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MU Calc: User Guide


MUCalc is a networkable and/or stand-alone linac monitor unit (MU) calculator, medical physics educational software, and a quality assurance (QA) tool for radiation therapy departments. It runs natively on both Apple MacOSX and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It provides irreg field and off-axis calculations, SAD, SSD, extended SSD, bolus, custom blocks, points under blocks, predefined libraries of autoconfiguring block shapes, reads Varian MLC files, permits all sorts of beam modifiers and prints photographic pictures of modifiers such as wedges, trays, wing boards, head rests etc... in documents destined for patient charts. MUCalc supports the Varian EDW, does gap calculations, handles photons, electrons, electron cones and blocks, mixed photons and electrons, and Co-60 teletherapy. MUCalc creates printable and interactive PDD graphs for photons, electrons, and mixed photon and electron (e.g. see the result of mixing 6MeV and 9MeV electron energies in various proportions), as well as previewable documents for patient charts, and lots more. About the only thing it doesn't do at the moment is evaluate IMRT plans. MU Calc can download patients directly from the Pinnacle3 treatment planning system via TCP and also includes tools for inspecting the files created by Pinnacle. Instances of MUCalc can use their own local beam data files (e.g. when running on a laptop) or they can be configured to use common beam data accessed over a network. MUCalc will alert the user to changes in beam data files between uses. The beam data files themselves are created and edited using a simple text editor or preferably Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software. Sample beam data for several machines is included in the download. The current version was developed for use at USC and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. It has been in use at these locations for over 10 years. It is currently distributed as freeware. Email the support desk at Eye Physics for a free license if you are interested in evaluating this software.

Newest Version: (Jun 2014, recompiled with Xojo 2014.r1 for Windows & OSX10.9)
FreeDemoForEvaluationOnly

I am extremely busy with rewriting and updates of Plaque Simulator for Mac OSX 10.9 so I have decided to post this "public" free demonstration license for the current version of MUC until I have time to properly support this project. Technical support for MUC is limited but I will try to help you by email if you run into problems.

This version should work with machines calibrated SAD using TMR tables. Two new sample machine beam data files are included based on BJR25 data, one assumes the machine was calibrated 100 SSD with PDD tables, the other assumes the machine was calibrated 100 cm SAD using TMR tables. Open the files with Excel to see the differences. This version will extrapolate the zero field size PDD and TMR data for you by fitting the non zero fieldsizes with a polynomial function if the entered data is zero, if you enter nonzero data for zero field size, then your data will take precedence. See the two new beam files for example. Testers will need a new free license if updating from a version prior to 1.2.9.


Previous Versions:

These are screen captures from the Mac OSX version. The Windows version is essentially the same.

Simple photon calculation
MUCalc window
Mixed electron energies
MUCalc mixed electrons

Irreg example using cerrobend blocks:

These are screen captures from the Mac OSX version. The Windows version looks essentially the same.

Choose the machine, jaw size, tray, etc...
MUCalc mixed electrons
Draw blocks and create dose points
MUCalc window

Print a report
MUCalc window


MUCalc is provided by Eye Physics, LLC.