The matRad GUI

The GUI is used for the treatment plan visualization and the adjustment of the plan and optimization parameters. It is possible to execute the matRad script using only the GUI (see matRad-GUI guide).

Overview of the GUI

The matRad GUI consists of 6 main sections:

Section	Content
Workflow	Includes the main steps that need to be executed for treatment planning.
Plan	Here the plan parameters like beam direction and radiation mode can be selected.
Command Window	Here the output of the Command Window is displayed inside the GUI.
Objectives & constraints	Using the optimization parameters the constraints of the VOIs can be adjusted.
Visualization	Here the visualization can be adjusted to show different planes/slices of plot types.
Viewing	The information specified in the Visualization Parameters is displayed in this section.

Workflow

In the Workflow section, the patient data is initially loaded. You can also start the dicom import from here. After the adjustment of all parameters, the dose calculation and the fluence optimization can be started from here:

Adjustment of the plan parameters

In this section, the plan parameters are adjusted before calculating the dose-influence-matrix.

Parameter	Description
bixel width	Photons: width of a photon bixel. Particles: lateral spot distance. Default value: 5 mm
Gantry angle	Here the set of desired gantry angles (in degree) can be specified. For the separation of the values you can either use ',' or a space ' '.
Couch angle	Here the set of desired couch angles (in degree) can be specified. For the separation of the values you can either use ',' or a space ' '. Make sure that you always have the same amount of couch and gantry angles.
Radiation mode	You can choose between photons, protons and carbon ions.
Machine	Actual machine name as string to identify the base data set during runtime.
IsoCenter	Use this to set the isocenter (in mm).
# Fractions	Here the desired number of fractions can be specified.
Biological optimization	For carbon ions, you can apply a biological optimization. You can choose between an optimization of the biological effect ('effect') or the RBE-weighted dose ('RBExD').
Run Sequencing	Check this if you want to run a MLC sequencing. The number of stratification levels can be adjusted.
Run Direct Aperture Optimization	Check this if you want to run an additional direct aperture optimization.

Adjustment of the optimization parameters

The optimization parameters regarding the volumes of interest (VOIs) are stored in the variable cst. For more detailed information about the parameters stored in the cell please have a look at the documentation of the cst-cell array. Using the GUI you can adjust the settings. To add or delete volumes you can use the '+' and '-' buttons.

Field	Description
VOI name	Via a drop-down menu, you can select a VOI by clicking its name.
VOI type	You can specify whether the VOI is an organ at risk (OAR) or a target volume.
OP	Overlap. This value defines how overlapping structures are handled during optimization. Consider two structures A and B with priorities pA and pB. If A and B both include voxel i, voxel i will be treated to belong only to structure A if pA < pB. If pA = pB the voxel will be considered for both structures. An extension to more than two structures is trivial.
Function	Objective Function. This field allows you to specify how the VOI will be considered during the optimization. You can choose between Squared Underdosing, Squared Overdosing, Squared Deviation, Mean Dose, EUD, Max DVH, Min DVH, DVH constraint, Min/Max dose constraint or mean dose constraint. You can find more detailed information about this in the section 'Dose objectives' of the page: The cst cell
p	Penalty. For the objective function value, a weighted sum is calculated. The penalty value corresponds to the weighting factor for this VOI with respect to the defined constraint (e.g. overdosing). By adjusting this value, you can stress the importance of these constraints with respect to each other.
Parameters	For Squared Underdosing, Squared Overdosing and Squared Deviation this value corresponds to the threshold dose above/below which the penalty will apply. For the Mean Dose-option, this value is not needed, as the mean dose within this VOI will be minimized. For the EUD method, the parameter corresponds to the exponent.

Visualizing treatment plans

After the optimization, the treatment plan can be visualized within the GUI. Using the visualization parameters, you can change the view. The radio buttons can be used to turn off/on, among others, the plotting of contours, dose (isolines) and isoline labels.

Display options

Type of plot	Display option	Plane	Resulting image
intensity	Dose	axial
		sagittal
		coronal
	effect	axial
	RBEWeightedDose	axial
	RBE	axial
	alpha	axial
	beta	axial
	RBETruncated10Perc	axial
profile		lateral
		longitudinal

DVH

To draw a DVH of the current treatment plan and display some quality indicators you can click the 'Show DVH/QI' button: