number of those results that are;
<1 within 1
1-2 between 1 and 2
<2 within 2
2-3 between 2 and 3
3+ greater than 3
standard deviations from the reference result.

Result The test result.
The summary section indicates whether the overall verification has been
successful. For versions of MCBEND and RANKERN it also displays the
number of results that are between each Standard Deviation band and these
totals as a percentage.
The Select All and Select None buttons provide shortcuts for selecting or
deselecting all of the tests in the test set.
The Start and Stop buttons start and stop running the selected tests. The
Stop button will cause the test sequence to stop after any currently running
test has completed.
The Write Summary button saves a summary of the verification results. This
is a text based representation of the Verification Tool window at the time the
summary was requested.
Clicking the Close button will close the Verification Tool.


VISUAL WORKSHOP VRFORT Stand Alone
7. Running VRFORT in Standalone Mode

This section describes how to run the VRFORT ray trace visualisation engine
in standalone mode. This allows the stochastic estimation of the volumes of
geometry items within a MONK, MCBEND or RANKERN model.
VRFORT in standalone mode can perform the following functions:
Estimate the Material, Zone and Region volumes in a MONK, MCBEND

or RANKERN model.
Estimate body surface areas used in the model.
Estimate material volumes by Hole, Zone and Part and output these
results in a format suitable for specifying material volumes in a MONK
depletion calculation.
Perform checks for undefined of multiply defined regions in the FG
model.
Convert a tetrahedral mesh geometry file into a set of POLY bodies for
inclusion in a standard FG geometry model. Known as the TETPOLY
function.
The input syntax for VRFORT in standalone mode is keyword driven and
similar to that of MONK, MCBEND and RANKERN. The same FG tracking
routines as MONK, MCBEND and RANKERN are used to perform the
volumes estimation and geometry checking.
7.1 Location and Name of the VRFORT Standalone Code
The workhorse of the VRFORT stand alone program is the same dynamically
loaded VRFORT library that is used by Visual Workshop. The executable will
have a name of the form vrfort_<code name>.exe ( .out on Linux
systems) and should be located in the same directory as the dynamic library
with a name of the form libvrfort_<code name>.dll ( .so on Linux
systems). For example the RANKERN15A_RU1 code on windows would be:
Code vrfort_rankern15a_ru1.exe
Library vrfortlib_rankern15a_ru1.dll
These files may be located in the same directory as the assessment code, in
the above example this would be

..\ANSWERS\rankern15a_ru1\exec\
Alternatively, the files can be located in the Visual Workshop directory

system, as follows:
..\ANSWERS\visualworkshop3b_ru0\lib\windows\rankern\
7.2 Running Instructions
VRFORT in standalone mode uses the datsets file convention, as used by

MONK, MCBEND and RANKERN for assigning input & output files to the
calculation.
The following Input and Output channels are used:
Name Description
A complete or partial model input for MONK,

INPUT MCBEND or RANKERN containing the geometry
model.
VRFORTIN The input data for VRFORT.
The output from the model processing routines

VRFORTOUT
and the output of volume estimates.
Optional output of derived POLY data used by the

POLYOUT
TETPOLY or OBJ CONVERT options.
INTFACE A WIMS interface file.
OBJIN An OBJ format geometry file.
For convenience the channels VRFORTIN and VRFORTOUT can be added

to an existing datsets file for the assessment code. These extra channels
will be ignored by MONK, MCBEND or RANKERN.
The functions of multiple file input and paths file are processed correctly by
VRFORT so there is no requirement for further changes to the datsets file
used by the assessment code.
For large models it may be necessary to increase the space for the WRMS
array system using the space= command line argument as described in the
documentation for the assessment code.

The arguments for VRFORT are outlined below:
datsets=filename
or
jclfil=filename
Tells VRFORT the datsets file that details the Input/Output files. If this is
omitted the current working directory is searched for the default filename
datsets on Linux or datsets.lis on Windows.
paths=filename
This optional argument tells VRFORT the paths file to use. There is no
default.
space=value
This optional argument tells VRFORT to use an increased space for the main
WRMS array. The default value is 500,000 and the units are 4 byte words.
7.3 Methods of Volume Calculation
Two methods are available for estimating volumes with VRFORT. The first
allows makes use of the tracking algorithms which also allows a check for
multiple definitions to run at the same time. The second uses a peppering
method.
7.3.1 Tracking Method
In the first method an estimate of Zone, Region and Material volumes is

obtained by measuring the track lengths within it. A cuboidal volume is
defined by the user and a simple form of tracking is employed to evaluate the
contents. In performing such an evaluation no collisions need to be
processed, no energy changes occur, no reference is made to nuclear data
and no variance reduction is necessary. The tracking is therefore far simpler
and much faster than that used in a MCBEND, RANKERN or MONK
calculation.

Each track is initiated at a randomly selected point with randomly selected

direction cosines within the test volume. For simplicity, with no sacrifice of
generality, the test volumes in VRFORT are defined by surfaces normal to
the co-ordinate axes. Specification consists of six parameters input as pairs
of low and high co-ordinates in each dimension. Limits on the number of
tracks sampled, the time employed and the statistical precision achieved are
all available.
With these simple parameters established, the program ray-traces through

the FG model using the FG tracking routines and monitors the crossings of
Zone boundaries and associated Region or Material changes. Tracks
reaching the test volume boundaries are subjected to specular reflection.
For Zones containing Hole materials a different approach is required. When

a Zone containing a Hole material is reached, fixed interval steps across the
zone are taken and the material present at each step is identified using the
Hole processing routines. This information is used to create a track length for
each material encountered.
The boundaries of the test volume may cut some of the Zones of the FG
model leading to incomplete estimates of their volume. Zones touching the
outer surface are flagged to warn of this possibility.
The estimation of volumes for oddly-shaped scoring regions may be achieved

by enclosing such regions in a cuboid and taking sufficient samples to give an
acceptable accurate value. If the cuboid just encompasses the region of
interest then almost all tracks will pass through it. By this means accurate
results can normally be obtained for any particular area of interest without
recourse to excessive processing time.
If a particular part of a FG model is a complex general part then the volume

estimation option may be used to test thoroughly for tracking errors. Such
testing may avoid the situation where, in MCBEND or MONK, a particle finally
enters an obscure region for the first time, finds a geometry error and causes
a job failure.
For volume estimation the execution will be much faster if the option to
search for doubly defined zones is switched off. However this latter option
does result in a more thorough testing of the FG model.

The volumes of the zones/regions which have been input by the user are
compared with the values obtained by the VRFORT routine and a value of
C/M (VRFORT calculated/user measured) is provided to help assess the
accuracy. It is common for the zones/regions not used for scoring to be
assigned a volume of 1.0 (by the user, or by the code in some situations); this
can cause the value of C/M to be very large. In such cases C/M is assigned
the value 999.999.
The surface areas of faces of FG bodies may be evaluated for all bodies
within the test volume. It is not possible for the code to assess whether a
surface is entirely within the specified cuboid volume, although if the zone it
forms a part of is entirely within the cubic volume it is safe to assume that the
surface is also. The face numbers used to identify faces of FG bodies can be
found in section 7.5.
7.3.2 Peppering Method
The peppering method randomly chooses co-ordinates in the defined volume

and identifies which Material is present, which Hole it is in, which Zone it is in
and which Part it is in. At the end of the run the volumes can be determined
from the number of samples started, the volume of the box, and the number
of hits in each Material/ Hole/ Zone/ Part combination. The peppering
method is unable to determine if a zone is cut by the test volume, it is also
unable to test for multiple definitions.

7.4 Input Flow Charts for Volumes Calculations
Notes on Sheet 1
1. This feature sets the loop number to be used when the model to be
tested is loaded. It is the master loop number.
2. The random number generators used for sampling start points and
directions for pepper and track methods may be reset for each volume
calculation. By default the code uses fixed values 123 and 456 set once
at the start.
3. A search for parts of the problem space which have been allocated to
more than one FG zone may be requested or cancelled on each pass. By
default the option is off. The option retains its current setting until re-
defined. Note that the pepper method does not search for multiple
definitions.
4. Selects the method to be used when estimating the volumes. If the track
method is used then surface area estimation can also be requested.
5. The MVOLUMES keyword requests and output in MVOLUME form

suitable for MONK depletion calculations.

Sheet 1
LOOP NUMBER ILOOP Note 1
RANDOM NUMBER
GENERATORS Note 2
IR1 IR2
SEEK MULTIPLE DEFINITIONS
Note 3
CANCEL MD
TRACK VOLUMES PEPPER

VOLUMES
AND SURFACES Note 4
Continue
As with Sheet 2
Required
MVOLUMES Note 5
END

Notes on Sheet 2
1. The cuboid volume for the current test is entered in the form of low and
high values for each dimension X, Y and Z.
2. The calculation will stop when one of the maximum samples (NSAMS) or
the maximum time (NSECS) in seconds is reached.
3. The keyword SD selects the required standard deviation for specified

materials. Once the specified standard deviations are met for all
materials the calculation ends.
4. Two methods exist for specifying the required standard deviation. Either
the keyword ALL followed by the required percentage standard deviation
(e.g. 2.0 for 2%), or, the required percentage standard deviation followed
by the number of the material that it applies to. The ALL keyword refers
to positive numbered materials, excluding 0 and special/albedo materials.
Special/albedo materials can be included when material numbers are
listed individually.
5. The keyword LIMIT is used to specify additional input to stop the run after
a pre-determined number of tracks (NSAMPS) when the standard
deviation has been met for the materials that have actually been found.
Thus if a limit of 2000 tracks was specified, the code would stop
processing if for all the materials that have been found, the specified
standard deviation has already been reached. This allows the user to
specify standard deviations for materials that may not be in the cuboid
(sheet 2) that is being used. The code will still stop when the required
standard deviations for all other materials have been met.
6. The DIVISIONS option specifies how many divisions the cuboid should
be divided into when tracking Hole materials. This option only applies to
the Track method of volume estimation. The default value is 1000.
7. The REPORT option selects a number of samples after which a summary

giving material volumes and standard deviations will be printed. If this
option is used in conjunction with the SD option (to stop the calculation
when pre-determined limits have been reached) the code only checks
these limits when producing the report.

Sheet 2
Continue from Sheet 1
XLO XHI
YLO YHI Note 1
ZLO ZHI
NSAMS
Note 2
NSECS
SD Note 3
ALL PCNTSD As Note 4

PCNTSD MATNO Required
LIMIT
Note 5
NSAMPS
DIVISIONS Note 6
NDIV
REPORT Note 7
NSAMPS
Return to Sheet 1

7.5 FG Body Face Numbers
For the single face FG bodies SPHERE, XREL, XTORUS etc. the face
number is 3. For the bodies XP, IHS the face number is 1.
6 z
z
RB
y RT
H
1 ZL 4 2 x
y 3 1 2
YL 3
5 XL x
BOX XL YL ZL XCONE RB RT H
z
z 2
R
y
H x 5
H
y 4
1 2 1 3
3 L P Q
B
x
XROD R H
+XZPRISM B H L P Q
z
2
H
4
6 7
y x y
8 5
X D
3
z 1
y XHEX D H

7.6 The TETPOL Function
The TETPOL function converts a TETMESH file to a set of POLY bodies.

The format of the TETMESH is included in the description of the TETMESH
Hole in the MCBEND user guide, Chapter 9, Section 13.19 and MONK user
guide, Chapter 3, Section 13.21 and will include the following data:
Nodes defined by their coordinates
Tetrahedra defined by the node numbers at their four vertices
Bodies defined by their material content, the number of tetrahedra
within them and a list of tetrahedron numbers
Note that the TETPOL function must be used independently of any other
function of VRFORT in standalone mode and the separate flow chart for
input, see below, must be used.
7.6.1 Identifying Boundary Surfaces
The function identifies the faces of tetrahedra that are on the surface of each
body in the TETMESH file. A derived POLY body is defined by the node
numbers on its surface and a set of triplets of node numbers that form its
triangular facets.
Each tetrahedron in a TETMESH file can be processed to identify the

tetrahedra that neighbour its four faces - neighbours being tetrahedra that
have three nodes in common. If a face does not have a neighbour then it
forms a boundary facet of the derived POLY body.
Two bodies in a TETMESH file may share a common boundary in two ways.
The following sketches represent sections through a TETMESH
approximation of a water filled pipe.
Independent nodes Common nodes

for two bodies for two bodies

7.6.2 Input Flow Chart for the TETPOL Function
Notes on TETPOL Sheet 1
1. These coordinates will be written as the origin of each written POLY

body. The default is 0 0 0.
2. ZXY causes the coordinate triplets read from the TETMESH file to be
cycled such that: ZX; X Y; YZ.
YZX causes the coordinate triplets read from the TETMESH file to be
cycled such that: YX; Z Y; XZ
3. The coordinates read from the TETMESH file will be scaled xS to convert
from, say, mm to cm.
4. A voxel ratio R will be written in the header data of each POLY body. The
default is 6.0.
5. The POLY bodies will be written in the syntax of an FG CLUSTER part.

Otherwise the POLY bodies will be written as numbered bodies for use in
an FG general part.
6. A container body will be derived from the node coordinates. It will have
the designated shape and envelop the entire set of POLY bodies with a
clearance of 0.1cm. If CLUSTER has been specified the body will be
appended to the list of POLY bodies.
7. If the POLY data are written as a CLUSTER with a derived container

body the material associated with the container will be set to MAT. This
may be a name or a number.
8. If the materials in the TETMESH file are named and the POLY data are
written as a CLUSTER then the prefix STRING will be added to the
material names of each POLY body and, if it is named rather than
numbered, to the 'otherwise' material.
9. This part of the input, and in fact the only require part since all other
commands are optional, is the TETMESH file to be processed. This can
be pasted into the input data or another text file can be referenced using
the embedded file syntax.

TETPOL Sheet 1
BEGIN TETPOLY
ORIGIN
Note 1
X0 Y0 Z0
ZXY YZX Note 2
SCALE S Note 3
VRATIO R Note 4
CLUSTER Note 5
XROD YROD YROD BOX
Note 6
OTHERWISE MAT Note 7
PREFIX STRING Note 8
The TETMESH file.
Typically included using Note 9

embedded file syntax e.g.:
<FILE1
END

7.6.3 Example TETPOL Case
The datsets file:
VRFORTIN 01.dat ! input file

VRFORTOUT 01.out ! output file containing diagnostics
FILE1 model_1.msh ! a file containing a TETMESH model
POLYOUT poly.dat ! output containing processed poly bodies
The datsets file: 01.dat
BEGIN TETPOLY
otherwise 0 cluster ! control commands
ZXY prefix T01 ! control commands
ZROD VRATIO 6.0 ! control commands
<FILE1 ! embedded TETMESH file
END
7.7 The OBJ CONVERT Function
The OBJ CONVERT function converts an OBJ format geometry file to a set of
POLY bodies. It is very similar in function to the TETPOL option.
An OBJ format file is a geometry definition file that represents surfaces of

volumes as triangular polygons. It may contain the definition of many
separate volumes, making it more useful than the STL format which only
stores a single volume. Information about how a graphics package should
render each volume is stored in a separate .mtl file. This file is not required
by the OBJ CONVERT function but if references to it exist in the OBJ file they
will be used to generate alphanumeric material names for the created POLY
bodies when the CLUSTER option is used. This is a convenient way to
maintain material mappings from the CAD package that was used to export
the OBJ format file into the FG model.
Note that the OBJ CONVERT function must be used independently of any
other function of VRFORT in standalone mode and the separate flow chart for
input, see below, must be used.

7.7.1 The EXCLUDE option in the OBJ CONVERT function
The OBJ format file can contain surfaces that are complete volume definitions
and it can contain surfaces that are incomplete volumes. Only surfaces that
define complete volumes can be used in FG.
Cases have been encountered where complete volumes exist in the CAD file
and the exported OBJ file objects have occasional extra surfaces wrapping
parts of the complete volumes. For this situation and other possible
situations where incomplete surfaces exist an option is provided to exclude
these objects from the converted list of POLY bodies.
The process of converting an OBJ file would be as follows:

1. Convert the OBJ file using the OBJ converter option.
2. Add BEGIN MATERIAL GEOMETRY and PROVE N to the beginning
of the resulting file and END to the end of the file to change it into a
complete FG input data.
3. Load the file into VisualWorkshop for inspection.
If the ray trace image shows tracking errors these may be caused by
incomplete surfaces. This can be confirmed by viewing the offending body in
the wire frame which is able to view the incomplete surface.
To remedy the problem the offending POLY body can simply be deleted from
the file or the EXCLUDE option used to exclude the object from the
conversion process and the converter re-run. To identify the original object
st
the object number is included in a comment on the 1 line of each POLY
body.

7.7.2 Input Flow Chart for the OBJ CONVERT Function
Notes on OBJ CONVERT Sheet 1
1. These coordinates will be written as the origin of each written POLY

body. The default is 0 0 0.
2. The coordinates read from the OBJ file will be scaled xS to convert from,
say, mm to cm.
3. A voxel ratio R will be written in the header data of each POLY body. The
default is 6.0.
4. The POLY bodies will be written in the syntax of an FG CLUSTER part.

Otherwise the POLY bodies will be written as numbered bodies for use in
an FG general part.
5. A container body will be derived from the node coordinates. It will have
the designated shape and envelop the entire set of POLY bodies with a
clearance of 0.1cm. If CLUSTER has been specified the body will be
appended to the list of POLY bodies.
6. If the POLY data are written as a CLUSTER with a derived container

body the material associated with the container will be set to MAT. This
may be a name or a number.
7. If material references exist in the OBJ file and the POLY data are written
as a CLUSTER then the prefix STRING will be added to the material
names of each POLY body and, if it is named rather than numbered, to
the 'otherwise' material.
8. This option specifies a list of objects in the OBJ file that will be excluded
from the conversion. The objects are referenced by the sequence they
appear in the OBJ file.

OBJ CONVERTL Sheet 1
BEGIN OBJ CONVERT
ORIGIN
Note 1
X0 Y0 Z0
SCALE S Note 2
VRATIO R Note 3
CLUSTER Note 4
XROD YROD YROD BOX
Note 5
OTHERWISE MAT Note 6
PREFIX STRING Note 7
EXCLUDE
Note 8
list of object numbers
END

7.7.3 Example IBJ CONVERT Case
The datsets file:
VRFORTIN 01.dat ! input file

VRFORTOUT 01.out ! output file containing diagnostics
OBJIN example.obj ! a file containing an OBJ model
POLYOUT objpoly.dat ! output containing processed poly bodies
The datsets file: 01.dat
BEGIN OBJ CONVERT

ORIGIN 100. 0. 0. ! control commands
SCALE 0.5 ! control commands
otherwise 0 ! control commands
cluster ZROD ! control commands
prefix OM ! control commands
EXCLUDE 3 5 ! control commands
END
7.8 Support for WIMS Cactus 3D models
The VRFORT Volumes calculations can be performed on a WIMS model

containing a CACTUS3D geometry description. The TRACK method will
treat the CACTUS3D geometry as if it was a standard FG geometry. The
PEPPER method has additional functionality to estimate the volumes of the
WIMS regions and WIMS sub-meshes and provide a mapping between the
cactus region and the FG code zone. In addition, if a WIMS interface file is
provided; see section 7.2, the PEPPER method will also report the mapping
between the defined sub-meshes and the solution sub-meshes for the
calculation at that interface file.

VISUAL WORKSHOP Troubleshooting
8. Troubleshooting
This section describes problems that might be encountered when installing or
using Visual Workshop. For each problem, one or more possible solutions
are offered.
The list is not exhaustive. If encountered, any further problems and solutions
will be added to the ANSWERS Customer Website. If a solution cannot be
found in either this section or on the website, please contact the ANSWERS
Hotline.
The messages shown are displayed in the console window from which Visual
Workshop was launched. If you start Visual Workshop by double clicking
VisualWorkshop.exe on a Windows PC, a console window will open to
display such messages. If you start Visual Workshop by double clicking
VisualWorkshop in Linux, no console window will appear.
8.1 Start-up Problems
1. Visual Workshop freezes while loading graphics libraries:
On Windows, if when starting Visual Workshop, the applications freezes with

the splash screen displaying the message:
Loading Graphics Library...
This means that Visual Workshop cannot load one or more of the graphics
libraries it needs to run the 3D Wireframe View. This is because one or more
of the required Windows DLL libraries is missing.
When run from a DOS/Command prompt with debug on, Visual Workshop
may report the following message related to the problem:
This application has failed to start because the application

configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this
problem.
To fix the problem, install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable
Package (x86) which can be freely downloaded from the Microsoft website.

Troubleshooting VISUAL WORKSHOP
8.2 Display related problems
2. Environment variable DISPLAY not set (or not correctly) (A):
If you see a message of the form:
No X11 DISPLAY variable was set, but this program performed an

operation which requires it.
You may need to:
Check that environment variable DISPLAY is set correctly. Please see

Appendix C - Environment Variables for more details.
3. Environment variable DISPLAY not set (or not correctly) (B):
Xlib: connection to "hostname:0.0" refused by server

Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to
X11 window server using ' hostname:0' as the value of the DISPLAY
variable.
at sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment.initDisplay(Native Method)
You may need to:

4. Environment variable DISPLAY not set (or not correctly) (C):
Exception in thread "main" java.awt.HeadlessException:

No X11 DISPLAY variable was set, but this program performed an
operation which requires it. at
java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.checkHeadless(GraphicsEnvironment.java:159
)
You may need to:


5. Environment variable DISPLAY not set (or not correctly) (D):
Error: Cant open display
You may need to:

If environment variable DISPLAY is correctly set and there are still problems
you may need to enable remote access to the display using the UNIX xhost
command.
8.3 Problems detecting installed ANSWERS products
6. No ANSWERS products detected:
When Visual Workshop starts, it searches for installed versions of ANSWERS

products (currently MONK, MCBEND, RANKERN and WIMS).
If no ANSWERS products are detected by this search, Visual Workshop will

appear as shown in Figure 67 after start-up.
You may need to:
Check the environment variable ANSWERS_HOME has been set and is

correct. On a Windows PC, Visual Workshop will additionally search in
C:\answers as a default.

Figure 67 - Code Detection Error
When this error occurs:
Visual Workshop has been designed so that you do not need to have
ANSWERS products installed to be able to explore most of the Visual
Workshop functionality. Some options, like launching jobs, will only be
available if you have an appropriate ANSWERS product installed and visible
to Visual Workshop.
8.4 Problems while using Visual Workshop
7. Problems loading model files:
If, when loading a model file, you see a message of the form:
Exception in thread "Thread-6" java.lang.StackOverflowError
You may need to:
Increase the memory allocation. Some large models can cause the
Wireframe parser to require a large amount of memory. The default amount
of memory requested by Visual Workshop can be increased using the
following argument with Visual Workshop:
-J-Xmx400m (Sets the maximum heap space to 400MB)
Note: Visual Workshop uses a default memory allocation of 256MB

8. Problems starting the 2D or 3D ray trace (A):
If you see a message, when selecting the 3D or 2D ray trace tabs, of the
form:
AWT-EventQueue-0: java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load (Native

Method)
This means that the VRFORT library has been unable to run correctly. It
could be because an incorrect library has been used. Or, it may be
associated with the following message at the terminal at the DOS prompt
(Windows):
EdtExceptionHandler stepping in: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError:

\some path\libvrfort_name.dll
Not enough storage is available to process this command
This means that the computer does not have enough resources to load the
DLL. Possible solutions are to close other software and reduce the pre-
allocated JRE stack size (see Appendix B - Performance Start-up
Arguments).
If there is still a problem then the overall resource requirements of Visual

Workshop can be reduced by completely disabling wire frame processing
using the environment variable VW_DISABLE_WIREFRAME, see
Appendix C - Environment Variables.
9. Problems starting the 2D or 3D ray trace (B):
If you see a message, when selecting the 3D or 2D ray trace tabs, of the
form:
EdtExceptionHandler stepping in: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError:

\some path\libvrfort_name.dll: This application has failed to start
because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the
application may fix this problem.
This means that the VRFORT library cannot be loaded. This is because one
or more of the Windows DLL libraries is missing.
To fix the problem, install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable
Package (x86) which can be freely downloaded from the Microsoft website.

10. Problems loading models into the Ray Trace views on Linux:
If you see an error dialog, when loading a model or selecting the 3D or 2D ray
trace tabs, of the form:
WRMS Error ID:101 Error in RMSO. See the model log for details.
This can be caused by read only file permissions on the Visual Workshop
install directory or the directory containing the loaded input file. This problem
can be fixed by disabling the VRFORT pre-loader in the Preferences dialog or
by setting the TMPDIR environment variable to a writable directory.
11. Problems running standalone VRFORT on Linux:
If you see a message, when attempting to run standalone VRFORT, of the

form:
error while loading shared libraries: libVRFORT_code_name.so: cannot

open shared object file: No such file or directory
This means that the VRFORT library cannot be loaded. To fix the problem,
set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to the folder containing the
VRFORT executable.
8.5 Performance Considerations
While Visual Workshop should not have any problems loading and displaying
the majority of users models on a moderately powerful computer, there are a
few model features which can have more of an impact on application
performance than others
In general, the larger the number of parts and bodies a model has, the longer
it will take to load into the application and to display in the wireframe view.
Users should take into account that where a part is replicated in multiple
positions throughout a model, each replication is the equivalent to the
creation of a new part, so having 100 replications of one part will have the
same effect on performance as loading a model with 100 parts.

Additionally, the more complicated a model is, the more memory is required
to load and display the model. The use of subdivided parts, bodies or
meshes with a large number of subdivisions in one or more dimensions can
require a significant amount of memory in order to load and display, even if
the underlying model is small.
Users can improve the performance of Visual Workshop by allocating more

memory to the application as outlined in Appendix B - Performance Start-up
Arguments.
These problems affect the model parser and wireframe view more than the
ray trace views, so users encountering problems should consider disabling
the wireframe display using the environment variable outlined in Appendix C -
Environment Variables and using the ray trace views only to display their
model.
It is also important to note that the 3D Wireframe view and related results
display functionality are designed to be run in a hardware enabled graphics
environment such as on a desktop PC or laptop. Visual Workshop can be
used via a remote connection, however when run in this way, the
VW_DISABLE_WIREFRAME environment variable outlined in Appendix C -
Environment Variables should be used to disable the 3D Wireframe view as it
is not designed to be run remotely. The 2D Ray Trace and 3D Ray Trace
views can safely be used across a remote connection.

8.6 Ray Trace Output Files
As part of the VRFORT rendering process in the 2D Ray Trace and 3D Ray
Trace views, an output file is created which contains debug information and
which lists detected errors and double definitions. This output file can be
viewed by clicking the Output button on the 2D Ray Trace or 3D Ray Trace
view Info Toolbars.
In order for the 2D Ray Trace and 3D Ray Trace views to function correctly,
Visual Workshop must be able to write this output file somewhere on the file
system. To avoid file access permissions, Visual Workshop will attempt to
find a suitable folder in which to write the output file by searching down the
following list:
1. The current working directory (set in the Launchpad tab)

2. The directory containing the currently loaded input file
3. The /tmp temporary directory (Linux only)
If Visual Workshop does not have permission to write into any of the
directories above, it will attempt to write the output file contents to the screen.
In order to ensure that output file contents are available for checking for
errors, you must ensure that Visual Workshop and the current user has write
permissions for one of the directories listed.

VISUAL WORKSHOP Appendices
Appendices
Appendix A - Start-up Arguments
Visual Workshop accepts a number of command line arguments at start-up

which can be used to pass settings to the application and allow Visual
Workshop to be started in test mode.
These start-up arguments are outlined below:
[-debug] filename
Loads Visual Workshop with the specified filename already loaded.

Optionally starts debug mode which produces debug information in the
current Command Prompt/Terminal Window
-clean
Starts Visual Workshop without loading any saved configuration options.

This can be used to solve problems caused by a corrupted or incompatible
configuration file.
--enable-stereo
Enables the Fullscreen and Enable Stereo options on the 3D Wireframe

View.
-test launchpad [-automatic]
Starts the Launchpad auto-test system. Optionally runs the test sequence in
automatic mode which runs the tests, automatically creates a test report and
then exits.
[-vrfortlib code version] -test vrfort [-indicate on|off]

[-automatic|interactive]
Starts the VRFORT (Ray Trace) auto-test system. Optionally selects the
VRFORT library to load by specifying the code name and version to load a
compatible library for. Optionally specifies whether failures should be

Appendices VISUAL WORKSHOP
indicated on generated images, the default is on. Optionally selects
interactive mode which waits for the user to click the Start button before
commencing the tests.
-test parser
Starts the input parser auto-test system. This tests the input parser used to
read in data for the 3D Wireframe View.
-test wireframe [-automatic]
Starts the wireframe auto-test system. This tests the 3D Wireframe View.
-test wims2d [-automatic]
Starts the WIMS 2D view auto-test system. This test the WIMS 2D View.
Appendix B - Performance Start-up Arguments
It is possible to provide Visual Workshop with additional arguments which can

improve the performance of the application under certain circumstances.
These are outlined below:
Providing Additional Memory
In order to work with large models, it may be necessary to provide additional

memory to Visual Workshop for the parser and Wireframe view. This can be
done by adding an additional argument to the Visual Workshop launch
command, from:
VisualWorkshop.exe
To the following:
VisualWorkshop.exe -JXmx512m
This must be done before any specifying any arguments listed in Appendix A.

This launches Visual Workshop with an available 512MB of memory (The
default is 256MB). This value can be changed to suit the model being loaded
and the machine being used. It is important to note that this value should not
be made so large that it affects the performance of Visual Workshop or the
system as a whole. The error message:
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Not enough storage is

available to process this command
can appear when the specified value is too large and is stopping Visual
Workshop starting correctly.
When viewing models which use CAD in the 2D or 3D Ray Trace Views, it
may be necessary to supply additional memory for the CAD processing. This
can be done by adding an additional argument to the Visual Workshop launch
command, from:
VisualWorkshop.exe
To the following:
VisualWorkshop.exe -JXss10m
This must be done before any specifying any arguments listed in Appendix A.
Appendix C - Environment Variables
Change behaviour
The following environment variables can be used to alter the behaviour of

Visual Workshop:
VW_DISABLE_WIREFRAME
Setting this environment variable to the value 1 will prevent the WireFrame
display from initialising. The feature is to enable Visual Workshop to run on
systems with no 3D graphics (OpenGL) support.

Searching
The following environment variables control the way Visual Workshop looks
for other ANSWERS codes. They are in the form of a search path. On
windows each folder in the search path is separated with a ;. On Unix/Linux
the separator is :.
ANSWERS_HOME
This environment variable is used to provide a list of folders, in the standard
ANSWERS structure, to search for ANSWERS codes and data libraries. On
a Windows PC, Visual Workshop additionally checks in the default folder
c:\answers.
CODES_SEARCH
This environment variable is used to provide a list of additional folders to
search for ANSWERS codes.
LIBRARIES_SEARCH
This environment variable is used to provide a list of additional folders to
search for data libraries.
Appendix D - Supplied Examples
Visual Workshop is supplied with a number of example inputs designed to

exercise the various features and functions in the code. Example inputs and
outputs can be found in the \examples directory of the Visual Workshop
installation and are described below with a screenshot of the loaded model.

Alcon.dat
This example consists of a MCBEND input containing a geometry defined

using the depreciated Combinatorial Geometry unit.
Coffee.dat
This example consists of a geometry only model which uses hole geometry.

Duct-2o.dat
This example consists of a RANKERN input file which makes use of dose
points, scatter bodies and a complex source body.
Practical9o1.dat
This example consists of a MONK input file from the Introduction to MONK
course demonstrating the use of hole geometries.

Pwrhex.dat
This test case consists of a MCBEND model of a PWR Reactor sector. It is

provided with example collision log (pwrhex.clg), history log (pwrhex.hlg) and
source log (pwrhex.slg) files to demonstrate the event display functionality.
simpleDD.dat
This example consists of a geometry only model which contains double

definitions to demonstrate the Seek MD option of the 2D and 3D Ray Trace
views.

simpleDDbox.dat
This example consists of a geometry only model which contains double

definitions to demonstrate the Seek MD option of the 2D and 3D Ray Trace
views.
simpleUNDEF.dat
This example consists of a geometry only model which contains an undefined

region to demonstrate the Seek MD option of the 2D and 3D Ray Trace
views.

Skyshine.dat
This example consists of a RANKERN model and associated output file

(skyshine.out) which demonstrates the scatter contribution results display of
the 3D Wireframe View.
Ut-example.dat
This example consists of a MCBEND model which uses a Unified Tally body
for scoring. It is supplied with an output file (ut-example.out) which contains
Flux results scored in the Unified Tally body which demonstrates the 3D
Contour, 2D Contour and 2D Cell results display styles.

Workn6_full.dat
This example consists of a MCBEND model file from the Introduction to

MCBEND course. It is supplied with an output file (workn6_full.out) which
contains Flux results scored by region which demonstrates the ability to
graph results scored by region in the 2D and 3D Ray Trace views.
WorkShopFlaskSM.dat
This example consists of a modified version of workn6_full.dat which is set to

score Flux and Response in a splitting mesh. It is supplied with an output file
(WorkShopFlaskSM.out) which contains Flux and Response results scored in
an XYZ splitting mesh which demonstrates the 3D Contour, 2D Contour and
2D Cell results display styles.

VISUAL WORKSHOP ANSWERS Hotline
ANSWERS Hotline
Contact Details:
Technical Hotline telephone support

Password and Software Installation support +44 (0)1305 851240
Fax line support +44 (0)1305 851105

Email support [email protected]

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The ANSWERS

User Guide for Version 3B

ENQUIRIES ABOUT COPYRIGHT AND REPRODUCTION SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO:

The ANSWERS Software Service Manager,

Issue Date Section Description

1 Sept 2014 Original Issue for Version 3B

Issued by: T Fry

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VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 2 The ANSWERS Software Service

The ANSWERS Software Service 3 VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1

VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 4 The ANSWERS Software Service

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VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 6 The ANSWERS Software Service

To display a wire frame image of a models fractal geometry (FG)

The ANSWERS Software Service 7 VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1

1.2 Use of Views for Model Checking

The 3D Wireframe View should not be used to determine whether a models

VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 8 The ANSWERS Software Service

1.3 New Features in Version 3B

Support for WIMS10A_RU0

2D WIMS View Improvements

Support for CRITEX

Visual Workshop is now able to detect a CRITEX installation and

The ANSWERS Software Service 9 VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1

Support for MCBEND11A_RU0

The launchpad function of Visual Workshop has been updated so

Support for MONK10A_RU0

Support for WIMS9A_RU1

Results Display for RANKERN

The 3D Wireframe view can display RANKERN flux and activation

Ray Trace Results Display

The 3D Ray Trace view is able to display MCBEND flux and

VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 10 The ANSWERS Software Service

The 3D Wireframe view can now display the FG POLY Body

Visual Workshop now includes a version of the Launchpad

The new TETPOL function of VRFORT allows a TETMESH file to be

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VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1 12 The ANSWERS Software Service

2. The Visual Workshop GUI

2.1 Starting Visual Workshop

When Visual Workshop is started, it searches for installed ANSWERS codes

Figure 1 - Start-up Window

2.2 Main Window Overview

The window consists of a number of features:

A menu bar. (See Section 2.3)

The ANSWERS Software Service 13 VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1

Figure 2 - Main Window

By choosing an option in the preferences dialog (See Section 2.5), a sub-

Figure 3 - Main Window with Sub-View

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2.3 Main Window Menus

2.3.1 File Menu

Import Output File

Save Screen Image

The ANSWERS Software Service 15 VISUAL WORKSHOP Version 3B Issue 1

2.3.2 View Menu

Show Overview Tree