New graphic user interface for the charged particle beam program PARMILA

An advanced graphic user interface (GUI) has been developed for use with the PARMILA program. PARMILA (Phase and Radial Motion in Ion Linear Accelerators) is a multiparticle simulation program that provides a detailed description of the evolution of the beam in a linear accelerator. We have ported the Los Alamos Accelerator Code Group's Gray version of PARMILA to the Macintosh and integrated it with the Shell for Particle Accelerator Related Codes (SPARC) GUI environment. The problem set up is accomplished graphically. The configuration of a PARMILA beamline is defined by selecting icons representing transport elements from a palette and dragging them to a window. All input parameters are set using unique data tables built into multiple-pane windows. Rule-of-thumb upper and lower guidance limits for each parameter are displayed to assist users in problem specification. The graphic interface is described and examples using this new approach to running PARMILA are illustrated.