FDS 5.3 Release

FDS Version 5.3.0 is now available for downloading. Follow the link from:

http://fire.nist.gov/fds/downloads.html

This is considered a "minor" release of FDS. Details of new features, and an explanation of what we mean by "minor" release, can be found at the following page:

http://code.google.com/p/fds-smv/wiki/FDSReleaseNotes

A note about this blog -- we have maintained an FDS/Smokeview blog ("web log") for several years, but until now we have not had much traffic on it. No doubt this is because there are various other means of communicating information about FDS and Smokeview, and there is only so much information that any one person can handle. However, our original e-mailing list has become a bit outdated, and it's time to take advantage of the new tools that are being developed to circulate information. There are a variety of ways that you can now monitor the activity of FDS/Smokeview development, including periodic blog posts.

Another motivation for making greater use of the blog is that occasionally we find a topic or posting in the Discussion Group

http://groups.google.com/group/fds-smv

that deserves greater attention. We may invite, from time to time, the author or authors of a particular post or discussion thread to write a blog post that will be broadcast to the entire user community. The blog will contain more general discussion, rather than details of a particular feature of FDS or Smokeview that you would normally find in the Discussion Group or Issue Tracker.

But do not fear -- you will not be bombarded by the blog posts on a daily basis. They will come periodically if you have signed up for email notification or an RSS feed.