GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT

FILE version 1.0.

Introduction
Since release 9.2 of Geant4, it is also possible to import geometry setups based on a plain text
description, according to a well defined syntax for identifying the different geometrical entities (solids,
volumes, materials and volume attributes) with associated parameters. An example showing how to
define a geometry in plain text format and import it in a Geant4 application is shown in
examples/extended/persistency/P03. We describe here first the format of the text file description
and then how to use it in a Geant4 example.

Description of format
The description of the geometry is based on tags. A tag is a word that appears at the first one in a line and
sets what the line means, for example if you write :SOLID myBox BOX 10. 10. 10., the first word
:SOLID means that the line describe the solid shape and parameters.
There are no constraints on the order of the tags in the file, except some logical restrictions, e.g. a volume
cannot be positioned or given attributes if it has not been defined (e.g. no ’:PLACE’, ’:VIS’,
’:COLOUR’, ’:CHECK_OVERLAPS’ tags before ’:VOLU’ tag).
We will explain in this section the tags used to describe the geometry, also explaining the meaning of
each of the words that follow the tag, and an example of each tag. Tags can be given with any
combination of upper case and lower case letters. Each tag has a fixed number of arguments, known by
the parser; therefore you may write all arguments in a line or in several lines at your will. You will
observe that the order of parameters is always the same as the order of the parameters in the
corresponding Geant4 class (if it exists).

Elements and materials

Isotope
:ISOT

• Name
• Z
• N
• A
Example: :ISOT Cl35 17 18 35.

1
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

Element made of one unique isotope

:ELEM

• Name
• Symbol
• Z
• A
Example: :ELEM Hydrogen H 1. 1.

Element composed of several isotopes

:ELEM_FROM_ISOT

• Name
• Symbol
• Number of components
One line per isotope with

• isotope name
• fraction of number of atoms per volume
Example: :ELEM_FROM_ISOT Chlorine Cl 2 Cl35 0.4 Cl36 0.6

Material made of one element

:MATE

• Name
• Z
• A
• Density
Example: :MATE Iron 26. 55.85 7.87

Material made of a mixture of elements or materials

:MIXT

• Name
• Density
• Number of components

2
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

One line per material or element with

• material name
• proportion of material in the mixture
The components can be either all elements or all materials, but both types cannot appear in the same
mixture.
There are three mixture tags, depending of the way the proportions are defined:

• :MIXT_BY_WEIGHTProportions by weight fractions ( This tag is equivalent to the ":MIXT" tag )

• :MIXT_BY_NATOMS Proportions by number of atoms
• :MIXT_BY_VOLUME Proportions by volume
The first tag can be used to build material mixtures out of elements or materials, but the second tag can
only be used with elements as components and the last tag can only be used with material as components.
Example: :MIXT Fiber_Lead 9.29 2 Lead 0.9778 Polystyrene 0.0222 :MIXT_BY_NATOMS
CO2 1.8182E-3 2 C 1 O 2 :MIXT_BY_VOLUME H-CO2 (1.214E-03+1.8182E-3)/2. 2
Hydrogen 0.5 CO2 0.5

Geant4 internal database of materials and elements

Geant4 provides a list of predefined materials, whose compositions correspond to the NIST definition.
Among them you can find all single elementary materials, from Z = 1 (Hydrogen) to Z = 98
(Californium). You can use those materials when building a volume without the need to redefine them on
your ASCII file. It is just enough that the material name you assign to a volume corresponds to the name
of one of these predefined materials (they all start with “G4_”). The Geant4 materials have the mean
excitation energy set explicitly, instead of allowing an automatic calculation from its components. You
may override those materials if you want by redefining them in your ASCII file.
Also Geant4 provides the definition of all elements from Z = 1 (Hydrogen) to Z = 107 (Bohrium). Their
names are the usual symbol in the periodic table of elements (no “G4_”). These elements take into
account the isotope composition.
Apart from the elementary materials, many other are available, usually related to medical physics
applications. The full list of materials and their composition can be found here
(http://geant4.web.cern.ch/geant4/UserDocumentation/UsersGuides/ForApplicationDeveloper/html/apas08.html#sect.G4M

Solids
:SOLID

• solid name
• solid type name
• ... List of solid parameters

3
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

The meaning and order of the solid parameters is the same as in the corresponding Geant4 solid
constructor. All the Geant4 CSG and "specific" solids are implemented. The list of solid types and the
corresponding parameters is the
following (for better understanding of the solid parameters meaning we refer to the Geant4 documentation
(https://geant4.web.cern.ch/geant4/UserDocumentation/UsersGuides/ForApplicationDeveloper/html/ch04.html#sect.Geom.
BOX: box

• X Half-length
• Y Half-length
• Z Half-length
TUBE: tube

• Inner radius
• Outer radius
• Half length in z
TUBS: tube section

• Inner radius
• Outer radius
• Half length in z
• Starting phi angle
• Delta angle of the segment
CONE: cone

• Inner radius at -fDz

• Inner radius at +fDz
• Outer radius at -fDz
• Outer radius at +fDz
• Half length in z (=fDz)
CONS: cone section

• Inner radius at -fDz

• Inner radius at +fDz
• Outer radius at -fDz
• Outer radius at +fDz
• Half length in z (=fDz)
• Starting angle of the segment
• Delta angle of the segment

4
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

TRD: trapezoid

• Half-length along x at the surface positioned at -dz

• Half-length along x at the surface positioned at +dz
• Half-length along y at the surface positioned at -dz
• Half-length along y at the surface positioned at +dz
• Half-length along z axis
PARA: paralellepiped

• Half-length along x at the surface positioned at -dz

• Half-length along x at the surface positioned at +dz
• Half-length along y at the surface positioned at -dz
• Angle formed by the y axis and by the plane joining the centre of the faces G4Parallel to the z-x plane
at -dy and +dy
• Polar angle of the line joining the centres of the faces at -dz and +dz in z
• Azimuthal angle of the line joining the centres of the faces at -dz and +dz in z Half-length along y at
the surface positioned at +dz
TRAP: generic trapezoid

• Half-length along the z-axis (=pDz)

• Polar angle of the line joining the centres of the faces at -/+pDz
• Azimuthal angle of the line joining the centre of the face at -pDzto the centre of the face at +pDz
• Half-length along y of the face at -pDz (=pDy1)
• Half-length along x of the side at y=-pDy1 of the face at -pDz
• Half-length along x of the side at y=+pDy1 of the face at -pDz
• Angle with respect to the y axis from the centre of the side at y=-pDy1 to the centre at y=+pDy1 of the
face at -pDz
• Half-length along y of the face at +pDz (=pDy2)
• Half-length along x of the side at y=-pDy2 of the face at +pDz
• Half-length along x of the side at y=+pDy2 of the face at +pDz
• Angle with respect to the y axis from the centre of the side at y=-pDy2 to the centre at y=+pDy2 of the
face at +pDz
or alternatively, if your trapezoid is a simpler one, you can use the parameters

• Length along z
• Length along y
• Length along x at the wider side
• Length along x at the narrower side

5
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

SPHERE: sphere

• Inner radius
• Outer radius
• Starting angle of the segment
• Delta angle of the segment
• Theta starting angle of the segment
• Theta delta angle of the segment
ORB: full solid sphere

• Outer radius
TORUS: torus

• Inside radius
• Outside radius
• Swept radius of torus
• Starting Phi angle (fSPhi+fDPhi <= 2PI, fSPhi > -2PI)
• Delta angle of the segment
POLYCONE: polycone

• Initial phi starting angle

• Total phi angle
• Number of z planes or Number of rz points
For each z plane:

• Position of z plane
• Tangent distance to outer surface
• Half-length along the z-axis
For each rz corner:

• R coordinate of these corners

• Z coordinate of these corners
The software will know which if the numbers refer to plane or rz points by looking at the number of
parameters provided and comparing it with the number expected
Example:

:SOLID polyc POLYCONE 0 360 6

3 -2
3.5 -2

6
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

3.5 0.75
3.75 1
3.75 2
32

or equivalently

:SOLID polyc POLYCONE 0 360 4

-2 3 3.5
0.75 3 3.5
1. 3. 3.75
2. 3. 3.75

POLYHEDRA: polyhedra

• Initial phi starting angle

• Total phi angle
• Number of sides
• Number of z planes or Number of rz points
For each z plane:

• Position of z plane
• Tangent distance to outer surface
• Half-length along the z-axis
For each rz corner:

• R coordinate of these corners

• Z coordinate of these corners
The software will know which if the numbers refer to plane or rz points by looking at the number of
parameters provided and comparing it with the number expected
Example:

:SOLID polyh POLYHEDRA 20. 180. 3 4

1900. 32.
1800. 30
1800. 0.
1900. 0.

or equivalently

7
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

:SOLID polyh POLYHEDRA 20. 180. 3 2

1800. 0. 30.
1900. 0. 32.

ELLIPTICAL_TUBE: elliptical tube

• Half length X
• Half length Y
• Half length Z
ELLIPSOID: ellipsoid

• Semiaxis in X
• Semiaxis in Y
• Semiaxis in Z
• Lower cut plane level, z
• Upper cut plane level, z
ELLIPTICAL_CONE: elliptical cone

• Semiaxis in X
• Semiaxis in Y
• Height of elliptical cone
• Upper cut plane level
HYPE: hyperbolic profile

• Inner radius
• Outer radius
• Inner stereo angle
• Outer stereo angle
• Half length in Z
TET: tetrahedron

• Anchor point
• Point 2
• Point 3
• Point 4
• Flag indicating degeneracy of points
TWISTED_BOX: box twisted along one axis

8
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

• Twist angle
• Half x length
• Half y length
• Half z length
TWISTED_TRAP: trapezoid twisted along one axis

• Twisted angle
• Half x length at y=-pDy
• Half x length at y=+pDy
• Half y length (=pDy1)
• Half z length (=pDz)
• Polar angle of the line joining the centres of the faces at -/+pDz
• Half y length at -pDz (=pDy2)
• Half x length at -pDz, y=-pDy1
• Half x length at -pDz, y=+pDy1
• Half y length at +pDz
• Half x length at +pDz, y=-pDy2
• Half x length at +pDz, y=+pDy2
• Angle with respect to the y axis from the centre of the side
TWISTED_TRD: twisted trapezoid with the x and y dimensions varying along z

• Half x length at the surface positioned at -pDz

• Half x length at the surface positioned at +pDz
• Half y length at the surface positioned at -pDz
• Half y length at the surface positioned at +pDz
• Half z length (=pDz)
• Twisted angle
TWISTED_TUBS: tube section twisted along its axis

• Twisted angle
• Inner radius at end-cap
• Outer radius at end-cap
• Half z length
• Phi angle of a segment
Boolean solids

9
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

The three types of Geant4 boolean solids are supported: union, subtraction and intersection. The same
tag should be used as for normal solids, but putting as solid type the type of boolean operation. The
parameters are

• Solid name
• Solid boolean operation (UNION/SUBTRACTION/INTERSECTION)
• First component solid name
• Second component solid name
• Name of relative rotation matrix
• Relative X position
• Relative Y position
• Relative Z position
Example: :SOLID myunion UNION solid1 solid2 RM30 -11.8 12.5 0.

Logical volumes
There are two ways to define a logical volume. You can build if from a previously declared solid
associating a material to it
:VOLU

• Volume name
• Solid name
• Material name
Example: :VOLU HALL HALL Air
or you can skip the definition of the solid and in one unique line define the solid and the material (valid
also for boolean solids). You should then use the same format as for the :SOLID tag, but adding as last
word the material name
Example:
Instead of

:SOLID HALL BOX 5000. 5000. 20000.

:VOLU HALL HALL Air

use
:VOLU HALL BOX 5000. 5000. 20000. Air

10
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

Physical volumes
All the possible ways to place a volume in Geant4 are supported: a single placement, a parameterised
one, a division, a replica and an assembly.

Single placement
:PLACE

• Volume name
• Copy number
• Parent volume name
• Name of rotation matrix
• X position
• Y position
• Z position
Example:

:VOLU yoke :TUBS Iron 3 620. 820. 1270.

:PLACE yoke 1 expHall R00 0.0 0.0 370.

Parameterisation
The parameterisations supported are the placement of several copies of a volume along a line, in a circle
and in a bidimensional grid (other types of parameterisation may be added at user request).
:PLACE_PARAM

• Volume name
• Copy number
• Parent volume name
• Parameterisation type
• Name of rotation matrix
• Number of copies
• Step (separation between copies)
• Offset
• Extra arguments (optional, depend on parameterisation type)
There are three types of linear parameterisations, along the three axis X,Y,Z (types: LINEAR_X,
LINEAR_Y, LINEAR_Z) and a general one (type LINEAR) for which you have to add as extra arguments

11
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

the axis direction DIR_X DIR_Y DIR_Z. The offset for linear parameterisations represents the distance
from the centre of the first copy to the point (0,0,0) along the line.
In the case of circle parameterisation, the circle is around the Z axis by default. If you want a circle
around another axis you can provide as extra arguments the axis and, optionally, the position of the first
copy.
There are three types of square parameterisation, in the planes XY,XZ,YZ (types: SQUARE_XY,
SQUARE_XZ, SQUARE_YZ) and a general one (type SQUARE). For this bidimensional
parameterisations you have to provide two copy numbers, two steps and, optionally, two offsets. For the
general case, SQUARE the offset is not needed, but you have to add as extra arguments the two axis, that
do not have to be orthogonal, and, optionally, the position of the first copy. In the case of this
paramerisation type, you have to provide two number of copies, one for each axis.
Example:

:PLACE_PARAM mytube 1 subworld2 LINEAR_X RM0 5 20. 0.

:PLACE_PARAM mytube 1 subworld1 LINEAR RM0 5 20. 0. 1. 1. 1. -50. 0. 0.

:PLACE_PARAM mybox 0 mother CIRCLE RM0 30 0.209 1 150

:PLACE_PARAM mybox 1 subworld2 SQUARE_XZ RM0 5 5 20. 20.

:PLACE_PARAM mybox 1 subworld1 SQUARE RM0 5 8 20. 10. 0. 1. 1. 0. 1. 0.

Be aware that putting offset = 0 means that the first copy is placed at (0,0,0). This may be not what you
want if, for example, you are filling a box with an square of small boxes using an square
parameterisation: offset 0 will mean that all the copies are placed in the positive-positive quarter of the
mother box.

Division
There are several ways to define a division in Geant4, by giving:

• the number of divisions (so that the width of each division will be automatically calculated)
• the division width (so that the number of divisions will be automatically calculated to fill as much of
the mother as possible)
• both the number of divisions and the division width (this is especially designed for the case where the
copies do not fully fill the mother)
To each of these types correspond a different tag
:DIV_WIDTH

• Volume name
• Parent volume name

12
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

• Material name
• Axis of division
• Division width
• Offset (not mandatory)
:DIV_NDIV

• Volume name
• Parent volume name
• Material name
• Axis of division
• Number of divisions
• Offset (not mandatory)
:DIV_NDIV_WIDTH

• Volume name
• Parent volume name
• Material name
• Axis of division
• Number of divisions
• Division width
• Offset (not mandatory)
Example:

:DIV_WIDTH mybox mother AIR Z 10.

:DIV_NDIV_WIDTH mytube mother copper PHI 12 10.*deg

Replica
To define a replica the following tag must be used:
:REPL

• Volume name
• Parent volume name
• Axis of division
• Number of divisions
• Division width

13
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

• Offset (not mandatory)

Example: :REPL crystal Block X 10 5.*cm
Remember, that different to the divisions, where the solid type and dimensions are calculated
automatically be Geant4, in the case of replicas the volume name used must be the name of a previously
defined volume. This solid is not really used for navigation but should have the correct type and
dimensions for visualisation.

Assembly volumes
Assembly volumes are sets of logical volumes that are combined together, so that they act as if there
were in a real mother, but without creation of the mother.
To define assembly volumes you have to define the relative rotations and positions of all the logical
volumes
:VOLU_ASSEMBLY

• Volume name
• Number of logical volumes
• Axis of division
• Number of divisions
• Division width
• Offset (not mandatory)
One line per logical volume with

• Logical volume name

• Rotation matrix name
• position X
• position Y
• position Z
Then to place the assembly volume you can use:
:PLACE_ASSEMBLY

• Volume name
• Copy number
• Parent volume name
• Name of rotation matrix
• X position
• Y position
• Z position

14
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

Example:

:SOLID Crystal BOX 10 10 10

:SOLID Crystal2 BOX 5 5 5
:VOLU_ASSEMBLY CrystalSet 3
Crystal RM0 0. 0. 0.
Crystal RM1 0. 0. 20.
Crystal2 RM0 0. 20 -10

:PLACE_ASSEMBLY CrystalSet 1 expHall R00 100. 0. 0.

Other tags

Rotation matrix
A rotation matrix is interpreted as the rotation that should be applied to the object in the reference system
of its mother. It can be defined in three ways:

• a) By giving the three rotation angles around the X, Y and Z axis (in this order of rotations)
• b) By giving the polar and azimuthal angles of the X, Y and Z axis after the rotation is applied
• c) By giving the nine matrix elements of the rotation matrix: XX, XY, XZ, YX, YY, YZ, ZX, ZY, ZZ
The tag for the three cases is the same. The parser will know which case is meant by the number of
parameters.
a) :ROTM

• Name
• Angle of rotation around global X axis
• Angle of rotation around global X axis
• Angle of rotation around global X axis
Example: :ROTM R0 0. 0. 0.
b):ROTM

• Name
• Polar angle for axis X
• Azimuthal angle for axis X
• Polar angle for axis Y
• Azimuthal angle for axis Y
• Polar angle for axis Z

15
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

• Azimuthal angle for axis Z

Example: :ROTM R0 90. 0. 90. 90. 0. 0.
c):ROTM

• Name
• 9 parameters defining the rotation matrix
Example: :ROTM R0 1. 0. 0. 0. 1. 0. 0. 0. 1.

Visibility
:VIS

• Volume name
• ON or TRUE, OFF or FALSE
Example: :VIS yoke OFF
By default the visibility of all volumes is set to ON

Colour and transparency

To define the colour of a volume
:COLOUR/:COLOR

• Volume name
• Red colour proportion
• Green colour proportion
• Blue colour proportion
• Transparency
The four parameters can take a value between 0 and 1. The transparency parameter is not mandatory.
Example: :COLOUR NDC_chamber 0.2 0.4 0.1
By default, the three colour proportions will be set to -1.

Check overlaps
Geant4 offers the possibility to check if a volume overlaps with other volumes. By default it is not set,
but you can activate it with the commands
:CHECK_OVERLAPS

• Volume name
• ON or TRUE, OFF or FALSE

16
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

Example: :CHECK_OVERLAPS NDC_chamber 0.2 0.4 0.1

By default, the three colour proportions will be set to -1

Use of ’*’ in names

In the case of the :VIS, :COLOUR and :CHECK_OVERLAPS tags, you may use ’*’ to define the
volume name. This ’*’ will be replaced by ’any name’. For example Crys* means all the volume names
starting by ’Crys’, * means all volume names.

Use of parameters
You can also define a parameter for later use in any tag.
:P

• parameter name
• parameter value

You can then use the parameter as: ’$’ + parameter_name

Example:

:P InnerR 12.
:VOLU yoke :TUBS Iron 3 $InnerR 820. 1270.

Units
Any value in a tag has a default unit that depends on the dimension of the value (automatically known by
the parser). The default units are the following:

• length: mm
• angle: degrees
• density: g/cm3
• atomic mass: g/mole

The user can override the default value of a unit by indicating the unit of each value. This can be done
adding at the end of the value the unit name (see CLHEP file Units/SystemOfUnits.h) preceded by a ’*’
character; e.g. 3*mm, 1.4*rad,...

17
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

Arithmetic Expressions
For any value you want to define in a tag you can use the most common mathematical expressions
instead of directly writing the figures, e.g:

3-sin(8.2/3.5)
(3+4)*(7-log(3))

You can also use parameters in the expressions, e.g:

7.2*$RADIUS-$X_LENGTH/1.5
If you use a regular expression, remember that there can only be a unit in the whole expression, and it
must be at the end.
The regular expressions used include (their meaning is evident): +, -, *, /, sin, cos ,tan ,asin ,acos ,atan
,atan2 ,sinh ,cosh ,tanh ,sqrt ,exp ,log ,log10 ,pow.

Including other files

You can nest several files by using the #include’ directive anywhere in your geometry files.
Example: #include mygeom2.txt

Examples of code
The example examples/extended/persistency/P03 shows how to use the geometry from text in
your application. It also covers the case of associating a sensitive detector to one of the volumes defined
in the text geometry, the case of mixing C++ and text geometry definitions and the case of defining new
tags in the text format so that regions and cuts by region can be defined in the text file. And it provides an
example on how to write a geometry text file from the in-memory Geant4 geometry.

Simple example
To read your geometry from a text file you have to write the following lines in your user detector class

#include "ExTGDetectorConstruction.hh"
#include "G4tgbVolumeMgr.hh"
#include "G4tgrMessenger.hh"

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ExTGDetectorConstruction::ExTGDetectorConstruction()
{
messenger = new G4tgrMessenger;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ExTGDetectorConstruction::~ExTGDetectorConstruction()

18
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

{
delete messenger;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
G4VPhysicalVolume* ExTGDetectorConstruction::Construct()
{
//------------------------------------------------
// Define one or several text files containing the geometry description
//------------------------------------------------
G4String filename = "g4geom.txt";
G4tgbVolumeMgr* volmgr = G4tgbVolumeMgr::GetInstance();
volmgr->AddTextFile(filename);

//------------------------------------------------
// Read the text files and construct the GEANT4 geometry
//------------------------------------------------
G4VPhysicalVolume* physiWorld = volmgr->ReadAndConstructDetector();

return physiWorld;
}

Then you can define your geometry in a file named g4geom.txt. You can see several examples of
geometry text files in the mentioned examples.

Associating a sensitive detector to a volume defined in the

geometry text file
When you use the above code to read your geometry from a text file, you can still associate a sensitive
detector to one or more of the volumes defined in your text file. To do so you can get a pointer to the
logical volume by looking for it by its name, like in the following examples:

G4LogicalVolume * logicChamber =
G4tgbVolumeMgr::GetInstance()->FindG4LogVol("Chamber",0);

Once you have the logical volume pointer, you can associate a sensitive detector to it. See the following
code, extracted from the class ExTGDetectorConstructionWithSD in the P03 example:

G4SDManager* SDman = G4SDManager::GetSDMpointer();

G4String trackerChamberSDname = "ExTextGeom/TrackerChamberSD";

ExTGTrackerSD* aTrackerSD = new ExTGTrackerSD( trackerChamberSDname );
SDman->AddNewDetector( aTrackerSD );
G4LogicalVolume * logicChamber =
G4tgbVolumeMgr::GetInstance()->FindG4LogVol("Chamber",0);
if(logicChamber)
{
logicChamber->SetSensitiveDetector( aTrackerSD );
}
else

19
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

{
G4Exception("ExTGDetectorConstructionWithSD::Construct()",
"InvalidGeometry", JustWarning,
"Volume does not exists in geometry: Chamber.");
}

Mixing C++- and text-file geometries

Geometries built from text files can be mixed with geometries built with C++ code in a seamless way. In
the above section it was shown how to acces a logical volume built from a text file inside your C++ code.
You can access in a similar way a physical volume:

GVPhysicalVolume * physChamber =
G4tgbVolumeMgr::GetInstance()->FindG4PhysVol("Chamber",0);

Pointers to material, elements and isotopes can be obtained by name in the following way

G4Material* mate =
G4tgbMaterialMgr::GetInstance()->FindBuiltG4Material("Water");

G4Element* elem =
G4tgbMaterialMgr::GetInstance()->FindBuiltG4Elementl("Sodium");

G4Isotope* isot =
G4tgbMaterialMgr::GetInstance()->FindBuiltG4Isotope("F18");

If you want to place a volume defined in your C++ code inside a volume read from the text file, you can
simply get the G4LogicalVolume pointer of the text volume and place the C++ volume inside it. See the
following code, extracted from the class ExTGDetectorConstructionWithCpp in the P03 example:

//------------------------------------------------
// Build another volume and place it in the text geometry
//------------------------------------------------
G4Box* solid = new G4Box("mybox",2.,2.,3.);

G4Material* water = G4NistManager::Instance()->FindOrBuildMaterial("G4_Fe");

G4LogicalVolume* logicVol = new G4LogicalVolume(solid,water,"mybox",0,0,0);

//----- Place the volume in the world of the text geometry

G4LogicalVolume* textWorldVol = physiWorld->GetLogicalVolume();

// NOTE: if you want to place your full text geometry in the C++ geometry,
// you should use this G4LogicalVolume and place it in a C++ logical
// volume
new G4PVPlacement(0, // no rotation
G4ThreeVector(0.,-20.,0), // at (x,y,z)
logicVol, // its logical volume
"myBox1", // its name
textWorldVol, // its mother volume

20
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

false, // no boolean operations

0); // copy number

//----- Place the volume inside a volume of the text geometry

G4LogicalVolume* textSphereVol =
G4tgbVolumeMgr::GetInstance()->FindG4LogVol("sphere",1);
new G4PVPlacement(0, // no rotation
G4ThreeVector(0.,0.,0), // at (x,y,z)
logicVol, // its logical volume
"myBox2", // its name
textSphereVol, // its mother volume
false, // no boolean operations
1); // copy number

Defining new tags in the geometry file format

The geometry file format can be extended by adding new tags. The P03 example illustrates how to add
two new tags: to define a G4Region and to set the production cuts to a G4Region.
The first thing to do is to define your own class inheriting from G4tgrLineProcessor. In the method
ProcessLine you should invoke the method G4tgrLineProcessor::ProcessLine and if it returns 0 (that is
when a tag is not found) define what to do with your new tags. See the example at
ExTGRCLineProcessor:

G4bool ExTGRCLineProcessor::ProcessLine( const std::vector<G4String> wl )

{

G4bool iret = G4tgrLineProcessor::ProcessLine( wl );

G4String wl0 = wl[0];

for( size_t ii = 0; ii < wl0.length(); ii++ )
{
wl0[ii] = toupper( wl0[ii] );
}

if( !iret )
{
//------------------------------- parameter number
if( wl0 == ":REGION" )
{
std::vector<G4String>::const_iterator ite = wl.begin()+1;
std::vector<G4String> wlc;
for( ; ite != wl.end(); ite++ ) //loop skipping the first one
{
wlc.push_back( *ite );
}
// wlc = wlc.erase( wlc.begin() );
ExTGRCRegionCutsMgr::GetInstance()->AddRegionData( wlc );
iret = 1;

21
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

else if( wl0 == ":CUTS" )

{
std::vector<G4String>::const_iterator ite = wl.begin()+1;
std::vector<G4String> wlc;
for( ; ite != wl.end(); ite++ ) //loop skipping the first one
{
wlc.push_back( *ite );
}
ExTGRCRegionCutsMgr::GetInstance()->AddRegionCuts( wlc );
iret = 1;
}
else
{
iret = 0;
}
}

return iret;
}

You have also to define your own class inheriting from G4tgbDetectorBuilder and in the ReadDetector
method set your line processor as the one to be used:

const G4tgrVolume* ExTGRCDetectorBuilder::ReadDetector()

{
//------------------- construct geometry
tlproc = new ExTGRCLineProcessor;
G4tgrFileReader* tfr = G4tgrFileReader::GetInstance();
tfr->SetLineProcessor( tlproc );
tfr->ReadFiles();

//---------- find top G4tgrVolume

G4tgrVolumeMgr* tgrVolmgr = G4tgrVolumeMgr::GetInstance();
const G4tgrVolume* tgrVoltop = tgrVolmgr->GetTopVolume();

return tgrVoltop;
}

In the BuildDetector method of this class you should build the corresponding Geant4 objects (they could
not be built in the line processor method, because the building of Geant4 objects is not triggered until the
BuildDetector method is invoked, and therefore it would not be possible to associate into G4Regions the
G4LogicalVolume objects):

//---------------------------------------------------------------------
G4VPhysicalVolume* ExTGRCDetectorBuilder::
ConstructDetector( const G4tgrVolume* tgrVoltop)
{
G4VPhysicalVolume* topPV =
G4tgbDetectorBuilder::ConstructDetector( tgrVoltop );

//--- Create regions

ExTGRCRegionCutsMgr::GetInstance()->BuildRegions();

22
 GEANT4 GEOMETRY FROM TEXT FILE version 1.0.

//--- Set cuts to regions

ExTGRCRegionCutsMgr::GetInstance()->BuildProductionCuts();

return topPV;
}

Finally in your detector construction class you should set your detector builder as the one to be used. See
the example at ExTGDetectorConstructionWithCuts

G4VPhysicalVolume* ExTGDetectorConstructionWithCuts::Construct()
{
//------------------------------------------------
// Define one or several text files containing the geometry description
//------------------------------------------------
G4String filename = "g4geom_cutsPerRegion.txt";
G4tgbVolumeMgr* volmgr = G4tgbVolumeMgr::GetInstance();
volmgr->AddTextFile(filename);

//------------------------------------------------
// Use your own detector builder, that will invoke your own line processor
//------------------------------------------------
ExTGRCDetectorBuilder* gtb = new ExTGRCDetectorBuilder;
volmgr->SetDetectorBuilder( gtb );

const G4tgrVolume* tgrVoltop = gtb->ReadDetector();

G4VPhysicalVolume* physiWorld = gtb->ConstructDetector(tgrVoltop);

// G4VPhysicalVolume* physiWorld = volmgr->ReadAndConstructDetector();

return physiWorld;
}

Known bugs
There are some known bugs introduced in release geant4.9.2:

• The phiDelta/phiTotal of solids G4Tubs, G4Cons, G4Sphere, G4Torus, G4Polycone, G4Polyhedra,

G4TwistedTubs,G4BREPSolidPCone, G4BREPSolidPolyhedra and G4BREPSolidOpenPCone and
thetaDelta of G4Sphere is always set to 360 deg, ignoring the user value
Please take the following file
(http://geant4.cern.ch/collaboration/working_groups/geometry/docs/textgeom/G4tgbVolume.cc), copy it
into your geant4 distribution, at source/persistency/ascii/src/G4tgbVolume.cc and recompile.

23