Release version 1.2.6 of Tonatiuh

Tonatiuh release 1.2.6 is now available from the main Tonatiuh website. This new version of the program includes new features that facilitates:

• The modeling of heliostats fields and, thereby, the modeling of solar tower systems;
• The testing of different atmospheric transmittance models;
• The ray casting process, allowing the user to select the objects that should be taken into account during the process.

These new features are:

• A new wizard-type plug-in that facilitates the simulation of solar tower systems. The wizard generates a heliostat field taking as input from the user: (1) a text file with the coordinates of the center of the bases of the heliostats that compose the heliostat field and (2) a component Tonatiuh file describing the geometry of the heliostats (it is assumed that the geometry of all heliostats are the same).
• Several new atmospheric transmittance plug-ins.
• A new reflectance material plug-in, which allows the user to independently define the slope error and the reflectivity ray error of a mirror-like surface.
• The possibility for the user of selecting which of the surfaces in the scene should not be taking into account during the ray tracing process.
• The resolution of a bug that made the program crash when the user tries to "undo" the elimination of a One-Axis tracker.
• The resolution of a bug associated with the definition of the Sun position using the SunPositionCalculator? window (the error is related to an incorrect conversion from degrees to radians).

During the coming weeks we will be developing tutorials showing how to use this new features, and we will be posting them in the tutorials section of the Tonatiuh website.

Thanks for using Tonatiuh and for supporting its development with your comments, suggestions, and questions.

Release version 1.2.4 of Tonatiuh

Tonatiuh release 1.2.4 is now available. This new version of Tonatiuh is another minor release of the program. It incorporates the following features:

• The scripting capabilities have been increased to the point that in this new release of the program any operation and functionality available to the users via the Graphics User Interface is now also available via scripting.
• The resolution of a bug that produced the unexpected closing of the program when the user tries to cast rays before creating the concentrating geometry.
• The resolution of a bug associated with storing a given Tonatiuh "scene" under very particular and uncommon conditions.

As in previous releases we are providing 32 and 64-bit installers of this new release of the program for the three major operating systems: Windows, Linux, and Mac. The installer for the Maxc OS is the same for both the 32 and 64 version of the program. While we have been able to test the 64-bit version of Tonatiuh release 1.2.4 for Windows 7 and Linux, we have not tested the 64-bit version of Tonatiuh for the Mac OS. Thus, please, let us know how it works for you.

In February 20 we expect to release the next version of the program. Please, let us know your suggestions for the new functionality you would like to see incorporated in the program.