FDS Configuration Management Plan

Some of you who participate in the FDS/SMV Discussion Group might have noticed an interesting thread lately that concerned the process that we use to update versions of FDS and Smokeview:

http://groups.google.com/group/fds-smv/browse_thread/thread/95ad8e8e35734db3#

In the US and worldwide, there are various standards used to evaluate the process by which engineering software is developed and maintained. For example, NQA-1 and ISO 9001 come to mind. Just do a search on these terms for more information.

The "process" that I speak of goes beyond the technical description of the model algorithm and the Verification and Validation (V&V) work that is documented in the FDS Technical Reference Guide, volumes 1, 2 and 3. It involves everything we do on a daily basis to develop and maintain the model and the software -- this blog, the Discussion Group, the Issue Tracker, the repository, and so on. Because questions like those in the discussion thread above need to be answered, we have issued volume 4 of the FDS Technical Reference Guide:

http://fds-smv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/FDS/trunk/Manuals/All_PDF_Files/FDS_5_Configuration_Management_Plan.pdf

"Configuration Management" is the term that is commonly used to describe the process of developing and maintaining software.

For those of you who have an interest in this aspect of our work, please let us know what we can add to this Guide to make it easier for you to use. If there is information missing, let us know and we'll add it. We'd prefer that this Guide not get needlessly filled with useless information and excessively bureaucratic language. It should be a straight-forward description of what we do to maintain FDS and Smokeview.

Also, if you or your organization have put FDS/SMV through some sort of "process evaluation" and you are at liberty to share your experience, please do. One of the most important aspects of these process evaluations is peer review, and that term is used in the broadest sense. For example, our experience with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a good example of peer review in that this organization has evaluated our models for certain types of applications. It is a bit tedious to do one of these evaluations starting from scratch. It would be far better to refer to what others have done already.

FDS email list

Be advised that this email list is to be discontinued. If you want to
continue to get postings concerning FDS or Smokeview, subscribe to our blog
at:

http://blog.fds-smv.net/

Kevin McGrattan
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8663
Gaithersburg MD 20899
Phone: 301 975 2712
Fax: 301 975 4052

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.

FDS-SMV Development Activity Monitor.

Now there are now two new options for monitoring the development activity of the FDS-SMV project.

The Google Code Hosting site has added a new page for viewing updates.
http://code.google.com/p/fds-smv/updates/list

If you prefer to see the updates through an RSS feed reader, that is also available.
http://code.google.com/feeds/p/fds-smv/updates/basic

These two new features enable users to keep up with the FDS-SMV development efforts in a more open and convenient manner than before.

In addition to monitoring the activity of the Google Code development site, you can also keep track of Discussion activity through your choice of either an RSS or an Atom feed.

RSS: http://groups.google.com/group/fds-smv/feed/rss_v2_0_msgs.xml
Atom: http://groups.google.com/group/fds-smv/feed/atom_v1_0_msgs.xml

-Bryan

FDS-SMV on OS X, Screencast...

Here is a link to a video showing how to do a few FDS and Smokeview related tasks in OS X.

http://fire.nist.gov/fds/assets/video/FDS-SMV_on_OSX.mov

NOTE: This is a large Quicktime movie file, approx. 166 MB and has a run time of about 23 minutes. You might want to right click and save link target, or just click and it will stream into your browser window.

This is the first one I've made, so please forgive the verbal stumbling, etc. I have had a few requests for information on how to do things on the Mac, and so I put this together in less than an hour. It was not scripted, nor did I have a controlled environment, but I had fun making it. :)

I plan on someday putting together a more formal series on various topics, but that is not this.

Anyway, I hope it helps...
-Bryan