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EXPGUI home
These notes describe how GSAS & EXPGUI are installed using separate distribution files for GSAS, EXPGUI and Tcl/Tk. This is not the easiest way to go. Unless you really want to know the OS-specific details about EXPGUI on windows, please see the "Installating and Updating EXPGUI (& GSAS) on Windows" web page, as that discusses a much simpler approach.
Windows installation notes for EXPGUI
These notes are not completely up to date. Nonetheless, please report problems, including improvements on these instructions to Brian Toby. Otherwise, Windows-specific issues are unlikely to be addressed or repaired.
The old, multistep, process for loading GSAS and EXPGUI
If for some reason you want to install GSAS and EXPGUI from the component distributions (which are sometimes more recent than the single-step file, described above), you can follow the steps listed below.1. Download the following files:
(Shift-click on the links below to download the files)
- Get GSAS from one of the following sites:
- UK
- http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe or
ftp://ftp.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe- USA
- http://www.semo.edu/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe
- Canada
- http://ccp14.sims.nrc.ca/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe
- Australia
- http://ccp14.minerals.csiro.au/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe
be sure to read http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/readme.txt
- Get a Tcl/Tk distribution
I have been using a quite old version (Tcl/Tk v8.2) as EXPGUI needed the Winexec package see note 1 below) on Win-95/-98/-ME until version 1.73 of EXPGUI.
ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/tcltk/tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.exe (2686464 bytes) until very recently. This verion has some problems with Windows XP. The single-file self installer now contains a newer release of Tcl/Tk as a starkit that contains the Winutils package which can subsitute for Winexec. This version can be downloaded as ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/tcltk/tcl84winstarkit.zip.
- The EXPGUI code
The absolute latest release (which may not have gotten a lot of testing, but probably has new capabilities and bug fixes) is distributed as ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/expgui_alpha.zip
You will need an unzip program, such as WinZip or pkZip, to use this file.You can put these .EXE (and .ZIP) files anywhere on your computer, but make a note of the locations for steps 2, 3 and 5, below.
2. Unpack the distributions
Use a DOS window to run gsaskit.exe and an unzip program (for example Winzip) to unpack Tcl/Tk and EXPGUI. For newer versions of Windows, the .zip files can be viewed as folders.
mkdir c:\gsas chdir c:\gsas c:\temp\gsaskit.exe -dThe previous steps cause the files to be unpacked. The suggested locations for installation are:
gsaskit.exe c:\gsas EXPGUI c:\gsas\expgui Tcl/Tk c:\tclThese files can be located on other disks and in directories with other names, but the EXPGUI files must be located in a subdirectory of the GSAS files and each directory name should not have a space in the name so location Z:\i\think\this\will\work\gsas should be OK, as should C:\longwindows\namesarenotgood\fordos but you may have trouble with
C:\Program Files\names with spaces\make problems probably will break drag-and-drop -- at least for EXPGUI -- on older versions of Windows. If these files will be located on a fileserver, the file server must be mapped as a disk drive (must be assigned a name such as F:). But note, installing GSAS on a file server does not fully install GSAS on each PC that accesses the file server, since short-cuts and environment changes are needed.3. Create a shortcut:
- On a blank part of the Windows desktop, click the right mouse button and then select NEW and then shortcut and click with the left mouse button.
- provide command
c:\tcl\bin\wish82.exe c:\gsas\expgui\expgui
(modify previous paths, if you have located the files in different places)
- click on NEXT with the left mouse button.
- Enter name EXPGUI
- click on FINISH with the left mouse button.
You may want to modify the shortcut by modifying the properties to change the icon or the default properties.
4. Delete the downloaded files to save space (optional)More information about EXPGUI, including information on how it can be customized, can be found on web pages expgui.html and expgui_cfg.html, found in the \gsas\expgui\doc directory.
Questions
1. Can I use a different version of Tcl/Tk than the one here?Yes -- but: you will need both Tcl/Tk and the Winexec package (see http://www.du.edu/~mschwart/tcl-tk.htm) or the package Winutils (documentation) for the GUI to work with Windows-95, -98 and -me. Further, several utility routines (for example, liveplot and widplt) require the BLT package to be properly configured as a loadable package to run. If you care what vintage of Tcl/Tk you are using, you are obviously a "power user" so take a look at the pkgIndex.tcl files and fix your version, if you get an error about loading Blt_ZoomStack. Please note that EXPGUI seems to run very slowly in Tcl/Tk version 8.1, but OK in 8.0 and 8.2.
2. Do I need to modify the PATH, etc in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file or in my Start/Settings/... menus?
Only if you will use the PC-GSAS program as well as EXPGUI. If so, do follow the steps in the GSAS readme file)
3. What versions of Windows can I use?Note, to add more environment space in Win95/98, add the following line to the CONFIG.SYS file in the root directory
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /P /E:4096add the following line to the SYSTEM.INI file (in c:\windows) under the heading [NonWindowsApp]CommandEnvSize=2424(thanks to Louis Farrugia [louis@chem.gla.ac.uk] for this).As far as I am aware, EXPGUI will run under all releases of Windows from -95 through -XP, but it is not tested here on most of those platforms. I depend on feedback from users to tell me of OS conflicts, but none have been reported.
4. EXPGUI seems pretty slow, or is it my imagination?Well, actually the problem is Windows. EXPGUI is pretty zippy in LINUX, but some operations (reading a histogram in liveplot for example) can take 3-5 times longer in Windows than in UNIX on the exact same hardware. By all means, take this up with the folks in Redmond, WA.
5. When I run one of the GSAS graphics programs (POWPLOT, RAWPLOT,...) the program starts, and I can answer questions, but when it comes to the part of the program that should display a plot, I get no plot (and possibly the DOS window disappears without a trace.)There are two problems I know of that can cause graphics errors: One is that the graphics package (PGPLOT) cannot find the PGPLOT_FONT environment variable (that points to file GRFONT.DAT). EXPGUI does this for you and warns if it can't find this file, so the likely reason is that you are out of environment space (see 2, above).
6. Can GSAS and EXPGUI be located on a shared network drive?The other appears to be a graphics mode problem. Not all modes work on all machines. Try mode A. If you still have problems, see if it is an EXPGUI problem: Try using a plotting program (RAWPLOT is a good choice) from PC-GSAS or GSAS.BAT. If the plotting program does not work there either, first check PGPLOT_FONT is defined (by opening a DOS box and type SET, also see question 2, above.) If the plotting program runs in PC-GSAS or GSAS.BAT but not EXPGUI, you have a real EXPGUI bug and should bug me.
Yes. With earlier versions of GSAS path had to be mapped to a "logical drive." (e.g. F:). In the current versions of GSAS, this does not seem to be needed, but EXPGUI will warn you, if you try to do this, since I am not certain that this works.
I do not know if GSAS will work properly with experiment and data files on a networked drive without mapping the path to a "logical drive." There are some definite problems in GSAS where directory and file names contain spaces. EXPGUI should help avoid some of these problems, so if you find anything file names that break EXPGUI & GSAS, let me know how to duplicate exactly what you are doing.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Mumit Khan for help with Tcl/Tk on Windows and to Michael I. Schwartz for the Winexec package, which is needed to allow Tcl/Tk to run the GSAS DOS .exe files.GSAS is written by Allen C. Larson and Robert B. Von Dreele, MS-H805, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545. Problems, questions or kudos concerning GSAS should be sent to Robert B. Von Dreele at vondreele@anl.gov
EXPGUI is written by Brian H. Toby of the NIST Center for Neutron Research, Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV with help from Jonathan Wasserman.
GSAS is Copyright, 1984-1997, The Regents of the University of California. The GSAS software was produced under a U.S. Government contract (W-7405-ENG-36) by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government is licensed to use, reproduce, and distribute this software. Permission is granted to the public to copy and use this software without charge, provided that this notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor the University makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this software.EXPGUI is not subject to copyright. Have fun with it.
Neither the U.S. Government nor any author makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information or the software described here. Brand names cited here are used for identification purposes and do not consitute an endorsement by NIST.
EXPGUI home Comments, corrections or questions: crystal@NIST.gov
Last modified 28-September-2004
$Revision: 1.1 $ $Date: 2004/09/24 18:15:52 $