External data interface tools for the Particle Beam Optics Laboratory

An external data interface tool has been developed for the Particle Beam Optics Laboratory (PBO Lab^TM). The PBO Lab application provides an environment for the graphical set up of beam line models and execution of multiple optics programs that are implemented as application modules in a single user-friendly graphic interface shell. The external data interface (EDI) tools that have been implemented in PBO Lab version 2.0 support the import and export of beam line model parameters, as well as exporting diagnostic data generated from the different PBO Lab Application Modules. A variety of data exchange capabilities are provided through the EDI tools, including a basic implementation using ASCII text files in several different formats. However, one new EDI tool is described here that supports dynamic data exchange with MATLAB^TM. In addition to the exchange of beam line model parameters and computational diagnostics, this tool also implements an integrated simulation loop. This allows the user to modify beam line model parameters and specify the execution of PBO Lab Application Modules in a loop that is externally controlled from MATLAB using C or Fortran MEX files, or MATLAB M files