Graphical user interface for trace 3-D incorporating some expert system type features

A graphical user interface (GUI) has been developed for the beam transport program TRACE 3-D. The interface was developed on the Macintosh personal computer platform and emphasizes ease of initial problem setup and definition. Each of the sixteen types of transport elements (drifts, quadrupoles, etc.) available in TRACE 3-D, as well as the initial and final (for matching) beam emittance (Twiss) parameters, are represented by piece icons on a scrollable palette. The configuration of a beamline is set up visually by selecting and dragging (via mouse) the desired piece icons to a model window. Parameter values (drift lengths, quadrupole strengths, etc.) are entered into piece data windows for each element in the beam-line. Several expert system type rules are incorporated into the piece windows. The user can select any of several units for his input, including fixed units or dynamic scaled units. For example, any length parameter can be entered as millimeters, centimeters, meters, or fractions of βλ where β and λ are determined from the particle mass, initial beam energy and radiofrequency. All input parameters have built-in default values as well as lower and upper limits. The limits are soft (the user can input any value) but are used to alert the user visually when some of his input data may have impractical consequences. Examples of this include specifying a PMQ which requires an extremely high remnant field, or a RFQ cell with a very large Kilpatrick factor. Virtually all other input is set up graphically, including the selection of matching variables and coupling parameters. (author). 6 refs., 4 figs