Geometry Description Markup Language (GDML2)

Simulation Framework Subproject

N
E
W 14/09/2007 GDML_2_10_0 released
16/03/2007 GDML_2_9_0 released
06/09/2006 GDML_2_8_0 released
15/08/2006 GDML_2_7_0 released

General Information

NOTE: This page is obsolete and no longer maintained. Refer to the main GDML Home Page for the latest version of GDML

The Geometry Description Markup Language is an application-indepedent geometry description format based on XML. It can be used as the primary geometry implementation language as well as it provides a geometry data exchange format for the existing applications. The workpackage consists of the GDML Schema part, which is a fully self-consistent definition of the GDML syntax and the GDML I/O part which provides means for writing out and reading in GDML files. The GDML Schema does not depend in any way on the GDML I/O packages. In particular, new extensions to the GDML I/O packages can be implemented (interfaces to new application, like for instance visualisation, editors, etc), while the GDML Schema definition remains unchanged.
At the present moment, there exist two toolkit bindings for GDML, the Geant4 binding and the Root binding (integrated within the Root framework). Both bindings support the GDML importation (reading GDML files) as well as the exportation (writing out GDML files).

Reference: 'Geometry Description Markup Language for Physics Simulation and Analysis Applications', R. Chytracek, J. McCormick, W. Pokorski, G. Santin, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 53, Issue: 5, Part 2, 2892-2896

Getting started

Examples

Latest Series 2 Release: GDML_2_10_0

Previous releases:

GDML_2_9_0 - Improved 'loop' machinery. Any volume can be used in a loop (and not only those created in another loop).
Added installation script (GDMLSetup in CPPGDML directory) facilitating the installation of the package for the new users.
Added support for 'auxiliary' volume information and extended 'g4gogdml' to demonstrate the use of 'auxiliary' tag.
Added 'SimpleExtension' example showing how to extend GDML with custom elements. The README of the example discusses in detail the procedure one has to follow in order to makes extensions of GDML.
Removed obsolete PyGDML package.
GDML_2_8_0 - A new element 'matrix' has been introduced allowing to define arrays of numbers.
New flow-control element 'loop' has been implemented. It can be used within the 'solids' group to created groups of solids (of some varing size for instance) as well as within the 'structure' group in order to make multiple placements.
The handling of modular GDML files has been improved. It is now possible to choose a specific volume from the included file to be positioned (with all its daughter volumes) in the mother volume. The 'namespaces' for module files has been added in order to avoid clashes of names.
Support for optical surfaces as well as material property sheets has been added.
See GDML Schema and C++ GDML processors pages for the information on the releases prior to GDML_2_8_0.