CCC-0767 SWORD 4.0.

1. NAME OR DESIGNATION OF PROGRAM:  SWORD Version 4.0-Beta Build 5435

3. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM OR FUNCTION

SoftWare for Optimization of Radiation Detectors (SWORD) is a framework to allow easy simulation and evaluation of radiation detection systems. It is targeted at system designers, who want to evaluate and optimize system parameters without actually building hardware first, at sponsors who need to evaluate proposed or actual system designs independent of the supplier, without having access to actual hardware, and at operators who want to use simulation to evaluate observed phenomena.

SWORD is vertically integrated and modular. It allows users to define their own radiation detection instruments by building them from basic geometric 'objects' and assigning those objects materials, detection, and/or radioactive emission properties. This process is accomplished by a CAD-like graphical user interface, in which objects may be defined, translated, rotated, grouped, arrayed, and/or nested to produce compound objects. In addition to providing the ability to build a detection system model from scratch, SWORD provides a library of 'standard' detector design objects that can be used 'as is' or modified by the user.  

Changes from version 3.2 Beta to 4.0 Beta:

Moving object simulation
Run Manager for managing multi-core runs
Standard library tab reorganized
Standard library objects added and/or improved
Improved image viewer with containment circle calculation
Spectrum Analyzer line fitting and identification tool
Improved array handling for imaging detectors
Improved Compton imager analysis to allow unrestricted image plane selection
Coded Aperture imager analysis improvements
Analysis setup window rearranged and expanded
Coded Aperture mask definition by file input
Surface shooting towards inside of object
Improved surface and volume shooting support for MCNPX
Muonic x-ray shot type
Neutron and proton energy cut-offs user-adjustable for Geant4
MCNPX tally parsing rewritten to work from MCTAL file
Added perspective view to main geometry viewer window
Added white background option to geometry viewer
User can specify flux.dat and heprep file names
Virtual machine OS upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04

4. METHODS

Using existing Monte Carlo radiation transport codes, SWORD supplies a vertically integrated framework for creating models, assigning emission spectra, running the MC code and analyzing the results. The user interface is independent of the chosen MC engine.

SWORD gives the user the option of running his simulation using one of two well-known known simulation engines: GEANT 4 from CERN (Version 8.1 included in package distribution) and MCNPX. In general, the SWORD workflow consists of four steps:
- Design the scenario. In this step, all the geometric elements of the simulation are defined, together with material properties, radioactive emission and detector properties. The tool used here is the SWORD geometry builder, a CAD-like graphical tool.
- Configure the run. Here, all the simulation run parameters are defined. This includes simulated duration, which analysis processes will be run, and what outputs will be produced.
- Run the simulation. Normally this is done from within the SWORD interface. However, SWORD can also be run in 'batch' mode without graphical interfaces. The latter is useful for running high compute time runs on high performance machines.
- Examine the results. Spectra and images are output as ASCII text files. SWORD provides interactive viewers for spectra and images. Alternatively, the output files can be read and analyzed using a variety of software tools such as spreadsheet programs.

5. RESTRICTIONS ON THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM

This is beta code. It has been tested and has no known issues, but users should keep in mind that it is beta code.

6. TYPICAL RUNNING TIME

Run time varies depending on complexity of models and statistics of simulation run.

8. RELATED OR AUXILIARY PROGRAMS


AUXILIARY LIBRARIES INCLUDED:
GEANT 4 V8.1
CLHEP 1.9.2.3
HepPDT 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004
G4EMLOW 4.2
G4NDL 3.10
G4LECS 1.0.7
PHOTON EVAPORATION 2.0
RADIOACTIVE DECAY 3.1

AUXILIARY PROGRAMS INCLUDED:
BOOST 1.33
FREEGLUT 2.4.0
JAS3 8.3
XSD 3.1.0
XERCES_C 2.8.0

10. REFERENCES

- E. I. Novikova, M. S. Strickman, et al. (2006):
Designing SWORD - SoftWare for the Optimization of Radiation Detectors, IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record 1: 607-612.
- C. S. Gwon, E. I. Novikova, et al. (2007):
Interacting with the SWORD package (SoftWare for the Optimization of Radiation Detectors), IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record 2: 1130-1133.

- SWORD Reference Guide: SWORD Version 4.0-Beta Build 5435 (9 April 2012)
- SWORD Installation and Tutorial Guide: SWORD Version 4.0-Beta Build 5435
(9 April 2012)

11. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

Any Intel-based Windows, Linux or Mac OSX platform with at least 3 GB of RAM and 30 GB of free disk space (see software requirements).

13. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

Current distribution is available as a VMware virtual appliance only. It can run under free VMware server or player (player recommended) on a Windows or Linux host or under the VMware Fusion (http://www.vmware.com/, purchase only) on an Intel-based Mac OSX host.

Installation instructions are included in the provided documentation.  Users should be aware that current versions of the MCNPX precompiled executables will not work with this version of SWORD. If the user desires to use MCNPX with SWORD, the user will have to cross-compile MCNPX.

15. NAME AND ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTHORS

Contributed by: Radiation Shielding Information Computational Center
                Oak Ridge National Laboratory
                Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
Developed by:   Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA

                This package contains GEANT4 V8.1 which was developed at
                CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research),
                Geneve, Switzerland

virtual appliance
reference
installation and tutorial guides
XERCES_C 2.8.0