asms 2012, simion 8.1.1, capabilities

[David Manura]

For anyone attending ASMS 2012, I'll be available Mon-Wed at Scientific Instrument Services, Inc. booth #32 to answer user questions on SIMION. There's a long list of SIMION related ASMS posters at http://simion.com/docs/asms2012posters.pdf .

 

The latest 8.1 service pack capabilities (v8.1.1.x releases) are concisely summarized graphically at http://simion.com/docs/simion811_changes.pdf . Important progress has been made in SIMION over the last year. One 8.1 feature that is among the most important in years, but as-of-yet has not been widely utilized, pertains to order-of-magnitude accuracy improvements in Refine; you can look forward to 8.1.1.x software updates in the coming days and weeks that move this feature into the mainstream. Various other changes (a full list of which is at http://simion.com/changes ) render some assumptions about SIMION no longer valid. CAD import is more accurate. Voltage and geometry optimization can be programmed more robustly. We are now dabbling with dielectrics, improving space-charge, permeability, magnetic vector potential, asymmetric grid cells, 64-bit/multicore, and now surface enhancement. Custom plots can be made in the 3D window. Refines can be triggered from within a fly'm and PA's nested and refined dependently. The info web site and supplemental documentation have merged and multiplied in size. They'll be a new VM and text editor. The roadmap for the next major upgrade is also being planned out, recently reopening early access in preparation for trying out the next generation of capabilities (to-be-announced). We also have developments from one of our SIMION distributors who created the specialized SIMION add-on and CFD solver named Virtual Device; this application continues to mature, recently multiplying performance and in the upcoming release adding slip boundary conditions and improving usability.

 

The vision for 8.0 was a SIMION that modernized the user interface and laid a groundwork of programmability, upon which many interesting new examples developed. The vision for 8.1 has been a SIMION that on the surface looked fairly similar but internally was faster, more accurate, and more versatile (with emphasis on core Refine enhancements, APIs, and yet more examples/documentation). Looking forward, the next major version will continue a lot of these themes though probably have a stronger emphasis on user interface than 8.1 and perhaps introduce other themes.