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WHAT'S NEW IN SPIDER


Important changes in SPIDER operations are listed here.
Note that these changes may NOT be in the release of SPIDER that you have at your site. You may have to download a more recent release.

2012

New operation: IQ VER queries current version of SPIDER.
Can place version number in a register.
1/22/12 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.07...)
New operation: CG SYM gives improved determination of 'center' of an object in a noisy image.
Better center location than: 'CG', or 'CG PH' for noisy images.
1/22/12 GPK (Requires SPIDER:***20.07...)
Operations: MO & . MO 3 can now create super-order Gaussian masks.
Super-order Gaussian masks have sharper decline at desired radius which is usually superior to using normal Gaussian (soft) masks.
1/14/12 GPK (Requires SPIDER:***20.06...)
Operations BP CG & BP CG 3 can use FBS interpolation.
These operations have option of using slower FBS interpolation to create a higher resolution output volume.
01/06/12 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.06...)
Use of NSAM, NROW, & NSLICE.
SPIDER image dimensions are now referred to as: NX, NY, & NZ instead of: NSAM, NROW, & NSLICE. This makes SPIDER conventions similar to those used by MRC, XMIPP, and SPARX.
1/6/12 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.06...)

2011

CL CLA.
Can now create a dendrogram of any desired factors and omit certain factors.
11/30/11 AGL (Requires SPIDER:***20.04...)
AP SHC.
Can now restrict the inplane rotation search range.
11/11/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.03...)
New operation: ROT for rotating images/volumes.
This operation has improved interpolation and corner value options.
Replaces 'RT', 'RT M', 'RT B', 'RT 3', 'RT 3D', and 'RT 3DS'. Which will be removed in the future.
10/4/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.00...)
New operation: ROT A for rotating images/volumes around an abitrary point.
This operation has improved interpolation and corner value options.
Replaces 'RT C', 'RT 3A', and 'RT 3AS'. Which will be removed in the future.
10/4/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.00...)
New operation: ROT L for rotating volume around a line
This operation has improved interpolation and corner value options.
Replaces 'RT #L' and 'RT 3LS'. Which will be removed in the future.
10/4/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***20.00...)
Web installation on Gnome & OSX.
New executables for X-Window Web now offer full functionality on Gnome and OSX including contrast adjustment and no colormap flashing. Simple installation also.
9/14/11 AL (Distributed with SPIDER:***20.00...)
IP FS.
New algorithm for resizing images/volumes gives improved interpolation results compared with 'IP'.
09/4/11 GPK (Requires SPIDER:***20.00...)
New procedure restack.spi for renumbering image stacks.
Can restack SPIDER images listed in a set of image selection doc. files. Can decrease or increase the number of stacks and remove unused images. Creates new stacks and new selection doc files./
8/04/11 AL (In SPIDER:***19.11...)
Image header, FI H, and ST H
Have new fields (locations) in the file headers for storing a project number, micrograph number, and image number. This improves interoperability with Xmippp.
8/04/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***19.11...)
Web for X-Window use.
X-Window Web now has reduced colormap flashing and better color handling. Several operations including Tilted pair particle selection have been improved. Has new widgets in main menu bar.
8/04/11 AL (Distributed with SPIDER:***19.11...)
Web installation simplified.
X-Window Web installation is now simpler. Web is now statically linked with Motif libraries so these libraries are no longer needed on your machine. Web for 8 bit deep visuals has been retired.
8/04/11 AL (Distributed with SPIDER:***19.11...)
CC H.
Legacy phase cross correlation operation recovered.
08/4/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***19.11...)
RT SF.
New algorithm for rotating and shifting images gives improved interpolation results compared with 'RT SQ'.
08/4/11 GPK (Requires SPIDER:***19.11...)
AP SHC.
Faster version.
03/14/11 AL (Requires SPIDER:***19.05...)
DN MS
New operation for denoising images using 'mean shift'. (Requires SPIDER:***19.05...)
03/10/11 GK
XM MA
New operation to create an Xmipp selection file from a SPIDER selection doc. file. (Requires SPIDER:***19.02...)
01/26/11 AL
BP CG 3
New operation uses BP CG to create a back projection volume and two additional volumes from randomly selected half subsets of the projections. (Requires SPIDER:***19.01...)
01/06/11 AL

2010

MD
Mode: '() OFF' is now default.
Users no longer need to surround numerical input in procedures with ()'s when inside a do-loop. (This overcomes the most common problem users encounter when using SPIDER).
12/20/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***19.00...)
ST H
New convenience operation to set file variables in the file header by name (not by location in header).
11/26/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.20...)
DOC STAT.
New operation to find statistics for a document file column.
11/23/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.20...)
TF COR.
New convenience operation for faster CTF correction.
11/03/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.19...)
DOC SORT.
Does either ascending or descending sorts now.
10/26/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.19...)
MS.
Handles inline stacks larger than 2.1 Mb now.
10/20/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.19...)
AP TOOL.
New operation that helps to select shift area, shift steps, and ring step parameters for use in AP SH.
10/14/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.18...)
Sample procedures for reconstruction using reference projections no longer center group volumes.
Improved procedures give increased resolution.
9/14/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.18...)
SD.
Comment keys can have keys -9999999 .. -1. Also by using '//', a comment line containing substituted variables can be placed in a document file.
8/31/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.16...)
publish.
When using PubSub for controlling a cluster, publish can now be done remotely. This allows the master SPIDER job to run on a different server from the PubSub master.
8/4/10 AL (In SPIDER:***18.16...)
subscribe.
When using PubSub for controlling a cluster, subscribe no longer blocks when a node encounters NFS communication problems.
8/4/10 AL (In SPIDER:***18.16...)
IQ SYNC D.
New operation that waits for existence of a file then deletes it.
08/4/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.15...)
AP SHC.
Faster version of: AP SH
07/14/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.14...)
AP SCC.
Added ability to restrict image search to X axis or Y axis only.
02/26/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.09...)
AP SH.
Added optional input for specifying different X and Y shift search ranges.
02/26/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.09...)
Sample procedures for reconstruction using reference projections simplified.
Procedures have been simplified for easier use and increased speed.
1/18/10 AL (Requires SPIDER:***18.08...)
New procedure nat2stk.spi for use with data from Nature Protocols paper.
Procedure converts data set to use SPIDER stacks and most recent procedures for reconstruction using reference projections.
1/17/10 AL (In SPIDER:***18.08...)

2009

IQ DIR
New operation to query existence of a directory.
12/28/09 AL
@@procedure
New operation for invoking a procedure without a new namespace.
Same as @procedure, except that local numerical and string variables defined/set in the procedure are visible in the calling procedure.
11/31/09 AL
New syntax for creating string (symbolic) variables
Replaces FR L, FR G, FR LS, & FR GS
SPIRE supports this syntax in SPIDER release: ***18.14.
7/31/09 AL
New syntax for creating global register (numerical) variables
Replaces RR G
SPIRE supports this syntax in SPIDER release: ***18.14.
7/31/09 AL
CL CLA, CL HC
Operations rewritten (have slightly different inputs) to improve dendrogram plots and allow determining which images/elements are assigned to a class/cluster using CL HE and CL HD
6/11/09 AL
CL HE, CL HD
Operations rewritten (have slightly different inputs) in conjunction with changes to CL CLA and CL HC. It is now easy to determine which images/elements are assigned to a class/cluster
6/11/09 AL
UD MAX
New operation to find highest/lowest value in specified column of a document file.
5/28/09 AL
FI H
New convenience operation to retrieve file variables from the file header by name (not by location in header).
5/15/09 AL
MO 3
Added option which creates a Gaussian soft mask volume.
4/22/09 AL
Mac OS X executables available
OS X SPIDER and Web executables are now available in the current release.
4/9/09 AL
Read SPIDER files into Matlab.
Matlab scripts (M-files) are now available for reading/writing SPIDER files directly into Matlab data types for processing and visualization. The files are available from the Matlab file exchange: www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange .
2/6/09 BB

2008

New SPIDER usage protocols
SPIDER image processing for single-particle reconstruction of biological macromolecules from electron micrographs. Nature Protocols 3, 1941-1974 (2008)
Download tar archives of procedures.
12/20/08 TS
Simplified Spire installation.
Version 1.5.3 of Spire has a greatly simplified installation. It now comes with its own Python and all the prerequisite Python libraries needed to run Spire and the associated graphical tools.
11/25/08 BB
SPIDER Linux OMP executables.
Use of new compiler release allows SPIDER Linux OMP excutables to run more than four concurrent OMP processes.
10/30/08 AL
Simplifying SPIDER use under MPI.
When starting SPIDER under MPI with 'mpirun', a '--' at end of SPIDER's command line arguments allows SPIDER to ignore any arguments appended by 'mpirun'.
10/25/08 AL
AP REF, AP SH, BP 3F, BP 32F, BP CG, & BP RP.
Operations updated to improve use under MPI.
10/25/08 AL
LO I, LO LSD, & LO.
New operations to speed up RAMOS motif signature search.
8/05/08 AL
Particle verification
New documentation derived from: "Particle verification for single-particle, reference-based reconstruction using multivariate data analysis and classification," by Shaikh, Trujillo, LeBarron, Baxter, and Frank, Journal of Structural Biology (in press).
7/02/08 TRS
AP SH
Added method to restrict rotational alignment search by limiting the 'rays' searched.
6/23/08 AL
AP C
Merged rotational alignment and classification operation replaces: AP CA, AP CM.
6/18/08 AL
OR SH
Merged single image rotational and shift alignment operation replaces: OR MQ, OR NQ.
6/09/08 AL
OR R
Merged single image rotational alignment operation replaces: OR 2, OR 2M.
6/09/08 AL
UD FIND
New operation to retrieve a line from a document file which has a specified value in a specified column.
6/04/08 AL
Irix Support Discontinued
Starting with release 16.* we no longer provide executables for use with SGI Irix or SGI Linux.
5/23/08 AL
AP SH
Speed increased by using FFTW3 in Fourier steps and better data flow.
5/19/08 AL
AP REF
Speed doubled by using precalculation of trigonometric values, FFTW3 in Fourier steps, and better data flow.
5/19/08 AL
BP 3G
New operation for back projection using non-uniform Fourier transforms ('gridding').
5/19/08 AL
PJ 3G
New operation for projection using non-uniform Fourier transforms ('gridding').
5/19/08 AL
AP SCC
New operation rapidly calculates translational differences between experimental image/volume(s) and a series of reference image/volumes(s). Pads images before cross correlation in Fourier space.
5/19/08 AL

2007

SPIDER executables for Linux and Altix now use FFTW3.
In SPIDER single threaded FFTW3 Fourier transforms are often slightly slower than FFTW2 transforms. However multiple threaded FFTW3 transforms are significantly faster than our FFTW2 implementation. Since multi-processor machines are now common we have switched to FFTW3. The MD operation has been altered to allow controlling number of FFTW3 threads.
12/14/07 AL
Web for use on Intel based OSX
We now supply executables for X-Window Web for use on Intel based OSX. Thanks to Dr. Ngai Shing Mok and Dr. Neil Ranson from the University of Leeds for modifying Web for use on OSX.
11/30/07 AL
TH, TH C, TH F, & TH
Operations return optional register variable containing number of pixels affected.
10/09/07 AL
SPIDER for Intel based OSX systems
Makefile and executable for OSX on Intel are supplied.
04/24/07 AL
OP
This operation can now use a selection document file to pick input files to operate on.
1/20/07 AL
UD NEXT
New operation for sequentially accessing document files.
2/20/07 AL
RB 3F & RB 32F
New operations which combine 'RT SQ and 'BP 3F' or 'BP 32F' for increased speed when used with stacks.
1/10/07 AL
RT SQ
This operation can now use a selection document file to pick which input files to operate on.
1/10/07 AL

2006

CYCLE & EXIT
New operations for controlling iteration execution in SPIDER DO Loops.
11/09/06 AL
ELSEIF
New operation for controlling conditional execution in SPIDER procedures.
11/07/06 AL
ENDDO & DO
New syntax for ending a SPIDER 'DO' loop.
11/07/06 AL
FR N
New operation reads symbolic parameters one-by-one from variable list file.
11/03/06 AL
Symbolic (String) Variables
Symbolic variables are now true string variables. They can be assigned new values at any time.
11/02/06 AL
DO
Added optional loop index increment.
10/25/06 AL
VO NEA
New operation creates angular document file which provides more 'uniform' coverage than 'VO EA'. Uses a logarithmic spiral for spacing the angles.
10/12/06 AL
HD, HD D, & HD R
Operations have additional queries to set number of bins in histogram.
10/02/06 AL
RR S
New operation to read value(s) from a list of values into a register variable(s).
04/04/06 AL
DOC BOOT
New operation to select document file entries randomly with replacement.
01/20/06 AL
CP TO CCP4
Operation has additional queries to set cell dimensions.
01/10/06 AL

2005

Global register variables
Can now create "global register variables" using RR G which can be copied into current procedures using RR C.
12/29/05 AL
Names for registers
SPIDER users can now specify names for register variables instead of using predefined "x11 ,x12,..." names.
12/10/05 AL
Precompiled Linux executables with FFTW
Precompiled SPIDER Linux executables distributed with SPIDER are now statically linked with FFTW libraries.
09/28/05 AL
Copyright
SPIDER/Web released under GPL license.
09/18/05 AL
DOC KEY
New operation creates a selection document file from a document file having non-consecutive keys.
07/30/05 AL
UD IC
Intermittant bug with repeated use of this operation fixed.
07/20/05 AL
CG PH
Longstanding bug giving low precision output fixed.
07/14/05 AL
OP
Longstanding bug with multiple processors fixed. Accuracy of psi prompt removed.
07/14/05 AL & PP
CE MET
New operation for maximum entropy thresholding.
06/24/05 AL
FT
Can now link SPIDER with FFTW3 libraries by defining SP_LIBFFTW3 preprocessor variables.
05/18/05 BR
SY DOC
New operation creates symmetry document files.
04/07/05 JL
64 bit Opteron supported
SPIDER now can run in full 64 bit mode on Opteron systems.
01/26/05 AL
CP FROM NIK
New operation to convert Nikon Coolscan 9000 TIFF image to SPIDER.
01/14/05 AL
RF 3
Operation can return spatial frequency at 0.5 Fourier Shell Correlation cutoff in a register now.
01/11/05 AL
IQ PID
New operation to obtain current process ID.
01/03/05 AL

2004

SPIRE
SPIRE 1.2 released. Spire (SPIDER Reconstruction Engine) is a Python program providing a graphical user interface for running SPIDER procedure files.
12/16/04 BB
CE WATER
New operation for watershed segmentation of images.
11/19/04 AL
AP SH & AP REF
These operations no longer list 'mirrored' references in the output file. The actual projection angles are given for any mirrored projections. This may require changes in procedures which use these operations
11/02/04 AL
PK 3R
New operation finds peaks in volume and allows a neighborhood exclusion.
11/02/04 AL
VO EPT
New operation for rotating point/vector by an Euler angle.
8/03/04 AL
VO IA
New operation for finding included angle between two vectors.
8/03/04 AL
WA
New operation for warping or morphing image/volume.
4/26/04 AL
CE VS
New operation for variance smoothing.
3/28/04 AL
AP SH
New alignment operation replaces: APMQ, AP NQ, AP RQ, & AP RQN. Produces alignment parameter file compatible with AP REF.
3/18/04 AL
AP REF
New alignment operation replaces: AP MD, AP RD, AP RN, & AP RNS. Produces alignment parameter file compatible with AP SH. Can optionally do shift alignment.
3/18/04 AL
CA SRA
New operation for arbitrary coordinate image reconstitution using Coran or PCA.
3/19/04 AL
CA SRE
New operation for Eigen-image reconstitution using Coran or PCA.
3/19/04 AL
New document file format
SPIDER has a new document file format which handles keys > 999999 and more than 9 columns (registers). All earlier document files are still acceptable, however new document files may not work with older versions of SPIDER. (A new operation: DOC OLD will create older document file format from the newer format)
2/2/04 AL
PB CG3, PB PTS, PB RT3A, PB SH, PB IF, PB RT3, PB RT3L, & PB STP
New operations to manipulate PDB file (e.g. X-ray atomic coordinates) using same conventions as used in SPIDER. For example, 'PB CG3' calculates center of gravity of a PDB file similarly as 'CG 3' calculates center of gravity of a SPIDER file. Further, 'PB SH' will apply a shift to a PDB atomic coordinates the same way as SH will apply a shift to a SPIDER file. 'PB' commands use the same convention as SPIDER. Thus, if docking of EM SPIDER files yields shifts SX,SY,SZ these shifts can be directly applied to the original PDB file using 'PB SH'. Other 'PB' commands apply rotations and so on...
1/22/04 PP & ZH
VM
Can output register contents in floating point.
1/2/04 AL

2003

CA S, CA SM, CA SR, CA SRD , CA SRI, CL CLA, CL HC, CL KM, CL HE, & CL HD
CORAN, PCA & Clustering operations rewritten with modern memory management and text based output files.
10/16/03 AL
PJ 3 & PJ 3Q
Improved anti-aliasing. For previous versions use: PJ 3 O or PJ 3Q O.
9/18/03 PP
GP, RP
These operations now have fast access to inline files. This makes them useful as alternatives to registers or inline document files in SPIDER procedures.
9/8/03 AL
OR MQ, OR NQ
Order of input questions changed.
9/5/03 AL
VM M
The 'VM' operation accepts multiple lines when invoked as 'VM M'.
9/3/03 AL
AP MD, AP RD and AP RN
These operations can no longer create reference-rings files. Use AP I first.
9/3/03 AL
AP RQN
Non-mirrored image checking, restricted rotation alignment operation.
9/3/03 AL
SD IC, SD IC NEW, & SD IC COPY
New coperation to place register contents in an in-core array (document file). The array must be first declared with SD IC NEW, or by using: UD IC. The in-core array (document file) can be copied to a regular disk- based document file with: SD IC COPY
Once created an in-core arrray (document file) can be used anywhere a regular document file is used.
7/15/03 AL
MD
Mode: 'RESULTS OFF' stops use of SPIDER RESULTS file.
Mode: 'RESULTS ON' restarts use of SPIDER RESULTS file.
7/11/03 AL
SK
This operation can stack consecutive volumes now.
5/29/03 AL
sigsearch.spi or (sigspub.spi & sigsloop.spi)
New SPIDER procedures search for position & orientation of a small volume inside a larger volume. Use Fourier methods for calculating local correlation function (Alan Roseman, Ultramicroscopy, 2003) with a nonisotropic mask.
3/24/03 BR
sigsearchg.spi
New SPIDER procedure searches for position & orientation of a small volume inside a larger volume. Uses real space methods for calculating local correlation function (Frangakis et al., PNAS 99 (2002) 14153-14158) with an isotropic mask.
3/24/03 BR
PK DR
New operation for finding local peaks in image/volume with neighborhood exclusion.
3/24/03 BR
MX
New operation for finding maximum pixels from two image/volumes.
3/24/03 BR
HI JOINT
New operation for finding "mutual shared information" of a pair of images/volumes.
3/24/03 AL
AD F & AD R
New convenience operations for adding/subtracting two images/volumes while applying factors. A combination of AD and AR
3/24/03 AL
CP TO OPEND
SPIDER & Web are now able to utilize files having either byte ordering (endedness). However there is a performance penalty for reading/writing files of opposite order from your compilation specifications. Use 'CP TO OPEND' to convert files between different byte orders.
2/28/03 AL
Header values in SPIDER files
When it is appropriate, SPIDER will transfer header positions 14-21 & 31-200 from input file to newly created output files. If there is more than one input file, e.g. in the MU operation, the header values from the first input file are used.
2/24/03 AL
HI E
New operation for finding entropy of image/volume.
2/4/03 AL
Indexed stacks
Indexed stacks introduced for large sparse stacks. The operation MS I must be used to create an empty indexed stack.
1/23/03 AL
Before 2003

Source file: release.html     Page updated: 23 Jan. 2012     ArDean Leith
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