:topic: History

.. index::
   pair: DREAM3D; History;


History of DREAM.3D
#####################

The history of DREAM.3D is rooted in two parallel research efforts:

-  The first was the graduate research project of Michael Groeber, under
   the advisement of Dr. Somnath Ghosh, at The Ohio State University
   (2003-2007). The key developments under this project were the
   creation of many of DREAM.3D’s current filters for reconstructing
   serial section experimental datasets, quantifying microstructural
   features in 3D and generating statistically equivalent
   microstructures.
-  The second research effort was carried out by the research group of
   Dr. Tony Rollett at Carnegie Mellon University over a number of
   graduate student projects (see names below) and years (~2000-2011).
   The key developments under these projects were the development of a
   synthetic microstructure builder, microstructure clean-up tools,
   surface mesh generation and quantification tools for microstructural
   features.

The tools developed under these efforts generally remained as command
line executables with limited portability due to lack of documentation
and flexibility. In an effort to extend the capabilites of these tools
to the larger materials community, Dr. Chris Woodward of the Air Force
Research Laboratory (AFRL) funded Mike Jackson of BlueQuartz Software to
create Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), common data structures and
documentation for the tools developed in the research effort of Groeber
and Ghosh (2009-2011). After the initial phase of development (2011),
Jackson and Groeber approached Rollett, Lee, Sintay, Chan and Tucker and
proposed the unification of the parallel efforts. The Rollett group
accepted the proposal and graciously made available all of their
algorithms and source code. It was at this point that DREAM.3D was named
and the vision for the software was truly solidified.

Over the next couple of years (2011-2013), additional researchers
contributed code to extend the capabilities of DREAM.3D. Specifically,
the grain boundary-centric tools of Dr. Dave Rowenhorst (Naval Research
Laboratory) and Dr. Greg Rohrer (Carnegie Mellon University) greatly
augmented the functionality of the package.

By 2013, Jackson and Groeber had fully documented the tools, created a
Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) and generated tools for adding plugins to
the package, making the software package readily usable and extensible.
As the community surrounding DREAM.3D continued to grow, Jackson formed
BlueQuartz Software into an LLC to better provide professional support
and allow for additional growth. In 2014, Dr. Sean Donegan joined
BlueQuartz Software from the Rollett group to provide another full-time
developer with materials expertise. In late 2014, BlueQuartz also added
Joseph Kleingers and Sally Connell as full-time developers with computer
science backgrounds.

During the growth of BlueQuartz Software through 2014, the core `data
structure <../02_DataStructure/10_DataStructure/index.html>`__ of
DREAM.3D was redesigned to allow for greater user flexibility. This
change also allowed the tool to expand outside of microstructural
analysis to include most areas of materials research, and ultimately to
multidimensional data analysis in general. These efforts spurred the
release of the current version of DREAM3D-NX, version 7, which represents
a great step forward in the DREAM3D experience.