IMPORTANT!
The official Lattice Builder repository is now maintained by umontreal-simul.
A general software tool for constructing rank-1 lattice rules
Lattice rules are often used as a replacement for Monte Carlo to integrate multidimensional functions. For certain problems, well-constructed lattice rules can dramatically reduce the integration error with respect to Monte Carlo.
Lattice Builder is a software tool and library that implements a variety of construction algorithms for good rank-1 lattice rules. It supports exhaustive and random searches, as well as component-by-component (CBC) and random CBC constructions, for any number of points, and for various measures of (non)uniformity of the points. The implemented measures include the weighted Pα square discrepancy, the Rα criterion, and figures of merit based on the spectral test, with projection-dependent weights. For numbers of points that are integer powers of a prime base, the construction of embedded rank-1 lattice rules is supported through any of the above algorithms, and also through a fast CBC algorithm, with a variety of possibilities for the normalization of the merit values of individual embedded levels and for their combination into a single merit value.
- Reference Publication
Lattice Builder: A General Software Tool for Constructing Rank-1 Lattice Rules - Lattice Builder Manual
tutorials and technical reference
The easiest way to use Lattice Builder is to:
- Install Python (required for the web application).
- Download a binary package corresponding to your platform (currently, we are able to provide binary packages only for Linux and Windows platforms).
- Unpack the downloaded archive into a location of your choice. No further installation is required.
- Navigate to the directory named
latbuilder
in the unpacked archive, then to the subdirectory namedbin
. - To use the
Lattice Builder Web Application,
launch the
latbuilder-web.py
Python script. If Python is installed correctly, the web application will be displayed in your web browser. - To use
Lattice Builder Command-Line Tool,
invoke the
latbuilder
(orlatbuilder.exe
for Windows users) program with appropriate arguments.
Binary (pre-compiled) releases
of Lattice Builder are available for Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms.
These include the executable latbuilder
program, library and documentation,
together with the web application.
The binary distribution packages, under the latbuilder
base directory, have
the following directory structure:
bin
: contains the executablelatbuilder
program (the command-line tool) and thelatbuilder-web.py
Python script (that launches the web application);include
: contains the C++ header files necessary to use the Lattice Builder library;lib
: contains the binary Lattice Builder library;share/doc/latbuilder/html
: contains the HTML documentation;share/doc/latbuilder/examples
: contains examples on using the Lattice Builder library.
Compiling Lattice Builder requires the following software to be installed on the system:
- Python 2.7 or later
- Boost C++ Libraries 1.57.0 or later Installation instructions (section 5 is important): for Linux / MacOS, for Microsoft Windows
- FFTW 3.3.4 or later
- Git (optional for downloading the source code)
- Doxygen (optional for generating the documentation)
MacOS users can install these dependencies through MacPorts by installing the MacPorts software, then by installing the following packages: python27, boost, fftw-3, git and doxygen.
You will also need a recent compiler compliant with the C++11 standard. Lattice Builder is known to compile using:
Get the latest source tree from GitHub, either by typing:
git clone https://github.com/mungerd/latbuilder.git
If Git is not available on your system, you can click on the Download ZIP link from the Lattice Builder GitHub page, then by unzipping the downloaded archive.
Lattice Builder relies on the waf meta build system for configuring and compiling the software source. Waf is included in the Lattice Builder source tree, but it depends on Python, which must be available on the system on which Lattice Builder is to be compiled.
The commands below should work verbatim under Linux and MacOS systems.
Microsoft Windows users should replace every instance of ./waf
with C:\Python27\python waf
, assuming that the Python executable
(python.exe
) was installed under C:\Python27
, or simply with python waf
if the Python installation path is accessible from the system %PATH%
environment variable.
Change the current directory to the root directory of the package, for example:
cd latbuilder
if you obtained the source code with the git
command.
If you obtained the source code from the ZIP archive, the directory should be
named latbuilder-master
instead of latbuilder
.
At the root of the source tree lies the waf
script, manages the build
process.
Try:
./waf --help
to see the various commands and options.
The most relevant options include --out
to specify the directory in which the
files created during the build process will be placed, --prefix
to specify
the directory under which you wish to install the Lattice Builder software
once it is compiled, and --boost
and --fftw
to specify the directories
under which Boost and FFTW were installed, if not under standard system
directories. First, the project must be configured with:
./waf configure --prefix $HOME/latsoft
with $HOME/latsoft
replaced with the directory into which you wish to install
Lattice Builder.
Here, $HOME
will expand to your own home directory; you can specify any other
directory to which you have permissions for write access, e.g., with --prefix /tmp/latsoft
.
If Boost and FFTW are not part of the standard system installation and were
manually installed under, say, the /opt/boost
and /opt/fftw
directories —
which means that /opt/boost
and /opt/fftw
both contain subdirectories named
include
and lib
— the following command indicates waf
where to find these
two libraries:
./waf configure --prefix $HOME/latsoft --boost /opt/boost --fftw /opt/fftw configure --link-static
The --link-static
option suggested above will cause the Boost and FFTW
libraries to be linked statically to the executable program, which may be
desirable especially if these are not installed in standard locations.
It is possible to set the CXX
environment variable to the path to a specific
C++ compiler to be used to build Lattice Builder, before running the waf configure
command.
The above waf configure
commands configures waf
for a minimal build,
without documentation nor code examples. These can be built by
appending the following options to waf configure
:
--build-docs
to generate the documentation, if Doxygen is available on the system.--build-examples
to compile and install example code, including code from the tutorial, which will also be verified to yield correct output. The expected outputs are stored in text files with names matching those of programs, under theexamples/tutorial/output
subdirectory.
Errors will be reported if required software components cannot be found. In that case, you should check the Boost and FFTW installation paths.
Once everything is configured correctly, the following command will build the Lattice Builder library and command-line tool:
./waf build
If the build process completed without errors, Lattice Builder can be installed
to $HOME/latsoft
, or any directory specified with the --prefix
options
during the configuration step, with:
./waf install
The Lattice Builder executable can be found at $HOME/latsoft/bin/latbuilder
(with an additional .exe
extension under Windows systems).
Before executing the Lattice Builder program, it may be necessary to
to add the paths to the Boost and FFTW libraries to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
(for
Linux) or to the DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH
(for MacOS) environment
variables, especially if you did not use the --link-static
option on waf configure
.
For example, if you're using an sh
-compatible shell and Boost and FFTW were
manually installed under the /opt/boost
and /opt/fftw
directories,
respectively, type:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/boost/lib:/opt/fftw/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
under Linux, or
export DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/boost/lib:/opt/fftw/lib:$DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH
under MacOS.
Microsoft Windows users might need to copy the Boost and FFTW DLLs into the
same directory ($HOME/latsoft/bin
, for example) as the latbuilder
executable program.
To check that the program installed correctly, run:
$HOME/latsoft/bin/latbuilder --version
which should report the current Lattice Builder version.
Help on usage can be obtained by replacing the --version
switch with the
--help
switch.
Information on using the Lattice Builder program is given in the
Lattice Builder command line tutorial
that can also be found in share/doc/latbuilder/html/cmdtut.html
.
Compact usage information can also be obtained with bin/latbuilder --help
.
As a concrete example of how the program can be used, to construct, using the component-by-component (CBC) algorithm, a rank-1 lattice rule with 8191 points in 5 dimensions using the Pα criterion with α=2 and with uniform product weights with value 0.1, issue the following command (from the installation directory):
bin/latbuilder -l ordinary -n 8191 -d 5 -m CU:P2 -w product:0.1 -c CBC
The above command line assumes that the current working directory is that which
contains the bin
subdirectory. If you installed a binary package, it is the
latbuilder
directory at the root of the package.
Microsoft Windows users should replace bin/latbuilder
with
bin\latbuilder.exe
in the above.
The Lattice Builder Web Application is included in the binary packages. Python must be installed on the host machine. A connection to the Internet is also necessary to display the mathematical symbols. The local web server can be started by launching the following Python script:
bin/latbuilder-web.py
The web application can then be used by connecting a browser to the http://127.0.0.1:8080/. It requires the Lattice Builder program above to be working properly.
Microsoft Windows users should replace bin/latbuilder-web.py
with
C:\Python27\python.exe bin\latbuilder-web.py
in the above, assuming that
Python was installed under C:\Python27
.
Several examples of code using the Lattice Builder application programming
interface (API) can be found under the share/doc/latbuilder/examples
directory under the installation directory and in subdirectories.
To teach yourself how to code using the Lattice Builder library, you can read:
Compiling and linking code with the Lattice Builder library requires the same software dependencies to be available as for compiling the Lattice Builder program itself.
External software can make use of the Lattice Builder libraries by
setting the compiler to use the C++11 standard, by adding the include
and lib
directories (under the installation directory) to the include and
library paths, respectively, then by linking with the latcommon
and
latbuilder
libraries, together with the fftw3
library.
An example Makefile
to build a project that uses the Lattice Builder
application programming interface (API) can be found under
$HOME/latsoft/share/doc/latbuilder/examples/myproject
.
If you compiled Lattice Builder yourself from the source code, this Makefile
will be adapted to your specific system configuration; otherwise, it may need
to be customized.
In particular, if Lattice Builder, Boost and FFTW were respectively installed
under $HOME/latsoft
, /opt/boost
and /opt/FFTW
, a C++ source file called
myprog.cc
can be compiled and linked into an executable called myprog
by
using the following command line with GCC:
g++ -std=c++11 -I$HOME/latsoft/include -I/opt/boost/include -I/opt/fftw/include -O2 -o myprog myprog.cc -L$HOME/latsoft/lib -l latbuilder -l latcommon -L/opt/fftw/lib -l fftw3
With clang, just replace g++
with clang++
.
To create an Xcode project that uses Lattice Builder, follow the following steps:
- Create a new Xcode projet as: Application ► Command Line Tool
- Once the Xcode project displays, select the application name (blue file) on the left pane.
- Set Build Settings ► Search Paths ► Always Search User Paths to Yes.
- To Build Settings ► Search Paths ► User Header Search Paths, add the path
to the
include
directory from your Lattice Builder installation (e.g.,/Users/me/latbuilder/include
) and the paths to theinclude
directories from your Boost and FFTW installations if not under standard system locations. - To Build Phases ► Link Binary With Libraries, add (+) the following files:
liblatbuilder.a
andliblatcommon.a
from thelib
directory of your Lattice Builder installation (e.g.,/Users/me/latbuilder/lib
);libfftw3.a
from your FFTW installation.
Fast CBC with a coordinate-uniform figure of merit.
For example, the following command line performs a fast CBC construction using the weighted Pα criterion with α=2 and with product weights giving the same weight of 0.01 to every coordinate (this means a weight of 10-2 for projections of order 1, of 10-4 for projections of order 2, of 10-6 for projections of order 3, etc.):
latbuilder -l ordinary -n 2^16 -d 100 -m CU:P2 -c fast-CBC -w product:0.01
The above search is for n=216=65,536 points in dimension 100. Lattice Builder does that very quickly. It may be necessary to enclose some arguments in double quotes, depending on the shell (command line interpreter), e.g.:
latbuilder -l "ordinary" -n "2^16" -d "100" -m "CU:P2" -c "fast-CBC" -w "product:0.01"