What’s new#

Upcoming Release#

25.10#

Documentation

  • fix docstrings in submodule acoular.tbeamform

  • move unit system notes to the notes sections

  • new website with improved API reference

  • split large dependency graph into submodule graphs for clarity

Internal

  • refactored import statements and input aliases

  • removed duplicate code in MovingPointSource-derived classes

  • migrate from traits on_trait_change to observe

  • fixes bug in PointSource that could cause a silent crash when the start attribute was set to a nonzero value

Bugfixes
Tests

  • adds thorough test for result generators

25.07#

New features

  • add Grid().export_gpos` to Grid

  • deprecates extend() method in favour of extent property

  • reworked WriteWAV class that now also supports uint8 and int32 encoding, adds a max_val attribute for normalization purposes, and avoids unnecessary double calculations

Documentation

  • generalizes data import in the airfoil examples using the get_data_file() helper function

  • add a new example for grids

  • changes all appearances of extend() to extent

  • introduces a deprecation policy in the contributing guidelines

  • adds new docstrings to submodule acoular.tprocess

  • adds new docstrings to submodule acoular.h5cache and acoular.h5files

  • fix docstrings in submodule acoular.fbeamform to fulfill linting rules

Tests

  • add tests for export and load XML functionalities of Grid

Internal

  • add three_sources_1d.h5, three_sources_2d.h5, and three_sources_3d.h5

  • add functions _create_three_sources, create_three_sources_1d, create_three_sources_2d, and create_three_sources_3d to create the test data

  • change create_three_sources function to an alias of create_three_sources_2d

  • introduces speedup for MovingPointSource by using block-wise processing

  • fixes BeamformerTime crashing if buffer exceeds processing block size

  • fixes deprecation issue for output parameters of scipy.optimize.fmin_l_bfgs_b solver

  • fixes integrate return an empty result sometimes

  • excludes scipy version 1.16 from the dependencies due to bug affecting the scipy.signal.tf2sos function

  • adds the get_data_file() helper function for ensuring that a file is available locally

  • add three_sources_1d.h5, three_sources_2d.h5, and three_sources_3d.h5

  • add functions _create_three_sources, create_three_sources_1d, create_three_sources_2d, and create_three_sources_3d to create the test data

  • change create_three_sources function to an alias of create_three_sources_2d

  • removal of deprecated classes TimeInOut, FFTSpectra, TimeAverage, TimeCache, MaskedTimeInOut and the beamformer attribute of frequency domain beamformers

25.04#

Tests

  • fixes unpickable classes and adds pickle test

Documentation

25.03#

New features:

  • Introduces rps trait in FlowField, that now correctly defines direction of rotation

Documentation
Internal

  • fix broken meta.yaml (adds conda build stage to CI)

25.01#

New features:

  • consistently use file as an attribute to specify a filename (instead of from_file or name)

  • consistently use n_iter in beamformer algorithms that require setting a fixed or maximum number of iterations (e.g. max_iter deprecated)

  • adds new function c_air() to calculate the speed of sound from temperature and humidity

  • Calib can now be used as a separate processing block

  • enable varying block buffer sizes for SampleSplitter

  • Replaces HasPrivateTraits with HasStrictTraits and ABCHasStrictTraits for better implementation of ABCs.

  • Allow Path objects to specify the caching and time data directory via acoular.Config

  • Adds new abstract base classes PeriodicSignalGenerator and NoiseGenerator

  • adds support for Python 3.13

Bugfixes

  • pass missing n_iter as an argument to LassoLarsCV in acoular.fbeamform.BeamformerGIB (otherwise, LassoLarsCV runs up to 500 iterations)

  • fix broken pylops solvers in BeamformerCMF

  • fixes negative values in source maps obtained with the solvers LassoLars, LassoLarsCV and LassoLarsBIC

  • fix use of Trait() factory and replace by Enum, Instance, Map, Union

  • fix use of deprecated CLong, Long, and ListInt traits

  • The previously broken example in the main README now runs out of the box.

Documentation

  • adds guide on how to submit a pull request

  • adds intersphinx extension to cross-link documentation from other projects

  • updates examples to use a right hand co-ordinate system

Tests

  • tests now consequently use pytest framework instead of unittest

  • separate tests in into tests/regression and tests/unittests directories

  • increases coverage to 76 %

  • introduces snapshot / regression testing for all Generator, BeamformerBase, FlowField, and Environment derived classes (results in new snapshot data of size 1.1MB (see tests/regression/_regtest_output)

  • use pytest-cases to separate parameters from tests (cases are located under tests/cases)

  • full coverage of sdinput.py module through the use of pytest-mock (mocks the behavior of an InputStream object, which cannot be used for CI due to missing audio interfaces)

  • linting and formatting for tests directory

  • refactor HDF5Cache class due to a bug encountered with the new tests (acoular now can handle changing caching directories during a session. Previously, only the basename was observed which caused problems with changing cache directories)

  • tests now log the 10 slowest test runs

  • adds profile options to hatch test environment to profile test run via hatch run tests:profile and save a graphviz chart as SVG file

  • test AIAA benchmark classes with the benchmark data

  • test aperture, center, export_mpos functions in MicGeom

  • fix a typo in AngleTracker that lead to a property being incorrectly accessed

  • exclude jited functions from test coverage report

  • treat warnings as errors in tests

  • recursively tests for empty dependencies in Property traits that are depended on

Internal

  • adds a pull request template

  • dynamically set the version in the pyproject.toml file (from version.py)

  • activates maximum line length enforcement of 120 and 100 for comments and docstrings

  • adds CI workflow for inspecting regression test outputs

  • adds action that automatically assigns a team member to newly opened pull requests

  • depends_on now only accepts a list of strings

  • removes deprecated traits ending with version 25.01

  • include doctests in coverage report

  • no longer add docs label if news/index.rst is updated

24.10#

New features:

  • Sounddevice inputs now allow for user-settable sample rates and precision types

  • Block-wise frequency domain processing

    • Introduces new acoular.base module with abstract base classes Generator, SpectraGenerator, InOut, TimeOut, SpectraOut

    • Introduces new module acoular.fprocess including new frequency domain processing classes RFFT, IRFFT, AutoPowerSpectra and CrossPowerSpectra

    • Introduces new module acoular.process including the following classes for general purpose (domain invariant) processing: Cache, Average, SampleSplitter

    • Rename MaskedTimeInOut to MaskedTimeOut

    • Deprecates: TimeInOut, FFTSpectra, TimeAverage, MaskedTimeInOut, TimeCache

    • adds unittests test_process.py, test_fprocess.py

    • adds documentation example example_fft.py

      • allow more platforms to build the docs files including Linux, MacOS, and Windows

    • move submodule acoular.tools.aiaa to acoular.aiaa

Bugfixes

  • flush file in TimeCache to prevent data loss / corruption

  • fixes use of already deprecated traits

  • fixes import order to avoid the deactivation of parallelization of numba

  • fixes numpy.matlib deprecation warning

  • better handling of basename attributes:

    • adds new utils functions find_basename and get_file_basename for consistent handling of basename attributes

    • deprecates basename attribute of WriteWAV and MaskedTimeOut for reasons of inconsistency

Documentation

  • updates literature and adds sphinxcontrib-bibtex extension to support bibtex citation in the documentation.

  • cleans-up and structures the conf.py file and fixes missing acoular logo in documentation

  • fixes missing and wrong docstrings for result methods in acoular.tbeamform

  • improves the explanation of the installation of dependencies

  • add explanation on how to test specific Python version only

  • test documentation build on all latest platforms

Internal
  • refactoring of classes in acoular.tbeamform (moves buffer logic away from Beamformer classes)
  • replaces the markdown-link-check by lychee

    • faster CI (written in RUST)

    • allows more files to be checked, including the .rst files in the documentation

    • adds a cron job that runs daily

  • sets final version for several deprecated traits. (Will be removed in version 25.01)

  • use scipy.linalg consistently over numpy.linalg

  • drops support for Python 3.8 and 3.9

  • enable Numpy version > 2.0

  • run unittests on the latest MacOS

24.07#

New features:

  • Implement a lazy result array for acoular.fbeamform.BeamformerBase derived classes

  • Adds flow establishment length traits

  • Updates acoular demo with ASCII map and gets rid of writing file

Bugfixes:
Internal:

  • use hatch for publishing the Acoular package

  • add issue templates

  • adds Conda CI

  • CI for TestPyPI and PyPI

  • remove plot_example.py

  • add autolabel rule for fix and linting

  • fix linting rules

  • add zenodo release to CITAITON.cff

24.05#

  • adds support for Python version 3.12 on Linux, MacOS, Windows

  • drops official support for Python version 3.7

  • provides new tools to import data in AIAA array benchmark format

  • Bugfixes:

    • changes to UMA-16 microphone array arrangement

  • Internal:

    • formatting and linting with ruff

    • introduce hatch

    • measure test coverage

    • replace zenodo.json by CITATION.cff

    • Bugfixes CI

    • update LICENSE

    • adds code of conduct

    • allow workflow dispatch for testing on different branches using GitHub

    • improve documentation

    • refine package structure

      • move test directory outside of the source directory

      • remove outdated submodules fileimport and nidaqimport

      • introduce new submodule acoular/tools

24.03#

  • Improve test coverage for BeamformerCMF

  • Changes to BeamformerSODIX:

    • correction of wrong cost-function

    • speedups through the use of numpy.einsum_path together with numpy.einsum

    • changed start value pgtol for the optimization with scipy.optimize.fmin_l_bfgs_b solver

  • Bugfixes:

    • fixes unrecognized sector arguments in MetricEvaluator

    • handles version-dependent default values for normalize attribute in sklearn solvers (relevant for BeamformerCMF )

    • fixes bug in BeamformerOrth: assigned strongest source at grid index 0 when instead of eva_list the trait n was given

    • fixes broken SpatialInterpolator

    • minor bugfix for single microphone transfer functions calculated with SteeringVector

    • fixes broken NNLS method in BeamformerCMF (wrong keyword argument normalize)

  • Internal:

    • new GitHub workflow for CI of the documentation

    • added Zenodo metadata file

    • changes to author name in pyproject.toml

23.11#

  • New class MetricEvaluator to evaluate the performance of source mapping methods according to Herold and Sarradj (2017)

  • New class PointSourceConvolve to blockwise convolve an arbitrary source signal with a spatial room impulse response

  • All filter classes derived from Filter use SOS filters now

  • No more version restrictions for scikit-learn

  • Speedups for numba jitted functions by enforcing C-contiguous arguments and the efficient use SIMD processor instructions

  • BeamformerOrth now reimplements orthogonal deconvolution to be even faster and has a slightly different interface

  • Simple benchmark suite to compare the performance of Acoular core routines on different computers

  • Some internal rework in grid and sector classes

  • Test coverage is improved

  • Bugfixes:

23.6#

  • Supports Python 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 on Linux, MacOS, Windows

  • New build system using hatch, purge setuptools

  • New base class BeamformerAdaptiveGrid for gridless algorithms

  • New class BeamformerGridlessOrth for gridless orthogonal beamforming

  • New class RectSector3D

  • Improved ray casting implementation for GeneralFlowEnvironment

  • Improved handling of spectra calculation:

  • MicGeom now has an aperture trait

  • Tests are improved

  • Bugfixes:

    • broken numpy.int import

    • one off bug in LineGrid

22.3#

  • New class BeamformerSodix

  • New SplitBregman and FISTA solvers in BeamformerCMF

  • IDW is now available for virtual rotation

  • different steering vector formulations are now available for time beamformers as well

  • Speedups:

    • time domain beamformers and CleanT deconvolution now share a common core codebase and all do blockwise processing

  • Bugfixes:

21.05#

  • Supports Python 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 on Linux, MacOS, Windows

  • New class FiltWNoiseGenerator

  • New classes SphericalHarmonicSource, Linesource, MovingPointSourceDipole, MovingLineSource

  • New class TimeConvolve

  • Speedups:

    • CSM works now in parallel and is faster

    • frequency domain beamformers are abaout 30% faster

    • time domain beamformers and CLEAN-T is now about 10 x faster

  • Unittests for all major features, much better coverage

  • Bugfixes:

    • integration sectors

    • new grid classes from 20.10 are now imported into module namespace

20.10#

20.02#

  • Adds gradient-based solver for BeamformerCMF (L_BFGS_B)

  • Adds possibilty to take into account convective amplification of moving sources in BeamformerTimeTraj

  • TraitsUI support of the classes has to be activated via config

  • Bugfix: use left-orientated coordinate system in rotating flow environment

  • Bugfix: correct wrong angle shift in spline interpolation

  • Removes several Python 2.7-specific implementations

19.11#

  • Adds new classes for handling rotating data, including detection of trigger signals and interpolation of sensor data for virtual array emulation (Trigger, AngleTracker, SpatialInterpolator, SpatialInterpolatorRotation, SpatialInterpolatorConstantRotation)

  • Introduces new SampleSplitter class, which allows distribution of data streams

  • Adds new (global) caching options for more flexible cache file handling (e.g. never cache results, always cache, cache read-only). See config for information on how to use this.

  • User can choose whether to use h5py or pytables package for handling hdf files. See config for information on how to use this.

  • Change: BeamformerGIB behaviour (not calculating sources with eigenvalue of zero)

  • Bugfix: BeamformerTime interpolation

  • Bugfix: Integer division in PNoiseGenerator

  • Test suite and CI updates

19.08#

  • Supports Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7

  • This will be the last version to officially support Python 2.7

  • Cache and data directories are now always created in current directory (Linux and Windows)

  • Bugfix: Steering vector backwards compatibility

  • Bugfix: Ambiguous caching (changes in an object’s class name as well as changes in the data file content are now monitored for caching)

  • PowerSpectra: Frequency range to be evaluated can be set directly

  • Some code clean-up

  • Renamed examples

19.02#

  • Adds support for Python 3.7

  • Introduces new SteeringVector class (see Getting Started and ../examples/index for usage). With this, some of the Beamformer and PointSource traits are deprecated and should no longer be used. While the current version is intended to be fully compatible with older scripts, deprecation warnings will be raised if necessary.

  • Introduces optional use of reference distance for SPL evaluation (current default: reference position at (x,y,z)=(0,0,0) )

  • Introduces some basic Unit tests to evaluate the beamformer results

  • Bugfix: CLEAN algorithm now uses correct PSFs

  • some minor Bugfixes

18.01#

  • Added new DAMAS solving strategies (BeamformerDamasPlus)

  • Added Generalized Inverse Beamforming

  • Floating point precision of CSM, PSF and beamformer customizable (default: float64) – affects cache file size

  • PowerSpectra class now includes EigSpectra functionality (EigSpectra still callable for backwards compatibility)

  • Inverse methods: unit of sound pressure for internal calculation customizable (default: nPa) for better numeric stability with sklearn solvers. Still returns all values in Pa.

  • Bugfix: BeamformerFunctional works now with steering vector formulation II (inverse) and III (true level) which produced incorrect results in the past.

  • Bugfix: BeamformerFunctional can only be called when the diagonal of the CSM is included

  • Bugfix: Corrected calculation of PSF for steering vector formulation IV

  • Bugfix: Behaviour of normalizing PSF at assumed source location (psf=1) is removed

17.11#

  • Added support for Python 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6

  • Implementation of fast/parallelized code now with Numba (instead of C++ and SciPy.weave)

  • cross spectral matrix (CSM) orientation changed (was transposed in earlier versions). Please do not use the cache files from earlier versions in version 17.11!