[Paraview-developers] ANN: ParaView 4.0.1 is available for download

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Folks,

ParaView 4.0.1 is now available for download
(http://paraview.org/paraview/resources/software.php). For those looking to
checkout the source
from  the git repository, the tag name is "v4.0.1" (or simply use the
"release" branch).
This release marks the first change in the major version number since 2007.
Unlike the change
from 2 to 3, however, this release is not a major departure from the 3
series, but marks a
milestone in the gradual progression of ParaView UI and framework since
2007.
These notes highlight some of the major enhacements in this version that
addresses over 100 issues since the most recent release
(http://paraview.org/Bug/changelog_page.php). ParaView 4.0.1 is based on
VTK 6.0
and hence includes all the fixes and enhancements that went into the VTK 6.0
release. (If you're wondering what happened to 4.0.0: we nabbed an issue as
the binaries
were being built for 4.0.0 and hence we decided to put out 4.0.1 instead).

*Enhancements for Visualizing Multi-block Datasets*
This release introduces a new way for interacting with multi-block datasets,
making it easier to change display parameters such as visibility, color, and
opacity for multi-block datasets. Using the Multi-Block Inspector, users
can now
specify such properties on a per-block basis. By treating the multi-block
hierarchy as a basic scene-graph, properties specifications can be
inherited,
thus avoiding the need to explicitly specify overrides for all blocks.

Block properties can also be changed using the context menu in the 3D view.
By
selecting multiple blocks, one can change properties for all the selected
blocks
using the context menu. Refer to this blog post to get started
(http://www.kitware.com/blog/posts/view/503).

*Enhancements to the Properties Panel*
The Properties panel has been undergoing changes in the past few releases.
This
release includes further cleanups, bug-fixes and enhancements including a
newer
and cleaner look for the Properties panel with the ability to  group widgets
based on functionality. The plugin framework has now been extended to enable
users to add custom widgets for the new properties panel. Refer to this blog
post covering how to effectively use the new panel
(http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/491). Developers are referred to
ParaView
Wiki (http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Properties_Panel) for additional
details.

*Extended annotations with mathtext*
One of the most requested features on ParaView User Voice (
http://paraview.uservoice.com)
was the ability to add mathematical markup to annotation text. ParaView can
now
use the equation rendering support in the matplotlib package to generate
mathematical equations in selected text fields. The support for mathtext was
added in 3.98 and has been expanded in this release to include chart titles,
scalar bar title and labels, along with text sources. ParaView binaries come
bundled with matplotlib. Siimply use $<math-text>$ as the text to use.
Anything
containing the $...$ symbols will be treated as math-text and rendered using
matplotlib. Refer to this blog post (
http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/509).

*Exporting vector graphics*
One of the most requested features on ParaView User Voice
(http://paraview.uservoice.com) was to add support for vector graphics. With
this release, it is now possible to export scenes from 3D views and charts
as
postscript, eps, pdf, or svg vector graphics. All text and annotations such
as
scalar bars, cube-axes, and curves in charts are exported as vector
graphics,
thus ensuring crisp reproduction for publications. 3D surfaces and volumes,
however, must remain embedded as a rasterized image in the resulting output
file. Refer to this blog post for more details
(http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/508).

*Completely redesigned ParaViewWeb*
Using Web-based technologies for 3D interactive visualization is now easier
than
ever before with the totally redesigned ParaViewWeb. ParaViewWeb is a
collection
of components that enables the use of ParaView's visualization and data
analysis
capabilities within Web applications and is now simply a part of ParaView
source
(and binary) packages. Using the latest HTML 5.0 based technologies, such as
WebSocket, and WebGL, ParaViewWeb enables communication with a ParaView
server
running on a remote visualization node or cluster using a lightweight
JavaScript
API. Using this API, Web applications can easily embed interactive 3D
visualization components. Application developers can write simple Python
scripts
to extend the server capabilities including creating custom visualization
pipelines. Updated documentation and examples coming soon, so stay tuned.

*Enhancement to CoProcessing Modules*
ParaView’s CoProcessing support has undergone several usability improvements
with the ability to build adapters externally, and cleanups to the Python
coprocessing modules and scripts. Additional details will soon be available
in
form a Catalyst/CoProcessing Users Guide in the near future.

*Improvements to Scalar Bar (Color Legend)*
We have added several new enhancements to scalar bar in this release.
Besides
general improvements in the appearance and label rendering, the scalar bar
now
has the ability to accept MathText (similar to LaTeX) for the title,
subtitle,
and annotation text. Similar to including MathText in chart titles and text
sources in previous release, any text that enclosed within dollar ($) signs,
($...$) will be presumed to be MathText. This requires Python support with
matplotlib available, which is included in the distributed binaries. You
can now
include Greek letters and other math symbols in your legend.

Another new feature is that colormaps may now be marked to indicate that
their
domains are ratio or interval-scaled (i.e., continuous, as in previous
versions
of ParaView) or categorical (also called nominal). Categorical colormaps
are not
shown as a continuous range of colors but as a discrete set of color
swatches.
You may set the text to accompany each value in the Annotations tab of the
color
legend editor. Arrays that hold categorical data (where there are no more
than
32 unique values stored across all array entries) will automatically have
annotations added when you open the color legend editor. When switching a
colormap between ratio and categorical modes, the color set-points in the
continuous color bar are used as the colors to assign to categorical
values; the
default blue-to-red colormap has only 2 color set-points, so if you switch
from
this preset to a categorical colormap, you will see only 2 color swatches:
red
and blue. However, another new feature is that several categorical colormap
presets have been added, including the Brewer palettes. You may wish to
choose
one of these presets (which will automatically switch the colormap to
categorical mode).

*Documentation*
Starting with this release, we will now be providing online documentation
for
the Python and JavaScript API along with the C++ API online. The
documentation
can be accessed from
http://www.paraview.org/paraview/help/api-documentation.html.

*Nightly binaries*
For users interested into trying out the latest and greatest developments
for
ParaView as the development team works on them without building from source,
they can download the nightly builds from the ParaView download page
(http://paraview.org//paraview/resources/software.php).

As always, we look forward to your feedback (http://paraview.uservoice.com).
Also stay tuned to the Kitware Blog (http://www.kitware.com/blog/) for more
details on Catalyst and ParaViewWeb.

*The ParaView Team*
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