Change Log for Poisson Superfish

Following are changes, additions, and bug fixes in Poisson Superfish 
version 7.  The entries are in reverse chronological order.


February 7, 2007
Poisson Superfish Version 7.18.0001

Fixed bug in reading parameters for a frequency scan in CFISH

November 7, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.17.0001

Error messages 320, 321, 322, and 323 now advise how to recover if 
Automesh exceeds the maximum number of boundary points allocated for 
the problem.  Automesh estimates the number of fixed boundary points 
it will need from the number of &PO namelist regions and the number 
of line regions in the problem.  The estimate is usually much larger 
than actually needed, but files with a large number of overlapping 
regions may require a larger allocation.  New REG namelist variable 
BndMult, which must be 1.0 or greater, multiplies the initial estimate 
to increase the alllocation.

Error message 120 now works as intended (see 7.16.0001 below).



September 23, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0016

A new warning message 194 provides information about failure of the 
field interpolator caused when it encounters a zero determinant while
attempting to invert a matrix.  This warning may occur in SFO, SF7,
WSFplot or any of the tuning programs
 

In CFish, new warning message 195 occurs if the code encounters a zero 
determinant while attempting to attempting to fit the resonance circle.




September 22, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0014

Program SF7 no longer reports that Egun or Parmela files have been
created unless the file actually has been created.  Previously, the 
code reported that it created a file for Parmela when the SF.INI setting
MakeParmelaFile=Yes.  However, the file is only created for problems 
with cylindrical symmetry. 

Variable RootNameLength in the [SF7] section of SF.INI defines the number 
of characters of the name of the solution file to use for the root name 
of Tablplot files and output files for other codes.  The default setting 
is 6 characters.  The minimum is 2 characters and the maximum is 246
characters. 

SF7-created plot files and output files are no longer limited to 2-digit 
sequence numbers.

The tuning programs now allow long filenames for the Superfish files that
the code creates.   




September 6, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0013

When plotting programs Tablplot and Quikplot are launched from the Start 
menu (or from a batch file or Cmd.exe window without a filename on the 
command line), the codes will immediately display the Select file dialog 
window.  The name of the last file opened will appear in the "File name:" 
field if it still exists.  To open the last file automatically (bypassing 
the Select file dialog), set AlwaysBrowse=No in the [Quikplot] or [Tablplot] 
section of SF.INI.

Quikplot now displays on the status bar current values of SF.INI variables 
MaxDataSets and MaxPoints, and Tablplot displays variables MaxColumns and 
MaxLines. The status bar also shows progress as the it reads an input file. 
If the file contains more data than the current SF.INI settings, the status 
bar will indicate that the code is skipping some data, which may be helpful 
when reading large files.

The File Statistics item in the File pull-down menu in programs Quikplot 
and Tablplot reports information about the data file and current settings
in SF.INI.



August 31, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0012

Plotting programs Tablplot and Quikplot now implement the "NoConnect"
instruction on startup as described in the documentation.  The codes 
had been ignoring this keyword and line connecting points could only 
be changed from the program menu.
 


August 26, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0011

Instructions in the documentation for starting programs has been 
updated to reflect the fact that all codes are Windows programs and 
they can be started by double-click and right-click procedures.  
The information for some programs still described only command-line 
procedures.

FTP servers LAACG1.LANL.GOV and LAACG2.LANL.GOV have been retired.
Distribution is now by web download from:
http://laacg.lanl.gov/
The direct link to the Poisson Superfish download page is:
http://laacg.lanl.gov/laacg/services/download_sf.phtml



June 28, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0010

We fixed a bug in Automesh that occurred very rarely and usually
when called from one of the tuning codes.  The symptom was that the 
tuning code would abort a run indicating that Automesh reported
error 328 or 329.  These errors involve overflow of some internal 
arrays.  The actual problem was too tight a tolerance in comparing 
end-point coordinates to line region coordinates when tracing the 
logical path along a segment, which resulted in a failure to identify 
the mesh section containing the segment.



June 14, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0008

We updated the documentation for program SegField (file SFcodes3.doc)
and the description of the mesh-modification option in the Automesh
chapter (file SFcodes.doc).  When using SegField for this option, the 
user can extract data only for the mesh-point nodes by adding the 
line NodesOnly to the SegField input file.



May 10, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0007

We fixed a bug in the field interpolator for electrostatic problems 
with cylindrical symmetry, which was reported by a user at the Paul 
Scherrer Institut in Switzerland.  The code was not using special 
fitting functions near horizontal lines with either Neumann or 
Dirichlet boundaries.  In some cases, the interpolated results had 
large unphysical fluctuations in the field components. 



May 9, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0006

We fixed a bug in the tuning codes.  The code would stop with an 
error if the input file's complete pathname were longer than about 
80 characters.  Pathnames can now be 256 characters long as in other 
Poisson Superfish codes.

The field interpolator will no longer return interpolated fields for
points outside the problem geometry when the unit factor CONV is small
(for example, CONV=0.001 or less).  This bug could be seen when using 
WSFplot to view the fields at the cursor location.



April 5, 2005
Poisson Superfish Version 7.16.0001

Certain REG namelist variables in the Automesh input file should
only appear in the first REG namelist.  Previously, it was the user's
responsibility to heed the advice in the documentation to avoid 
potential problems.  Automesh now stops with error 120 if it finds
any of these particular variables after the first REG namelist.  The 
list of variables includes all of the line-region variables, boundary
conditions at the edges of the geometry, and KPROB, ICYLIN, XJFACT, 
DX, DY, RX, RY, CONV, MODE, XDRI, and YDRI.



February 14, 2005 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.15.0008

The installer now preserves user settings in SF.INI even if the 
line starts with a comment character (semicolon or exclamation 
mark).  Previously, if a user had commented a line in the file, 
the commented line would be preserved, but the original line with
its default setting would also appear in the new file.  This older 
behavior could lead to unexpected results.  For example, if the 
user included in the [Global] section of SF.INI an active version 
of a commented line in another section, the setting in the [Global]
section would be ignored.  The Mk_SFINI utility, if run separately 
after the installation, includes the same change.  



February 1, 2005 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.15.0007

We fixed a bug in the line parser used in all Poisson Superfish 
codes.  In previous versions, a tab character appearing in certain 
places could cause the parser to fail to recognize valid numerical
entries.  Tab characters between parameters was not a problem.  
However, a trailing tab or a tab between the last numerical 
parameter and a comment string (starting with either a semicolon 
or an exclamation mark) prevented the code from identifying the 
last numerical parameter as a number. 


The Beta utility program now lists beta, gamma, and energy in 
the results table.  The user can provide any one of these three
variables to solve for the other two variables.  These improvements 
were suggested by a Poisson Superfish user. 

Several new SF.INI settings select the initial display preferences 
for program Beta.



January 16, 2005 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.15.0005

Dialog windows for utility programs Beta and Kilpat now include 
an entry for the maximum number of significant digits to display 
for the particle velocity in Beta or for the Kilpatrick field in 
Kilpat.



January 13, 2005 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.15.0004

Stored values of particle rest-mass energies in postprocessor SFO 
and utility program Beta have been updated with the 2002 CODATA 
(Committee on Data for Science and Technology) recommended values.
For more information refer to the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) web pages (www.nist.gov). 

In program Beta, the user can choose to enter the particle mass 
either as rest-mass energy in MeV or a mass in amu. 

We updated the documentation for utility programs Beta and Kilpat
to reflect the Windows dialog format that has been in use for some 
time.  



January 5, 2005 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.15.0003

In SF7, a minor change in the format of lines written to .T7 files
(for Parmela) makes the output conform to the Parmela documentation.  
The change did not affect the performance of Parmela in any way.




December 3, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.15.0001

SFO will no longer issue warning message 182 if the particle velocity
beta computed from the problem geometry and cavity phase length is
only slightly larger than 1.0.  If the calculated value is between
1.0 and 1.00001, the code will set BETA = 1.0.  Users can change the 
permitted range by setting variable BetaTolerance in file SF.INI.
The default setting is BetaTolerance = 0.00001.

When tuning programs CCLfish, CDTfish, DTLfish, ELLfish, and MDTfish 
calculate BETA from the supplied cavity length, they check to see if 
the value lies within the range defined by the BetaTolerance setting 
in SF.INI. If so, then the code sets BETA = 1.0 and does not issue a
warning message. 

The SFO postprocessor issues warning messages 181, 182, 183, and 184
for unphysical values of the particle velocity.  These messages now 
list possible courses of action for preventing the warning from
occurring on future calculations.

Tuning programs CCLfish, CDTfish, DTLfish, ELLfish, and MDTfish now 
add the line "KMETHOD=1" to the REG namelist in Automesh input files.
This setting directs the SFO part of the calculation (and subsequent
runs using the stand-alone postprocessor SFO) to use the supplied 
value BETA to compute the wavenumber for transit-time factor 
integrals.  With this change we were able to eliminate REG namelist 
variable BETAD as it is no longer needed. (For backward compatibility,
Automesh now recognizes BETAD as a synonym for BETA.  However, the 
documentation no longer refers to BETAD.) These changes should not 
affect the results of tuning code calculations. Automesh input files
created by the tuning codes contain more detailed descriptions of 
REG namelist variables FREQ, FREQD, BETA, KMETHOD, and DPHI. 

We fixed a bug in ELLfish. Although the code was reading file SF.INI,
it was only using variables from the [Global] section of the file and 
it was not making use of variables in the [ELLfish] section because 
of a typographical error.
  


October 27, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0022

We added warning message 193 to Pandira to alert the user that the  
code cannot compute stored energy in permanent-magnet or anisotropic 
materials.  This feature may be available in a future release.  In
previous versions, the code would simple skip the calculation without
indicating why.  The pop-up warning is turned ON by default, but it 
may be disabled with the line "ShowWarning=-193" in the [Global] 
section of SF.INI.

Several warning messages were added to Automesh and Poisson starting 
with version 7.09 related to variable RHOGAM, an under-relaxation
parameter that limits the rate of change in the reluctivity at each
re-calculation.  Automesh will no longer give these warnings for 
problems that only Pandira can solve.  Poisson cannot solve problems 
containing permanent-magnet or anisotropic materials, and Pandira does 
not use RHOGAM.


October 13, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0021

For better readability in electrostatic problems that contain charge,
Automesh will now recognize REG namelist variable CHARGE as a synonym 
for CUR.

The ChargeDensity subdirectory under Examples\Electrostatic now 
contains several problem files that illustrate different ways to set
up problems with a charge or charge density.  The documentation (in
file SFexmpl2.doc) discusses these examples.

We fixed a bug in Automesh that affected electrostatic problems for 
Poisson or Pandira containing a charge region specified by variable CUR 
or one of its synonyms.  The bug did not affect problems that specified 
a charge density using variable DEN.  When A REG namelist in the 
Automesh input file contained a value for CUR, the code multiplied the 
charge/length by the permittivity of free space where it should have 
divided by it, making the charge too small by 22 orders of magnitude.


October 1, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0020

The SFO output file and the documentation have been updated to explain 
more clearly the transit-time factor integrals.   


September 27, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0017

The feature in SFO that generates a series of PMI files for a range 
of beta values was working correctly for multicell cavities, but it 
was not working for a single cavity.  This bug has been fixed, and it 
will now work for a single cavity.  


September 10, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0011

Beginning with version 7.00, the installer and utility program 
MK_SFINI.EXE would preserve settings in SF.INI that had been edited
by the user.  The codes will now also preserve any additional comment 
lines added by the user.


August 20, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0007

Eliminated support for environment variables SF7_Table, FishScan, and 
Tape40 left over from version 5 of Poisson Superfish.  The functions
performed by these setting have long been available using variables 
in SF.INI. 

SF7 now uses a different variable in SF.INI to indicate whether or
not to include the field interpolator fitting data in output file 
OUTSF7.TXT.  Variable ExpandedTable, which can be either Yes or No,
replaces variable SF7_Table.  When installing an update, the Setup 
program will make the conversion in an existing SF.INI file, and 
retain the user's current choice.
   


August 2, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0005

Fixed a formatting bug introduced in version 7.13.  Automesh again 
correctly reports the size of Y mesh spacings when line regions are 
used.  The code calculated the correct Y mesh intervals, but was 
reporting values for DXT on lines that said DYT.  



July 27, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0004

Fixed a few other formats in Automesh and SFO similar to the changes 
made for version 7.14.0003. 


July 14, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0003

In the output summary of powers and frequency shifts, SFO now writes 
variables with up to 5 significant figures for the physical coordinates 
and up to 4 significant figures for fields, powers, and frequencies.
In previous versions, if the table spanned a wide range of values 
(e.g., for power dissipation), very small values would show zero or
only one or two significant digits, and large values might not print
at all.


July 1, 2004 
Poisson Superfish Version 7.14.0002

The field interpolator in the dynamic link libraries (DLLs) runs slowly 
if the calling program switches between files very often.  At the 
suggestion of Tibor Kibedi of the Australian National University, an 
application now can keep open up to 4 different solution files if the 
program is linked with additional DLLs provided separately in WinZip 
file MultiDLL.zip on the LAACG FTP servers.  (The additional files are 
not part of the Poisson Superfish installation to avoid increasing the 
size of the installer by more than 40%.  Interested users should download 
file MultiDLL.zip and refer to Readme_xxx.txt files in the subdirectories 
of LANL\DeveloperFiles\PoissonSuperfish, where "xxx" stands for the 
subdirectory name.) 

To assist users in developing programs that call the field interpolator 
dynamic link library, the DLL now writes more diagnostic information when 
requested.  To use this feature, set REG namelist variable DiagDLL = 1 in 
the Automesh input file used to create the Poisson Superfish solution file.  

Documentation of the dynamic link library (DLL) has been updated (see file 
SFintro.doc).

We thank Peter de Castro of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator 
Laboratory for supplying an example source file for the Microsoft Visual 
C/C++ language system that calls the field interpolator DLL.  



June 14, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.13.0005

Poisson Superfish now uses Winteracter version 5.10f. The Fortran 
compiler remains Lahey/Fujistu Fortran 95 version 5.7d.

We fixed a bug in Automesh that affected problems with very small 
mesh dimensions (e.g., Xmax-Xmin less than 0.0001).  The bug was 
apparently introduced in Automesh version 7.09.  In the section 
where the code traces the path along circular or elliptical segments, 
Automesh was using a tolerance for comparisons based upon the smallest 
mesh interval. However, in that section of code, the coordinates have 
been scaled to a "logical plane" where a mesh interval is 1 unit 
regardless of the physical dimensions.  For very small dimensions,
the code stopped with error 360 because it could not satisfy a 
convergence requirement when computing the location of the next 
point along the arc.  

Program SFOtable now reads RFQfish-generated SFO files if keyword
CartesianCoordinates appears in the SFOtable control file.  Before,
the code would reach the end of SFO files unexpectedly because it
could not find items that are only calculated for problems with 
cylindrical symmetry (e.g., E0, transit-time factor, etc.) 

Program RFQfish now writes entries in the SFO output file (in the
list of tuning-code setup parameters) for the first eight 
parameters in the Data/EndData section. 

The Data/EndData section of RFQfish control files may include a 
tenth column supplied by the user.  The name of this data column 
appears on new keyword line ParameterName line near the beginning 
of the file.  If present, the value of the tenth column appears in 
the list of setup parameters in the SFO file. 

When more than one Poisson Superfish job runs simultaneously on the 
same machine, two programs could cause a sharing violation when opening
file SF.INI or other preference files.  The codes now check for this 
problem.  If unable to open SF.INI after a few tries, the codes will 
write a warning in the output text file and alert the user with a 
pop-up warning message.

The example file CVFInterp1.f90 that demonstrates how to create a 
Compaq Visual Fortran (CVF) program that calls the field interpolator
DLL has been updated. The new version contains compiler directives 
that allow compilation to proceed with all default compiler settings.
We thank Tibor Kibedi of the Australian National University for 
sending the updated example file.



April 7, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.12.0008

We fixed a formatting error in warning message 184 in SFO.



March 26, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.12.0006

In version 7.05, we added SF.INI variable Force1MVperMeter to 
control whether postprocessor SF7 normalizes the fields calculated
for Parmela to EZERO = 1.0 MV/m when running the code with a .IN7
input file.  It is now possible to specify whether or not to do
this normalization in the .IN7 file itself. If the new keyword 
Normalization appears on the Parmela command line for interpolating
on a grid, then SF7 forces EZERO = 1.0 MV/m. But, if the keyword 
NoNormalization appears, then the code uses the normalization 
computed by postprocessor SFO (or the default of H = 1000 A/m at
the driving point if SFO has not been run). For multiple sets of
interpolations in the same file, the last setting remains in 
effect until changed by another keyword.  



March 26, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.12.0004

We fixed a bug that could cause Automesh to crash if any 
single-point regions appeared in the Automesh input file before 
other regions containing the same point(s).

The POA namelist in Automesh input files now works correctly
for input units other than centimeters (CONV set to a value
other than 1.0).     

Tuning programs CCLfish, CDTfish, DTLfish, and ELLfish will now 
create an input control file for program ReadPMI under certain 
circumstances. ReadPMI is distributed with the Parmila program.
A tuning code creates this input file if ParmilaData = Yes 
in file SF.INI (indicating that the code should produce PMI files
containing transit-time factor integrals), and if the particle 
velocity always increases from one problem to the next, and if 
tuning code control file contains at least two problems.  The 
ReadPMI input file has extension .RDP.




March 16, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.11.0006

We removed an extra unused check box from the ConvertF dialog 
window.

When looking for file SF.INI, codes previously could fail to find 
SF.INI if the path to the working directory contained the name of 
the program.  This bug has been fixed.  The error did not occur 
if the working directory contained a copy of SF.INI, if the file
was in the location set by environment variable SFINI.
 



February 25, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.11.0005

Command lines in the sample batch files can now accept path names
that contain blank characters.  Previously, if a user installed 
the codes in a directory containing a blank character (e.g., in
Program Files), these batch files would not work.

 

February 22, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.11.0001

Program SF7 can now duplicate the feature in Poisson and Pandira 
that creates a 2-D field map for input to the Parmela program.
Using this feature does not require any settings in the Automesh
input file, nor any settings in file SF.INI. SF7 is now the 
preferred method for creating all three types of 2-D cylindrically
symmetric field maps: rf, magnetic, and electrostatic. 

Program SF7 has several new settings in file SF.INI that define
default values for most entries in the program's dialog window.

The SF7 dialog window now includes a browse button to find an 
input file when interpolating along a user-supplied curve and 
when reading a file containing command lines.
 
 


January 29, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.10.0002

We added a second permeability table for vanadium permendur and 
updated the documentation (file SFcodes.Doc) to give the source of 
both vanadium permendur tables.  




January 27, 2004
Poisson Superfish Version 7.10.0001

We fixed a bug and some other potential problems in programs that 
invert a tridiagonal matrix (Fish, CFish, Autofish, Pandira and 
tuning codes).  The changes affect mainly large problems that need 
to write temporary data to a disk file.  To invert the matrix, the 
code saves two arrays associated with M submatrices, where M is 
the larger of Kmax and Lmax.  One array has dimension N x M-1, 
where N is the smaller of Kmax and Lmax, and the other array has 
dimension N*N x M-1.  During each cycle, the code saves the arrays
to either memory or disk, then reads them back in reverse order.  
Previously, if a disk file were needed, both arrays were saved to 
the file.  Now the code always allocates memory to save the smaller 
array.  Some integer arithmetic that could overflow for very large 
problems has been replaced by floating-point calculations. 

Program ConvertF has a new check box that selects whether or not
the cavity ambient temperature and gas temperature should change 
together.



December 28, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.09.0001

Poisson Superfish now uses Winteracter version 5.10e. The Fortran 
compiler remains Lahey/Fujistu Fortran 95 version 5.7d. 

We fixed a serious bug in Automesh that would affect any problem with 
a very large number of mesh points.  The bug has been in all previous 
versions of Poisson Superfish, but only became apparent when people 
began to take advantage of modern powerful computers to run larger 
meshes than ever attempted in the past.  The trouble was in the part
of Automesh that was formerly a separate program known as "Lattice."
When assigning the interior points of the mesh the code included some
integer arithmetic that multiplied together four numbers that could 
be as large as (KMAX*LMAX)^2, where KMAX and LMAX are the number 
of mesh intervals in the X and Y directions.  For a mesh with equal 
intervals in both directions, this intermediate product would exceed
the largest positive 4-byte integer if both logical coordinates K and
L exceeded 215.  Oblong meshes were not as troublesome.  For example, 
a problem with KMAX = 462 and LMAX = 100 would not cause a problem.
The symptoms of this bug were varied.  The initial assignments of 
the interior points could result in a severely distorted mesh, but 
the successive over-relaxation optimization procedure, which tries 
to equalize triangle areas, might correct any problems.  In some 
cases, the problems could be so severe that Automesh was unable to 
resolve the mess and would issue an error message about overlapping 
or near-zero-area triangles.  Problems were less likely to occur if 
the geometry contained line regions.  The worst situation appears to
have been large expanses that lacked both line regions and features 
described by closed regions.

We fixed a potential problem in the line parser used in all Poisson
Superfish codes.  In previous versions, the line parser would attempt
to read as real variables certain character strings that did not 
represent numbers.  The codes will now recognize examples such as 
"100E0.2" or "1.0E+400" or "1.0E-400" as character strings rather 
than numbers.  Any decimal point must precede the "E" or "D" that 
signals a number in scientific notation.  Also, for numbers in 
scientific notation, the exponent must be in the range -307 to +307.  
This change should result in a useful error message if this sort of 
typographical error occurs in an input file.  

Poisson and Pandira problems now may select an internal permeability
table for vanadium permendur.  Potential users of this feature will 
also be interested in next few paragraphs. 

We have added documentation and some warning messages in Automesh 
and Poisson related to variable RHOGAM, which is an under-relaxation
parameter that limits the rate of change in the reluctivity at each
re-calculation.  The default value of 0.08 is usually near optimum 
for 1010 steel (the default material table), but it may be too 
large for some materials, in particular for vanadium permendur.  
Some problems may not converge if RHOGAM remains at the default 
value. 

Automesh issues warning 190 if under-relaxation parameter RHOGAM 
remains at its default setting when the internal permeability table 
for vanadium permendur is in use.  The pop-up warning is turned ON
by default, but it may be disabled with the line "ShowWarning=-190"
in the [Global] section of SF.INI. 

Automesh issues warning 191 if under-relaxation parameter RHOGAM 
remains at its default setting when a user-supplied permeability 
table is in use.  The pop-up warning is turned OFF by default, but
it may be enabled with the line "ShowWarning=191" in the [Global] 
section of SF.INI. 

Poisson issues warning 192 if the residuals RESIDA or RESIDI do 
not decrease steadily.  The warning message advises that a possible 
cause of the oscillation is too large a value for under-relaxation
parameter RHOGAM.  The pop-up warning is turned ON by default, and
will occur once after cycle 1000 if a residual has increased more 
than half the number of times that it has decreased.  The warning 
may be disabled with the line "ShowWarning=-192" in the [Global] 
section of SF.INI. 




December 14, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.08.0001

We fixed a bug in SFO reported by a user at SLAC. If the Automesh
input file included the NORM=3 option to normalize fields to the  
value of ASCALE, and if SFO read a .SEG file, the code would set 
ASCALE = 0 unless the .SEG file included a value for ASCALE.

Program Tablplot now changes the correct scale (X or Y) from 
linear to log or back when the menu item is selected.       
 



December 10, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.07.0002

We fixed a bug in several programs that resulted in truncated
names for some output files if the original Automesh input file 
had a name longer than 12 characters. The problem affected output 
files written by SFO, SF7, Poisson, and Pandira.



December 2, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.07.0001

We made some changes to the plot file FishScan.TBL written by 
programs Fish and CFish.  The column of sequence numbers, which 
was seldom of any use has been omitted.  CFish now writes both 
real and imaginary parts of D(k^2) and dH1, the field error at 
the driving point.

We made some changes in the complex root finder used by program 
CFish.  The code now counts the number of materials that have a 
nonzero imaginary part of either epsilon or mu.  If there are no 
complex materials, the root finder and convergence are the same as 
in program Fish.  With no complex materials, CFish does not attempt 
to fit a resonance circle to the driving-point field error data.  
It just returns the usual D(k^2) value.  If there are any complex 
materials, then the convergence criteria on the slope of D(k^2) 
being close to -1 is replaced by the requirement that the slope 
is negative.  During a resonance search, CFish will not test for 
convergence until it has enough data (3 cycles) to fit a circle 
to the driving-point field error in the complex plane.  The 
documentation (in file SFcodes.doc) includes a new section that 
discusses the complex root finder.

There are two new SF.INI variables related to the changes in the 
CFish code.  Variable CFishCirclePlot controls whether CFish writes 
an input file for program Quikplot to display fitted resonance 
circles at each cycle of a mode search.  Variable ScanFormatComplex 
controls whether the initial FishScan.TBL display shows a plot of 
the driving-point field error in the complex plane or a plot of D(k2)
versus frequency as it does for the results written by program Fish. 

If one uses the Escape key to stop program Fish or CFish while the 
code is performing a frequency scan, the output file OUTFIS.TXT 
will now contain all the calculated data.  The file was not closed 
properly if previous versions, so it was missing several lines of 
text.    

We failed to assign a number to two SFO error messages when Poisson 
Superfish version 7 was first released.  Error 600 now occurs if SFO 
cannot allocate arrays for boundary-point data.  Error 638 occurs if
the SFO input file contains an unrecognized keyword.

Program Tablplot has two new options.  The code can sort the data 
table by a specified column, and it can label individual data points 
by the values from a specified column.  The features can be activated 
by keywords in the input file or from menu items after the program 
starts.  When labeling points, the user can select which point to 
start with, how many points to skip between labeled points, the 
number of significant digits in the labels, and the label orientation 
angles. One use of these features is to view a trajectory of points 
in the X-Y plane as a function of some other variable.  For example, 
one may plot the rf reflection coefficient in the complex plane, but 
sort (and label, if desired) the plotted points according to the rf 
frequency.  



November 5, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.06.0002

Poisson Superfish now uses Winteracter version 5.10c. The Fortran 
compiler remains Lahey/Fujistu Fortran 95 version 5.7d. 




October 2, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.06.0001

For magnet problems, two new Automesh REG namelist variables instruct
Poisson and Pandira to compute a series of solutions for different 
values of the current multiplier XJFACT.  Variable XJFACT itself 
serves as the starting value for the series.  Variable XJFEND is the 
ending value and XJSTEPS is the number of steps in the series after 
the first calculation. The code saves output files with filenames 
that include the number in the series of calculations.  This feature
was suggested by a user at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

We noticed that two options from pre-1992 versions of Poisson could 
not be selected because the appropriate REG namelist variables were 
not recognized.  It is doubtful that the features are of much use, 
but nevertheless, we added the variables ICAL, IHDL, and ICYSEN to 
the REG namelist variables.  The limited documentation we could find 
for these features appears in sections under "Input options for 
Poisson and Pandira" in file SFcodes.Doc.




September 22, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.05.0001

New SF.INI variable Force1MVperMeter controls whether postprocessor
SF7 normalizes the fields calculated for Parmela to EZERO = 1.0 MV/m
when running the code with a .IN7 input file.  Previously, in order 
to turn off the 1-MV/m normalization, the user would have to use the 
dialog window and uncheck the box labeled "Force E0 = 1 MV/m." 
Variable Force1MVperMeter also defines the initial setting of the 
check box in the SF7 dialog window. 

We fixed a bug in the calculation of power losses and stored energy
for rectangular regions computed by SF7 and WSFplot. The area of 
some mesh triangles near corners of the rectangular region were 
being calculated incorrectly.  The bug was encountered only rarely 
because the only triangles affected were those that had one point 
outside the rectangular region and that point plus one other point 
were both exactly on one of the boundaries of the rectangular region.



September 12, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.04.0005

Poisson Superfish now uses Lahey/Fujistu Fortran 95 version 5.7d and 
Winteracter version 5.0g.
 


August 21, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.04.0003

Eliminated a divide-by-zero error in ConvertF that occurred when 
the cavity temperature and operating temperature were equal.  The 
error had no effect on results, except that the computed value of 
the expansion coefficient (which is not used in this case) would 
not correspond to the entered conditions.  The code now displays
a message indicating that the expansion coefficient is unreliable 
if the two temperature are equal.



August 11, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.04.0002

Error messages 384 and 386 include a clarifying comment about
the origin of the quantities XMIN, XMAX, YMIN, and YMAX.



July 3, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.04.0001

The preference files containing start-up settings written by plotting 
programs WSFplot, Quikplot, and Tablplot are now text files rather 
than binary files.  The codes will delete old copies of the binary
files (WSFDATA.PRF, Quikplot.PRF, Tablplot.PRF, Qplot95.PRF, and
Tplot95.PRF) when started in a directory contain these files.  The 
text filenames are WSFPRF.TXT, QplotPRF.TXT, and TplotPRF.TXT.



June 26, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.03.0002

We fixed a bug in SF7 that caused the code to crash on electrostatic 
problems when interpolating on a grid.

Poisson and Pandira now report the correct (positive) sign of the 
stored energy for electrostatic problems in Cartesian coordinates.  

We made a cosmetic change to the ConvertF dialog box to use a larger
display region for the results.  If a large Windows font size were 
in use, the results sometimes used more than one line per item. 



June 3, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.03.0001


We added a new namelist type in program Automesh. Variables in the 
POA namelist define a single-point boundary value at location XA,YA. 
The boundary value ASET corresponds to the vector potential Az (or 
Aphi) for magnet problems, voltage V for electrostatic problems, or 
the magnetic field Hz (or Hphi) for rf problems.  This feature restores 
a capability previously found in older versions of Poisson and Pandira. 
In version 4 and earlier, users could provide a list of logical 
coordinates and potential values directly to these solver programs. 
The present implementation defines the points using their physical 
coordinates instead of their logical coordinates, and the entries 
are part of the Automesh input file. 

We made the following improvements in ConvertF, the frequency conversion
program:
- Radio buttons replace previous scrolling text boxes to select ambient 
  gas and cavity material.
- Cavity material "Other" selects the user-supplied thermal expansion 
  coefficient in units corresponding to the current temperature input
  units (e.g., /deg F or /deg C).
- Results appear in color in a text box that allows the user to 
  highlight and copy text. 
- The computed expansion coefficient now appear in the results text
  box and also in the output file XFREQ.TXT. 
- Precision of frequency output changed from 10 Hz to 1 Hz.   
- Dialog box now has buttons to update results or stop the program.    
  (As in previous versions, changing entry fields also updates the 
  results automatically.) 


April 17, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.02.0001

We fixed a bug in Automesh that affected input files that use lines 
regions and also use units other than centimeters (CONV values other 
than 1.0).  The code could diagnose an error because line-region 
coordinates in user units were being compared with problem boundaries
in centimeters.

In Automesh, there is no longer a default value for variable KPROB. 
Users must set KPROB in the first REG namelist to define the problem
type.  The only allowed values are KPROB = 0 for a Poisson or Pandira 
problem, or KPROB = 1 for a Superfish problem. 



April 15, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.01.0000

We changed the way Automesh reads title lines from the input file.  The 
problem title still contains up to ten 80-character title lines, but there
can now be blank lines or comment lines (starting with a semicolon or an
exclamation mark) interspersed among title lines.  The code includes more
error checking when reading title lines and will write a warning message 
if the file contains no title lines or more than 10 title lines before the 
first REG namelist. 

The change discussed above also affects tuning programs.  If comment lines
appear in the Title/EndTitle section of a tuning-code control file, the 
code transfers these lines to subsequent control files, log files, and to
each Automesh input file.  Automesh ignores these comment lines and they
will not appear in output files written by Automesh, Fish or SFO. 



First release, April 4, 2003
Poisson Superfish Version 7.00.0006

Poisson Superfish now uses Lahey/Fujistu Fortran 95 version 5.7c and 
Winteracter version 5.0b.

We now provide files for several language systems that allow users to 
call the Poisson Superfish field interpolator from their own programs 
via a Windows dynamic link library (DLL). The supported languages are: 
- Absoft Fortran version 8.0 and later.
- Borland C++, version 5.0 and later (also works with Borland C).
- Borland Delphi, version 2.0 and later.
- Lahey Fortran 90, version 2.01 and later.
- Lahey/Fujitsu Fortran 95 (5.0 and later)
- Microsoft Visual C++, version 2.0 and later.
- Microsoft Visual Basic, version 4.0 and later.
Many Fortran compilers support linking with object modules made with one 
or more of these C languages, which provides a way for your Fortran code 
to call the DLL. The DLL for each language system appears in its own 
directory. The directory contains a dynamic link library (DLL), the 
object module used to create the DLL, an import library, and (if 
available) an example main program that calls the DLL. We continue to 
provide source files and a Fortran library for users of Lahey/Fujitsu 
Fortran 95 (version 5.7).

There is no practical limit except disk space for the size of a scratch 
file if needed by programs Fish, CFish, Pandira, or the tuning codes. The 
previous limit under Lahey LF90 was 2 GB.  The LF95 limit is 18 EB, nearly 
10 billion times larger. 

Variables XMAX, XMIN, YMIN, and YMAX are no longer needed in the Automesh 
input file.  Automesh computes these quantities from the first region's 
boundaries.  Automesh will issue warning messages if these variables appear 
in the input file.  Users may either remove the obsolete variables or 
disable the warning messages as described below. 

SF.INI settings MaxXLineRegions, MaxYLineRegions, MaxMaterialTables, and
MaxMaterials have all been eliminated.  Automesh, Autofish and the tuning 
programs now pre-parse input files to determine the required settings. The 
settings are passed to other codes in the Poisson Superfish solution file.

Poisson Superfish codes now have numbered error and warning messages. Users 
can enable or disable the pop-up warning messages.  Warnings still appear in 
the output text files.  To disable warnings about obsolete variables XMAX, 
XMIN, YMIN, and YMAX, add line "ShowWarning=-118,-119,-120,-121" to the 
[Global] section of SF.INI. 

Output text files will include the complete path to the executable file that 
created it.

Poisson, Pandira, and SF7 allow user configuration of the precision of field 
data in output files  written by Poisson, Pandira, and SF7 (OUTPOI.TXT, 
OUTPAN.TXT, and OUTSF7.TXT).

Because of the change in compilers from version 6 to version 7, the format 
of the Poisson Superfish solution file has changed. Version 7 codes will 
automatically translate old files to the LF95 binary file format.  The 
change is irreversible.

Double-clicking and right-clicking on files with registered extensions 
will now use the complete path to the executable files.  You would need 
to edit the setting (e.g., under Tools, Folder Options, File Types) if 
you want the operating system to search the PATH for the program.

When opening file SF.INI, programs no longer look on the PATH.  A code 
first looks in the current directory. Next, it checks environment variable 
SFINI for the directory containing SF.INI.  Last, it looks in the directory 
containing the executable file. The first file found is the one the program 
will use. 

Fixed a formatting error in Quikplot and Tablplot dialog boxes for displaying 
fitting results.  If the leading coefficient was negative, the minus sign did 
not appear.

Fixed the program menu displayed when plotting residuals of a fit in Quikplot 
and Tablplot.  The Hardcopy and Fit menu items were previously grayed out, but
are now available.  The only way to return from the residuals plot is to 
Select Fit, Residuals a second time.

Tablplot now include the option to "Plot only this column" when building a 
new data column in either the Edit Column dialog window or the Combine Column 
dialog window.

Error 200 previously stated that a file did not exist if a code could not 
open it.  The message now also mentions that the file may be in use by another 
application. 

MDTfish now sets Superfish variable EPSIK = 1.0E-8, which ensures that the 
solver produces an accurate result for very large problems. 

In the Poisson and Pandira chapter of the documentation, We added discussion 
about using these codes for conformally mapped problems.  

When SF.INI variable PrintBGammaTables=Yes, programs Poisson and Pandira will
now create Tablplot input files containing the material tables.  Previously,
this data would appear in output files OUTPOI.TXT or OUTPAN.TXT.

Programs SFO, SF7, and WSFplot have an improved algorithm for computing rf 
stored energy and power dissipation in dielectric and magnetic materials. 
In previous versions, only the power dissipation for problems solved by 
CFish handled multiple materials correctly, and for that calculation SF7
and WSFplot only included mesh triangles if the entire triangle was inside 
the rectangle that defined the integration limits. The stored energy and 
magnetic flux integrals in SF7 gave incorrect results if the integration 
grid spanned more than one material. The new procedure handles multiple 
materials.  If an integration limit cuts through mesh triangles, the codes 
include the portion of mesh triangles inside the integration area.  Program 
SF7 uses the same algorithm to compute the magnetic flux.