VisIt 2.13 Release Notes

Welcome to VisIt's release notes page. This page describes the important enhancements and bug-fixes that were added to this release.

Sections

- Features for all users
- Features for advanced users
- Changes in GUI behavior
- Changes to file format readers
- Changes to plots
- Changes to operators
- Changes to expressions
- Changes to picks and queries
- Other bug fixes
- Configuration changes
- Changes for build_visit
- Changes for VisIt developers

General features added in version 2.13

- Database read/export options that contain enums will now be presented with the string form of the enum via the cli. Setting the option will accept an int or a valid string and print error messages if either is invalid for the option being set.
- The SeedMe window will now by default clear all forms when the window is closed. The Settings tab has a new checkbox Clear all tabs on close to control this option. If modified, the option will be saved in VisIt's config file when settings are saved.

Advanced features added in version 2.13

- Advanced Feature 1
- Advanced Feature 2

Changes in GUI behavior for version 2.13

- Fixed a problem where some buttons in the GUI intended to display variable menus were disabled. Under certain circumstances, this impacted, for example, the Scatter Plot Wizard making it impossible to select variables to plot.

File format reader changes in version 2.13

- EnSight reader was modified to handle variables not defined on all parts. Part descriptions are now used to fill out the SIL. Particles supplied in measured files are now supported as a separate mesh.
- The VTK reader was modified to fix a bug reading .pvti data.
- Fixed an issue with blank plots from SAMRAI data when ale/deformed mesh blocks are completely surrounded by a layer of ghost zones.
- New file reader for SPCTH (Spy) file format.

Changes to VisIt's plots in version 2.13

- Boundary plot had unused attributes in support of Point glyphing removed: pointSize, pointType, pointSizeVarEnabled, pointSizeVar, pointSizePixels. No-longer-needed attributes boundaryType and filledFlag were also removed. Old python scripts, session and config files with these attributes set should still work.
- FilledBoundary plot had no-longer-needed attributes removed: boundaryType, filledFlag. Old python scripts, session and config files with these attributes set should still work.
- Subset plot had no-longer-needed attribute filledFlag removed. Old python scripts, session and config files with this attribute set should still work.
- Possible breaking change! Legacy support for non-material (eg domains, levels) vars was removed from Boundary and FilledBoundary plots. Old session files and python scripts specifying non-material variables for Boundary or FilledBoundary plots will fail. Changing the plot type in scripts or session files to Subset should allow them to work.
- Possible breaking change! Legacy support for material vars was removed from the Subset plot. Old session files and python scripts specifying material variables for Subset plot will fail. Changing the plot type to FilledBoundary should allow them to work.

Changes to VisIt's operators in version 2.13

- The Threshold operator was enhanced to allow users to input a list of ranges to threshold a single variable on. For example, to only select zones with values in the range 1 to 5 and 7 to 10, you would specify "1:5, 7:10".

Changes to VisIt's expression language in version 2.13

- Expression Change 1
- Expression Change 2

Changes to VisIt's picks and queries in version 2.13

- The default for Queries that operate on either Original or Actual data has been changed from Original to Actual. This makes them consistent with all the other queries that only operate on Actual data. Affected Queries include Min, Max, MinMax, NumNodes, NumZones and Spatial Extents. In the GUI, you will notice that the Actual Data button is the one activated by default for these queries, and from the cli, the use_actual_data parameter defaults to 1 if not set explicitly. This will also affect QueryOverTime for any of these queries.
- Pick's error messaging was improved to prevent messages regarding expressions unrelated to the current Pick or the current problem it encountered.
- NodePick failure with certain datasets was fixed.
- Fixed the problem where NodePick of Sliced Boundary plot would place pick letter in wrong location.
- Accuracy and performance of picking on lines/line meshes in 3D has been improved.
- Fixed query-over-time when running in parallel to only create a single curve for each result.
- Corrected a bug with the XRay Image query, where the data type for bov output was incorrectly set to float in the case where the intensities were double or integer.
- Enhanced pick highlights to overlay so internal zones can be seen
- Added PickByZoneLabel and PickByNodeLabel for databases that support labels
- Fixed memory error with using pick highlights that could cause an engine crash
- Picking ranges of elements from the cli now returns a python dictionary of results indexed by element id or label

Other bugs fixed in version 2.13

- VTK export options have been modified to more explicitly state the combination of Legacy+[Ascii/Binary], XML+[Ascii/Binary]
- Removed "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) rz network" from the list of network configurations to install when installing on Windows since that configuration only works when running VisIt directly on the rz machines.
- Fixed documentation regarding Eigenvector and Eigenvalue expression functions to indicate that they work for only symmetric cases. In addition, added documentation that the Eigenvector expression result must be transposed in order to use the component index operator to access a given eigenvector.
- Fixed parallel-engine crash on Windows when using transparency in Scalable rendering mode.

Configuration changes in version 2.12

- Host profiles were removed for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories' Rzmerl and Rzzeus systems, which were retired.
- Host profiles for running client/server to machines at TACC were removed. Users should use VNC instead as described here.

Build features added in version 2.13

- Build_visit has been enhanced to support OpenSWR. OpenSWR is an Intel software renderer that is now part of Mesa. OpenSWR should not be enabled with mesa. To enable OpenSWR add the following flags "--llvm --openswr" to the command line. When you build visit with OpenSWR support it will use the Mesa llvmpipe renderer by default. To enable the OpenSWR renderer you will need to set the GALLIUM_DRIVER environment variable to swr (e.g. "setenv GALLIUM_DRIVER swr"). When VisIt runs with OpenSWR it will print AVX or AVX2 to the terminal depending on the type of Intel CPU you are running on.
- Build Feature 2

Changes for VisIt developers in version 2.13

- PySide 2 has been added to build_visit when Qt 5 is chosen.
- Build_visit has been updated to build CMake version 3.8.1.
- Build_visit no longer has a gui option.
- The spelling of the CHECK_THIRDPARTY_SATISFIED cmake macro has been corrected (CHECK_THIRDPARTY_SATISIFED to CHECK_THIRDPARTY_SATISFIED).

Click the following link to view the release notes for the previous version of VisIt: 2.12.3.