VisIt 2.5.1 Release Notes

Welcome to VisIt's release notes page. Release 2.5.1 is primarily a bug fix release to release 2.5.0. It fixes additional bugs in release 2.5.0. Look here to see a complete list of changes in release 2.5.0.

Configuration changes in version 2.5.1

- Host profiles for LLNL's rhea and minos computers were removed since those computers were retired.
- Host profiles for LLNL's RZ computers, for running on RZ computers, no longer use rzgw. Host profiles for RZ computers for use with client/server continue to use rzgw as the gateway machine. End users should not notice a difference other than connecting to simulations now works on RZ computers.
- Host profiles were added for LLNL's atlas computer.
- Host profiles were added for LLNL's rzthriller computer.
- A "parallel pshort" launch profile was added to the host profiles for LLNL's zin computer.

Bugs fixed in version 2.5.1

- VisIt's SSH program qtssh.exe has been turned back into a console application to solve connectivity problems to LLNL's RZ network.
- A bug in the Silo reader that caused VisIt to malfunction with AMR datasets has been corrected.
- The XRayImage query now correctly handles 3D rectilinear meshes.
- The check on the maximum size that an image may be saved at was unnecessarily constraining in some situations. The new maximum size is now always 16384 by 16384.
- The GDAL reader no longer fails because of unsatisfied external symbols from HDF5. Build_visit was modified to build the GDAL library without HDF5 support since this functionality of the library was not being used.
- The Python CLI now works properly when installed for a single user on Windows.
- The temporary filename created for the batch script that launches a compute engine in the batch system has been modified so that it can no longer have spaces.
- Using the rubber-band zoom tool on Windows will no longer cause a crash.
- VisIt's viewer would sometimes hang when using the Change username window while logging into a remote computer.
- A type bug identified by clang in H5Part database plugin was resolved.
- VisIt's CMake build system detection logic for Python features was improved:
  - Python is now conditional on VISIT_PYTHON_SCRIPTING OR VISIT_PYTHON_FILTERS.
  - PySide is now conditional on VISIT_PYTHON_SCRIPTING
- Launching multiple VisIts simultaneously sometimes exhibited networking issues that prevented successful startup.
- Problems building a plugin against the installed version on Windows has been resolved.
- The dominant_mat expression could cause invalid material values (0's) to be present in its output when used with operations that could cause recentering or ghost-zone creation.

Enhancements in version 2.5.1

- VisIt's SSH program qtssh.exe, which enables VisIt to connect to remote computers on the Windows platform, has been upgraded. It is now based on a more recent version of PuTTY's plink program. This change enables much faster communication of results from the server to the client when VisIt is run in client/server mode.
- Paul Stewart contributed the BATL reader to visualize BATS-R-US/CRASH code output.
- The XRay Image query has been enhanced so that it can save images in BOV format.
- The CGNS reader is better able to read unsteady flow or deforming meshes. Thanks to Mickael Philit!
- The CGNS reader better supports meshes whose topological dimension does not match their spatial dimension (e.g. 2D meshes in 3D space). Thanks to Mickael Philit!
- The ANSYS reader was improved so it can handle more variation in the file's formatting.
- The Windows version of VisIt has been enhanced so the main executable programs that comprise VisIt contain more metadata. This enables Windows to provide more information about the VisIt programs to the user. For example, the program properties now show a description of the program as well as version. This change also enables the Windows Task Manager to show descriptive names for the VisIt executables, making it easier to determine the origin of the running programs.
- Further improvements were made to the splatting renderer in VisIt's Volume plot.
- The KeyframeAttributes type was exposed in the VisIt module so it can be created using a normal constructor.
- PySide is now enabled on Windows.
- From cli, pick no longer prints its output to terminal. It now returns a Python Dictionary of the results.
- Experimental support for crack free isosurface extraction from AMR data has been added. Adding the option -create-ghosts-for-t-intersections to the engine arguments makes it possible to use the AMRStitchCell operator (disabled by default, needs to be enabled manually) to extract continuous isosurfaces from AMR data (tested for BoxLib and Chombo).
- The VTK reader was enhanced so that it can read parallel VTK files. These are files with extensions "pvtu", "pvts", "pvtr", "pvti" and "pvtp".
- VisIt can now get the initial port number that it uses from the VISIT_INITIAL_PORT environment variable. The provided value must be an integer greater than or equal to 1024. VisIt normally starts looking for available ports at port 5600.
- The Windows version of VisIt's CLI supports a new -minimized command line argument that minimizes the CLI console window on startup.

Changes for VisIt developers in version 2.5.1

- VisIt now requires CMake 2.8.8 or later. Build_visit was modified to build CMake 2.8.8.

Click the following link to view the release notes for the previous version of VisIt: VisIt 2.5.0 Release Notes.