An XML generic detector description system and geometry editor for the ATLAS detector at the LHC

In this paper we describe a software package which was developed to describe the ATLAS muon spectrometer. The package is based on a generic XML detector description (ATLAS Generic Detector Description, AGDD), and is used in the PERSINT visualization program and in a series of parsers, or converters which build a generic, transient geometry model which can be translated into commonly used geometry descriptions like Geant4, the ATLAS GeoModel, ROOT TGeo or others. The system presented allows for an easy, self descriptive approach to the detector description problem, for intuitive visualization and rapid turn-around: indeed, the results of the description process can be immediately fed into e.g. a Geant4 simulation for rapid prototyping. Examples of the current usage for the ATLAS detector description will be given and further developments needed to meet future requirements.