Running speed and energy range
Quote from iulianb on October 27, 2025, 4:31 pm
Hi there, I have recently found out of the existence of this tool from a paper borrowed from a friend (Popescu). The paper introduced the idea of fake linac. I was trying to locate at the time a phase space file for TB 18X (looks like it doesn't exist anywhere).
I'm an old timer, many years ago I have started MC by using EGS3 and coding in Fortran iodin seeds 🙂
I would appreciate answers to a couple questions I have and could not find answers so far. I have used the contact form on the site to begin with, but haven't heard back in a long time. Here we go:
1. How much time (roughly & typically) takes a dose calculation for a Varian TB plan (e.g. VMAT, one arc) using the patient's CT. I realize it depends on the hardware used (among other things) therefore an example of such a system would be great as part of the answer. Related to this, it'd be awesome to know if the software can take advantage of multiple cores and/or can be used with clusters.
2. Is it possible to use the same system for lower energy machine? For instance Ortho (100 kV up to 210 kV) & CBCT (50 kV - 150 kV)?
I though of asking first and then dive deeper into literature and start experimenting with the software. I'm kind of into a similar position in relation to TOPAS/Geant, trying to decide which one I should invest time and effort into mastering.
Thank you so much,
Iulian 🙂
Hi there, I have recently found out of the existence of this tool from a paper borrowed from a friend (Popescu). The paper introduced the idea of fake linac. I was trying to locate at the time a phase space file for TB 18X (looks like it doesn't exist anywhere).
I'm an old timer, many years ago I have started MC by using EGS3 and coding in Fortran iodin seeds 🙂
I would appreciate answers to a couple questions I have and could not find answers so far. I have used the contact form on the site to begin with, but haven't heard back in a long time. Here we go:
1. How much time (roughly & typically) takes a dose calculation for a Varian TB plan (e.g. VMAT, one arc) using the patient's CT. I realize it depends on the hardware used (among other things) therefore an example of such a system would be great as part of the answer. Related to this, it'd be awesome to know if the software can take advantage of multiple cores and/or can be used with clusters.
2. Is it possible to use the same system for lower energy machine? For instance Ortho (100 kV up to 210 kV) & CBCT (50 kV - 150 kV)?
I though of asking first and then dive deeper into literature and start experimenting with the software. I'm kind of into a similar position in relation to TOPAS/Geant, trying to decide which one I should invest time and effort into mastering.
Thank you so much,
Iulian 🙂
Quote from admin on October 31, 2025, 10:24 amDear Iulian,
We are fixing the problem with the contact form. It will be working in a few days. Further to your questions:
- As you said, it depends on a lot of things. As a ball park figure let's say about 15 minutes (using DPM as MC engine) in voxel size of 2x2x2 mm3 for reaching a 3% standard statistical uncertainty on all voxels scoring more than 50% of the maximum dose. This time is assuming a modern 64 logical threads computer and that the simulation starts from a phase-space file that you have either previously computed or downloaded from Varian.
- No.
PRIMO can use all the cores of a computer but it can't use cores on different computers from a cluster. The cpu's must be Intel and the system must run Windows. The full specification are in the user manual.
Best,
Lorenzo
Dear Iulian,
We are fixing the problem with the contact form. It will be working in a few days. Further to your questions:
- As you said, it depends on a lot of things. As a ball park figure let's say about 15 minutes (using DPM as MC engine) in voxel size of 2x2x2 mm3 for reaching a 3% standard statistical uncertainty on all voxels scoring more than 50% of the maximum dose. This time is assuming a modern 64 logical threads computer and that the simulation starts from a phase-space file that you have either previously computed or downloaded from Varian.
- No.
PRIMO can use all the cores of a computer but it can't use cores on different computers from a cluster. The cpu's must be Intel and the system must run Windows. The full specification are in the user manual.
Best,
Lorenzo