Release of version 1.1.2 of Tonatiuh

We just released version 1.1.2 of Tonatiuh. This is a minor release version of the program. Its main characteristics are the following:

• It incorporates an Update Manager, which allows the users to check if there is available a newer version of the program than the one she or he is using, and to download it in case it is available.
• It adds a new shape plug-in to the list of Tonatiuh standard shape plug-ins. This new shape plug-in named "ShapeTroughCHC" allows the user to create trough-like Compound Hyperbolic Concentrators.
• It fixes the error associated with the lack of immediate response of a Tracker to user-induced changes in the transformation of its parent TShapeKit separator or in any of its ancestors.
• It fixed the error associated with the brief appearance of a ghost window when opening the Sun Position Calculator.

Figure 1 shows a view of a parabolic trough working in tandem with a Compound Hyperbolic Concentrator acting as a secondary concentrator.

From Tonatiuh Blog Figures

We are starting a tutorial series to illustrate the use of Tonatiuh

To illustrate the use of Tonantiuh we are starting today a tutorial series, which will be posted in the wiki of the main Tonatiuh website (tonatiuh.googlecode.com).

The tutorial that starts the series will explain how to use Tonatiuh to model and analyze a tower system with 500 one-facet small heliostats.

From Tonatiuh Wiki Figures

This tutorial will explain how to insert "tracker" plug-ins in the modeling of the heliostat field to ensure that when the user changes the sun position the heliostats are  automatically reoriented so that they keep directing their reflected sunlight towards the receiver located on top of the tower.

In addition, the tutorial will also explain how to use the scripting capabilities of Tonatiuh to automate the generation of an optical efficiency matrix for the solar heliostat field.

To access the index of the tutorial series, please, follow this link.

Please, give us feedback, so that we can continue improving Tonatiuh, and providing you the tools and information you need to use it.

Best regards,

Improved instructions to install Tonatiuh's IDE under Windows

One of the many good things of Tonatiuh is that it is build upon one of the best set of open source libraries available (Qt, Simage, Coin3D, SoQt, Marble, Berkeley DB). This allows the program to benefit from the continuous improvement and increase in functionality of those libraries and their related tools.

Under Windows, the recent improvements on the installation and set up tools of the MinGW/MSYS compilation and linking environment and of the Qt, Coin3D and Marble libraries has resulted in a drastic simplification and a dramatic reduction in the time needed to install and configure the Tonatiuh's development environment.

Now, if you follow the updated instructions posted on the Wiki of the Tonatiuh website regarding how to install and configure the development environment of Tonatiuh under Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, you will need just two to three ours to:

• Install the complete development environment,
• Download Tonatiuh's source code from its Googlecode SVN server,
• Build the latest stable version of the program from its source code, and
• Be ready to contribute to the improvement of the program, should you decide to do so. 

These are good news to any one interested in being able to build the latest version of Tonatiuh without having to wait until the next official program release, or to any one interested in collaborating in the development of the program.

To access the updated wiki instructions regarding how to install and configure Tonatiuh's development environment, please, go to this link.

Release of version 1.1.1 of Tonatiuh

We just released version 1.1.1 of Tonatiuh. This is a minor version of the program. The main characteristic of this release is that it incorporates the most recent versions of all of the program's supporting libraries: Qt, Simage, Coin, SoQt, Marble and Berlkeley DB.

As shown in Figure 1, this release is faster than version 1.0.0. Under Windows, it achieved a 14.1% reduction in the average time it needed to cast 6 million rays while simulating the optical behavior of NREL's Solar Furnace in the three computers in which the program was tested. Under Linux this average time reduction reached 15.6%.

From Tonatiuh Blog Figures

The release fixes several small program bugs and introduces both a new version of the Buie's sunshape plugin and a new version of the spherical rectangle plug-in. It also slightly changes the way the user can use Marble to select a given location on the Earth.

As always, if you find bugs in Tonatiuh or in any of its plug-ins, please, take the time to report those errors using the "Issues" tab in Tonatiuh's website at Googlecode. Furthermore, if you have suggestions on how to improve the program or increase its functionalities, please, let us know, either by adding comments to this post, or better by participating on the corresponding discussion of the Tonatiuh users group.

Best regards. Enjoy! 

Release of version 1.1.0 of Tonatiuh

We just released version 1.1.0 of Tonatiuh. This is a relatively major release of the program. It incorporates a signficant new feature to Tonatiuh: SCRIPTING.

From now on, you will be able to automatize some of the recurrent taks that you do with Tonatiuh by writting your own scripts. This new release of the program introduces scpripting just as a proof of concept, we will be expanding the scripting capabilities of Tonatiuh in future program releases.

In addition to scripting, this new release of the program, corrects several detected bugs, improves the general (circumsolar ratio) sunshape plugin, facilitates the storage of Tonatiuh results (photon maps), and makes it possible to inmediately open, within Tonatiuh, any Tonatiuh file just by cliking on the file -once the user associates, in the Operating System he or she is using, the Tonatiuh file extension with the Tonatiuh program.

As always, if you find bugs in Tonatiuh or in any of its plug-ins, please, take the time to report those errors using the "Issues" tab in Tonatiuh's website at Googlecode. Furthermore, if you have suggestions on how to improve the program or increase its functionalities, please, let us know, either by adding comments to this post, or better by participating on the corresponding discussion of the Tonatiuh users group.

Best regards. Enjoy!

OpenSolaris version of Tonatiuh 1.0.1

As indicated in a recent post, we have added OpenSolaris to the list of operating systems for which Tonatiuh is targeted.

If you are interesting in using Tonatiuh under OpenSolaris, please, do the following:

1. Go to the "Downloads" section of the Tonatiuh website at Googlecode.com.
2. Download the archive file "tonatiuh-opensolaris-1.0.1.tar.gz" in a computer running OpenSolaris and extract its content.
3. Find the shell file "Tonatiuh.sh" and execute it.

We have been able to test the above procedure in only one PC running OpenSolaris. Thus, if the procedure works for you, please, let us know. If it does not work, please, also let us know, and if possible, please, provide us with the details of what went wrong, so that we can try to fix it.

Release of version 1.0.1 of Tonatiuh

We just released version 1.0.1 of Tonatiuh. This minor release:

• Fixes some programming bugs that, when running Tonatiuh under the MAC OS X, resulted in the user not being able to maximize the program's main window, or in some plug-ins not being loaded.
• Improves the implementation of the ShapeFlatDisk so that now when using this shape as the starting surface from which to cast solar photons into the solar concentrating systems, the origin of the photons are much more uniformly distributed upon the flat disk surface that under the previous implementation of the plug-in.
• Includes two new shape plug-ins (ShapeSphericalRectangle, and ShapeBezierSurfaces).

• Includes one new sunshape plug-in (SunshapeBuie).
  

In future posts, the functionality added by these new plug-ins will be presented, and the use of the plug-ing explained.

As always, if you find bugs in Tonatiuh or in any of its plug-ins, please, take the time to report those errors using the "Issues" tab in Tonatiuh's website at Googlecode.

Best regards. Enjoy!