mc-tools

ROOT-based tools for FLUKA, PHITS and MCNP Monte Carlo codes

Project homepage: https://github.com/kbat/mc-tools

FLUKA

• Emacs syntax highlighting script for FLUKA input files (screenshot).
• fluka2root: tool that converts FLUKA binary output into ROOT format. It merges the data files using standard FLUKA tools, and then converts the merged files into a single ROOT file. To understand how to use it, try runing a standard example

  $FLUPRO/flutil/rfluka $FLUPRO/exmixed.inp

  and then execute fluka2root exmixed.inp. A more detailed tutorial is available in the wiki section.

• plotgeom2root script to convert the PLOTGEOM binary output into a TMultiGraph object.

Attention to the FLUKA.CERN users: these tools are primarily designed for the authentic FLUKA, with some effort made to support your fork as well. Any assistance in improving this compatibility is greately appreciated. See the Contacts section below.

MСNР

• Emacs syntax highlighting script for MCNP input files.
• An implementation of application programming interface (API) to read data from mctal files. It allows to convert mctal files into any format. Known issue: tallies with perturbation records are not supported.
  • mctal2root script converts mctal to ROOT format. The tallies are saved as THnSparse histograms. The same script can convert mctal to XML format via TXMLFile.
  • mctal2txt script shows an example how to convert an mctal file into an easily parsable ASCII file.
• WSSA file converters.
  • ssw2txt: converts WSSA phase space files into plain text. The comments in the script explain how to derive additional information (like particle type and surface crossed) from the WSSA records.
  • ssw2root: converts WSSA phase space files into a ROOT ntuple. The list of aliases defined in the tree can be printed by the TTree::GetListOfAliases()::Print() method. In particular, this list shows how to get particle type and surface number. This macro gives several simple examples how to analyse SSW files with ROOT.
• vol.py: a tool to facilitate input of volume/importance/probability values for all cells in geometry. To be used with cards like area, vol, imp, pd, dxc etc. For example, in order to set the volume of cell 5 to 3.14, cell 7 to 2.71 in a geometry of 10 cells total, run

  python $MCTOOLS/mctools/mcnp/vol.py -card vol -ntotal 10 -values "5 3.14 7 2.71" -default j

  This generates the required data card: vol 4j 3.1 j 2.7 3j.

• mcnpview: a wrapper around mcnp ip which allows to return to the selected geometry view in subsequent calls of the viewer. Find a detailed tutorial in the wiki section.

PHITS

• Emacs syntax highlighting script for PHITS input files.
• ANGEL to ROOT converter (converts the PHITS output into ROOT).
• A script rotate3dshow.py which allows to animate the output of the t-3dshow tally. It runs PHITS to generate many images, so one can get a rotating video of geometry setup. Example: snowman.gif (should be viewed with an image viewer which supports GIF animation). A simplified version of this script with a detailed manual can be downloaded from the PHITS website: http://phits.jaea.go.jp/examples.html

Generic tools

• A Python module to calculate atomic fractions of isotopes in a mixture for the given volume fractions of materials. Some examples can be found in mixtures.py.
• ace2root, a converter from ACE (a compact ENDF) to ROOT formats. It loops through all available cross-sections in an ACE file and saves them as TGraph objects. We use this simple script to visualise ENDF cross sections. Requires the PyNE toolkit to be installed.
  • See also: ACEtk
• hplot, an advanced TH3 histogram plotter. We use it to visualise data maps and superimpose them with Monte Carlo geometry. A detailed manual can be generted with the -h argument.

Requirements

• The ROOT-related scripts (file names end with *2root), require ROOT to be compiled with Python 3 support.
  • In order to check whether the Python support in ROOT is set up correctly, say import ROOT in the Python 3 shell. You should not see any error messages.
• hplot requires the Boost libraries and ROOT to be compiled with at least C++17 standard.
• ace2root needs the PyNE toolkit.
• If the GNU parallel tool is installed then the FLUKA merge and ROOT converter tools called by the fluka2root script will use all available cores which makes them run faster.
• Linux and MacOS are supported. We have never tried to use these tools on Windows.

Installation

1. Get the source code:
   • either git clone https://github.com/kbat/mc-tools.git
   • or download and uncompress https://github.com/kbat/mc-tools/archive/master.zip
2. Set the variable MCTOOLS to the folder where you have installed the code: export MCTOOLS=/path/to/mc-tools (specify the folder containing README.md)
3. Add the $MCTOOLS folder into $PYTHONPATH: export PYTHONPATH=$MCTOOLS:$PYTHONPATH
4. Add the $MCTOOLS/bin folder into your $PATH: export PATH=$MCTOOLS/bin:$PATH

Contacts

Konstantin Batkov, batkov [аt] gmail.com

Many thanks to

• Nicolò Borghi, for carefully implementing all my ideas in the mctal2root converter.
• Kazuyoshi Furutaka, for adding the pip installer and helping with the PHITS tools debugging.
• Esben & Troels, for the initial version of the SSW converter.
• Stuart Ansell, for endless discussions and amazing ideas.

See also

https://github.com/SAnsell/CombLayer

https://github.com/lanl/mcnptools

http://pyne.io

https://github.com/Lindt8/DCHAIN-Tools