Kitware, provider of open-source software and state-of-the-art technology solutions, announced that it will be collaborating with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), facility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for the deployment and delivery of software processes support for the Radiance (News - Alert) Project.

The Radiance project developed under funding from DOE was created at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for providing physically-based simulation tools for various purposes to lighting engineers and researchers across the globe. Greg Ward of Anywhere Software, who was the original brain behind the project, has been working within the project over its various evolutionary stages.

The CMake cross-platform system form Kitware which has been designed for building, testing and packaging software, was leveraged within the Radiance project by both Kitware and NREL to enhance the simulation capabilities of OpenStudio, open-source portfolio of software tools from NREL. By leveraging CMake for Radiance, nightly building and testing of the Radiance HEAD release will be enabled. CMake, which was created by the company in 2000, will also ensure delivery of automatic updates regarding any errors during building or testing. 

In a release, Bill Hoffman (News - Alert), Vice President, and Chief Technology Officer at Kitware, said, "This latest project is yet another demonstration of CMake's ability to deliver a flexible, cross-platform solution that can manage the software build process. The Radiance project provides Kitware with another opportunity to collaborate and deliver the necessary open-source tools that other companies and government agencies are looking to integrate within their existing systems."

Furthermore, the company will also deliver a new Qt-based graphical user interface for use in the Radiance Scene Viewer which functions on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. The inclusion of the Qt-based graphical user interface and the CMake platform will make it possible for researchers to both easily access and use Radiance either independently or via OpenStudio. Inclusion of these capabilities by NREL will help in attracting more developers and users to participate in the Radiance project to help develop a more diverse and robust testing environment.

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