VisIt 1.3.4 Release Notes

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

Features added in version 1.3.4

- VisIt's automatic file grouping has been extended so that instead of being on or off, there are now three modes: on, off, and smart. The new smart file grouping mode performs the same as regular file grouping except that ALE3D files ending in .1, .2, .3, etc are not grouped into their own virtual databases. The file grouping mode is still set using controls in the File selection window. If you encounter errors using smart file grouping, you can revert back to regular file grouping or turn off file grouping.
- VisIt no longer has to regenerate a plot when adding time states to a database when refreshing the file list. Note that reopening a database will still force plots to be regenerated.
- Lineouts no longer sample data by default. The new behavior extracts the cell data along the line. The sampling behavior is still available in the Lineout operator attributes window.
- VisIt's Silo database reader plugin now supports databases that were written using Silo's HDF5 file writing mode.
- VisIt can now read OVERFLOW files, which are generated by a NASA CFD code.
- VisIt can now save tiled images that include the images from all of the vis windows that have plots.
- VisIt's Box tool has been changed so it has hotpoints at the center of each face of the box so it is easier to change the shape of the box in any axis-aligned direction.
- It is now much easier to make a movie using a parallel compute engine using "visit -movie". Information about the compute engine used in the session is now stored in the session file and "visit -movie" uses it to launch a similarly configured engine for making the movie.
- VisIt's 2D and 3D axes now show the axis titles that were stored in the database.
- VisIt now displays variable units in the legend if the units are known.
- You can now specify a directory where image files will be saved using the controls in the Set save options window. The Windows version of VisIt will now, by default, save images to the My images directory in the directory where VisIt was installed.
- The Subset window has been enhanced so it allows you to select multiple sets using the mouse and apply an action to all of the selected sets. The window still retains the ability to perform actions on all sets in a collection.
- Variable lists from Boxlib files are no longer sorted before they are inserted into the variable menus.
- VisIt now accurately reports the filenames for SILs that are served up from the Exodus database reader plugin.
- VisIt's PF3D reader has been rewritten so it will work for new style PF3D files.
- VisIt's CLI now ignores window sizes that are stored in session files so the -geometry command line argument will always take effect for sizing images.
- Changing time states with Mili databases is now much faster since VisIt is smarter about when it needs to read in connectivity arrays.
- VisIt now issues a warning message when you attempt to read in an old session file.
- VisIt's KullLite database reader plugin can now read in face lists and node lists.
- VisIt's KullLite database reader plugin can now read in 2D databases.
- VisIt's File panel always adds a root node when a database with multiple time states is in the selected file list so those databases can be collapsed.
- The 'enter' key now works in the File selection window for navigating directories and file selection.
- You can now set a preference that will prevent VisIt from prompting you about whether you want to apply an operator to plots that have no operators. You can set the preference in the Preferences window.
- VisIt's File panel now displays a horizontal scrollbar if any of the files in the list have long names.
- The exponentiation notation for the axis labels has been improved.
- You no longer have to specify the entire path when you use the -sessionfile argument with VisIt's GUI.
- The Set save options window now has a Save button that applies the settings and saves the active vis window.
- VisIt uses the new <iostream> instead of <iostream.h> to improve portability among newer compilers.
- The Window source distribution now provides project files for Microsoft Visual Studio 7 .NET 2003. The Windows version of VisIt is now built with the .NET compiler by default, though it can still be built with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.
- The Volume plot's hardware accelerated 3D texturing-based renderer is now available on the Windows platform.

Bugs fixed in version 1.3.4

- VisIt's Mili database reader plugin does not handle double precision data.
- The Histogram plot no longer causes VisIt to crash on the Windows platform.
- VisIt's viewer hangs when the CLI is run with the -defer argument.
- VisIt's compute engine crashes when calculating normals for some Ensight files.
- Scalable rendering requests made while VisIt is reopening a database cause the compute engine to crash.
- The matvf expression causes the compute engine to crash.
- VisIt cannot make a FilledBoundary plot from data in an Exodus database.
- Slices of Exodus databases are missing triangles.
- The Windows version of VisIt is unable to make a cross-machine connection to the PVC machine.
- Virtual databases can get out of sync when you work with more than one virtual database.
- The MinMax query sometimes gives incorrect results.
- Node pick does not handle slide surfaces well.
- The VariableByZone query's results do not always match the PickByZone query's results.
- Pick reports character data as integers instead of as characters.
- The Windows version of VisIt's viewer is unable to read very large messages.
- VisIt's Subset window is unable to display more than 3 panes.
- VisIt's GUI hangs when restoring a session file that uses data from a remote computer.
- The Slice operator projects 2D slices to the wrong coordinates.
- Various spelling errors have been corrected in VisIt's documentation.
- VisIt cannot open databases that have ".visit" in their path.
- Hosts are put at the bottom of the host list in the File selection window.
- The Windows version of VisIt crashes when accessing the revolved_mesh from a PDB (Flash) file.
- Text is drawn behind plots in images that have been saved off-screen.
- Commands from VisIt's CLI can be processed before the viewer is fully initialized, which sometimes leads to a race condition.
- Refreshing the file list does not seem to lengthen database correlations when there are new time states.
- The VariableSum query does not display the right variable units.
- Pick output material information for a matvf expression when it should have output the volume fraction.
- Lighting is sometimes disabled after data passes through the Box filter.
- The Reverse buttons in the Subset window no longer work when creating complex subsets.
- The file numbering for plot entries in the plot list does not match the currently selected files.
- VisIt malfunctioned when a window was specified for the output of a query over time.
- Domain logical coordinates for a zone don't seem to take into account the mesh metadata's cell origin.
- The viewer does not dispatch mouse events to the right interactor when panning in a 2D window.
- Can't set the save image with when auto update and maintain 1:1 aspect are enabled.
- The Cosmos++ database reader plugin has errors that cause the compute engine to crash when reading certain databases.
- If the first file in a directory can't be read then the directory is marked as non-readable in the File panel.
- VisIt reads connectivity information too often for Mili databases.
- VisIt's xml2python code generation tool uses the wrong buffer size in some of its autogenerated code.
- VisIt handles an unneeded scalable render request when choosing center of rotation.
- VisIt's CLI issues a warning about QPixmap when running in -nowin mode.
- VisIt cannot get element block information from Exodus files because the Exodus database reader plugin was doing its own material interface reconstruction.
- Smoothing of data does not play well with the Box and IsoSurface operators.
- The border around items in the Subset window is not drawn correctly for items that have turndowns.
- Some windows in VisIt put -0.000 in their text fields.
- Auto-determine which plot a plot atts is meant for when possible.
- Pick output inconsistent on a pc plot with no materials removed, and the same plot with materials removed.

Click the following link to view the release notes for the previous version of VisIt: VisIt 1.3.3 Release Notes.

Click the following link to view the release notes for the next version of VisIt: VisIt 1.3.5 Release Notes.