# 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.

Current Versions:

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

Simple photon calculation | Mixed electron energies

### 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... | Draw blocks and create dose points

Print a report

MUCalc is provided by Eye Physics, LLC.