[Paraview] ANN: ParaView 3.10.0 RC-1 Available for download

[David Partyka]

Hello All,

The ParaView team is pleased to announce the availability of the ParaView
3.10.0 Release Candidate 1 binaries for download on the ParaView download
page. The 32bit Linux binary is still missing after a package generation
snafu but will be available shortly. Also, Final 3.10 binaries should be
available within the next week or two if all goes well.

http://paraview.org/paraview/resources/software.html

Release Notes:

ParaView 3.10

This release features notable developments, including mechanisms to
incorporate advanced rendering techniques, improved support for readers and
several usability enhancements and bug fixes.

For the 3.10 release,  we have added 60 new readers. The new readers
include: ANSYS, CGNS, Chombo, Dyna3D, Enzo, Mili, Miranda, Nastran, Pixie,
Samrai, Silo, and Tecplot Binary. A full listing of supported readers can be
found in the ParaView Users Guide. We also added the ability for developers
to create ParaView reader plugins from previously developed VisIt reader
plugins. You can find a full guide on how to do this on the VisIt Database
Bridge: http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/VisIt_Database_Bridge

With this release we have rewritten the ParaView User's Guide and are making
it freely available for the first time. The complete guide can be obtained
in the help system or online at:

http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Users_Guide/Table_Of_Contents.

We have included a Python-based calculator which makes it possible to write
operations using Python. The Python calculator uses NumPy, which makes it is
possible to use advanced functions such as gradients, curls, and divergence
easily in expression. Also the NumPy module is packaged in the ParaView
binary and is importable from the ParaView Python shell.

There should also be a marked performance improvement for users dealing with
large multi-block datasets. We have cleaned up the rendering pipeline to
better handle composite datasets, avoiding the appending of all blocks into
a single dataset as was done previously.

To better utilize multiple cores on modern mutli-core machines, by default
ParaView can now run using a parallel server, even for the built-in mode.
This enables the use of all the cores for parallel data processing, without
requiring the user to start a parallel server. ParaView binaries will also
be distributed using an MPI implementation, making this feature available to
users by simply downloading the binaries. Since this is an experimental
feature, it is off by default, but users can turn it on by checking the
Auto-MPI checkbox in the application settings dialog.

Additionally, the 3.10 release includes several usability enhancements. 3D
View now supports smart context menus, accessed by right-clicking on any
object in the 3D View to change its color, representation, color map and
visibility. Left-clicking on an object in the 3D View makes it active in the
pipeline browser. Within the spreadsheet view, sorting is now supported and
an advanced parallel sorting algorithm ensures that none of the benefits of
the spreadsheet view, such as streaming and selection, are sacrificed.
Python tracing and macro controls are now exposed from the main menus, no
longer hidden under the Python shell. For an exhaustive list of the new
features and bug-fixes, please refer to the change log at:
http://www.paraview.org/Bug/changelog_page.php.

For developers interested in adding support for advanced multi-pass
rendering algorithms to ParaView, this release includes a major refactoring
of ParaView's rendering pipeline. View and representations have been
redesigned and users should see improved performance in client-server mode
from reduced interprocess communication during rendering.

LANL's MantaView interactive ray tracing plugin has been restructured to
make it easier to use. Version 2.0 of the plugin is now multi-view capable
and no longer requires ParaView to be run in a client/server configuration.
Similarly both of LANL's streaming aware ParaView derived applications have
been merged into ParaView proper in the form of a new View plugin. The
underlying streaming algorithms have been rewritten to be more usable and
extensible. Both plugins are available in standard binary package for the
first time in this release.


As always, we rely on your feedback to make ParaView better. Please use
http://paraview.uservoice.com/ or click on the "Tell us what you think" link
on paraview.org to leave your feedback and vote for new features.
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