[Neutron] Announcing SasView 4.0.1

[stephen.king at stfc.ac.uk]

Dear Small-Angle Scatterers,

The SasView Development Team is pleased to announce the release of SasView 4.0.1.

The program can be downloaded from http://www.sasview.org/


The major feature of this release is a complete re-design of the way scattering models are incorporated into the program. All models in the new architecture, built-in or user-provided, are now plug-ins. This addresses the single most requested enhancement received from users by simplifying the creation of new and more complex models. It also allows user-provided plug-ins to access the SasView polydispersity routines. Alongside this enhancement we have also provided a 'Model Marketplace' where users can lodge their models for use by other users, or for consideration as built-in models in subsequent releases of the program.


Other enhancements include:

- support for OpenCL (for utilizing GPUs if available)
- improved numerical integration routines (for speed and precision)
- support for the new NXCanSAS data format (as the emerging and generic standard for reduced 2D data)
- improvements to the data plotting interface
- further improvements to the documentation
- the usual bug fixes


Important notes:

Users of SasView 4.0 should upgrade to SasView 4.0.1.

SasView versions 4.0.x may not properly read SasView projects saved from earlier versions of the program. This is being addressed.

SasView versions 4.0.x will be the last to support 'custom models' created in earlier versions of the program. Users that rely on such models will need to convert their custom models into the new plug-in format. (Doing so will actually result in more capable models).

SasView versions 4.0.x will also be the last versions that will support 32-bit operating systems.


Coming soon:

Work on SasView 4.1 is already well-advanced and should be released by the early Spring 2017. Among its features will be additional data file loaders (including for formats that write intensity and Q to separate files, and BSL/OTOKO), the inclusion of Adam Washington's Corfunc-py for correlation function analysis, and a model-fitting interface for spin-echo SANS (SESANS) data.


Enjoy the program!

The SasView Development Team