Latest News
29/08/11: v2.0 beta released.
This is a beta release of SPLASH 2.0. New features are as in 1.15.0, plus:
- New giza backend completely replaces PGPLOT
- Antialiased lines, real fonts, support for eps, pdf and svg drivers
- Fewer build dependencies, needs only standard system libraries (cairo, X11)
- Support for semi-transparent text
- TeX-like escape sequences in text strings (\alpha, ^{}, _{})
- Double-rendering implemented
Please *let me know* of any problems you encounter using the beta version.
29/08/11: v1.15.0 released.
This is the last in the 1.x.x series (with PGPLOT as default). New features are:
- Multiplots can be setup with different particle types in different panels
- Calculated quantities list is now pre-filled automatically
- Preliminary support for r-phi and r-z rendering
- Outlined solid markers implemented
- Better handling of multiple types
- Manual contour levels can be specified by creating a splash.contours file
- Splash to grid implemented in parallel
- Better support for non-square pixels
- ...plus plenty of bug fixes and other minor improvements
14/06/11: SPLASH hits 100
I was thinking of promising a new major version every 100 citations, but that could be dangerous... thanks for the credits though!
12/06/11: SPLASH @ Astrobites
Nathan Goldbaum has posted a nice beginners tutorial to running SPH simulations, including getting started with SPLASH + GADGET at Astrobites.com.
About
SPLASH (formerly SUPERSPHPLOT) is a (free!) visualisation tool for output from (astrophysical) simulations using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method in one, two and three dimensions. It is written in Fortran 90 and utilises the PGPLOT graphics subroutine library to do the actual plotting. It is based around a command-line menu structure but utilises the interactive capabilities of PGPLOT to manipulate data interactively in the plotting window.
SPLASH is a fully interactive program which means that visualisations can be changed rapidly at the touch of a button (e.g. zooming, rotating, shifting cross section positions etc). Data is read *directly* from the code dump format giving rapid access to results and the visualisation is advanced forwards and backwards through timesteps by single keystrokes.
SPLASH uses the SPH kernel to render plots of not only density but other physical quantities, giving a smooth representation of the data. My goal is to eliminate the publication of crap-looking particle plots from SPH codes!
Features:
- Rendering of particle data to an array of pixels using the SPH kernel
- Cross-sections through 2D and 3D data (as both particle plots and rendered images).
- Fast projections through 3D data (ie. column density plots, or integration of other quantities along the line of sight)
- Vector plots of the velocity (and other vector quantities), including vector plots in a cross section slice in 3D.
- Surface rendering of 3D data ("ray-trace through particles")
- Rotation and fly-throughs (animation sequences) of 3D data.
- Automatic stepping through timesteps, making animations simple to produce.
- Interactive mode for detailed examination of timestep data (e.g. zooming, rotating, plotting particle labels, working out the gradient of a line, stepping forwards/backwards through timesteps)
- Multiple plots on page, including option to automatically tile plots if y and x limits are the same.
- Plot limits can be fixed, adaptive or particle tracking. Also simple to change axes to log, invert, square root or absolute of a quantity.
- Exact solutions for common SPH test problems (e.g. hydrodynamic shock tubes, polytropes).
- Calculation of quantities not dumped (e.g. pressure)
- Transformation to different co-ordinate systems (for both co-ordinates and vector components).
- Straightforward production of GIF/png and Postscript images which can then be converted into animations or inserted in LaTeX documents.
- Reads from any ascii data format or direct from a binary file. Data reads of dump files produced by some widely used SPH codes (e.g. the publicly available cosmological SPH code GADGET) are included.
Examples of plots produced with SPLASH can be found in the gallery or by looking at papers with figures produced using splash.
Requirements
SPLASH is written in Fortran 90/95 and uses the PGPLOT graphics subroutine library which is available for download from http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/pgplot/. The PGPLOT libraries are often already installed in many Astronomy departments.The free and open source g95 or gfortran compilers can be used to compile both PGPLOT and SPLASH. These days I'd have to say I recommend gfortran for speed (plus it has openMP so can run splash in parallel).
Frequently Asked Questions:
Some answers to frequently asked questions (including troubleshooting related to installation problems) are given here.