1. Download the following files:

(Shift-click on the links below to download the files)
• Get GSAS from ftp://ftp.lanl.gov/public/gsas/ms-dos/gsaskit.exe (~6 Mbytes)
  and read
  ftp://ftp.lanl.gov/public/gsas/ms-dos/readme.txt

  Note that these files are from a Los Alamos web server, not NIST.

• Get a Tcl/Tk distribution
  I am testing a new version (Tcl/Tk v8.2):
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/tcltk/tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.exe (2686464 bytes)
  or an older version (Tcl/Tk v8.0):
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/win/tcltk80p2+.exe (3604992 bytes)

• The EXPGUI code
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/expgui.exe (~340 K bytes)
  for the absolute latest release (which may not have gotten a lot of testing, but probably has new capabilities and bug fixes) use
  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.

• If you are using an older version of GSAS (before April, 2000) you may want to download the TCLDUMP program to speed and enhance liveplot and the EXPTOOL program which allows EXPGUI to add phases, histograms and atoms to .EXP files. More recent versions of GSAS include these programs in the distributions.
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/exe_win/tcldump.zip (~85 K bytes)
  or ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/exe_win/tcldump.exe (~160 K bytes)

  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/exe_win/exptool.zip (~300 K bytes)
  or ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/exe_win/exptool.exe (~700 K bytes)

2. Run the programs

Use a DOS window to run, gsaskit.exe, tcltk80p2+.exe, and expgui.exe (the order should not matter):

        mkdir c:\gsas
	chdir c:\gsas
	c:\temp\gsaskit.exe -d
	c:\temp\tcltk80p2+.exe
        c:\temp\expgui.exe

Note that gsaskit.exe must be run in the location where you want the files to be placed and that you must use the -d option. For this reason you must know what you are doing to do this from the Windows interface. (Using WinZip is another good way to unzip the file with the correct directory structure or to uncompress expgui_alpha.zip). The tcltk80p2+.exe and expgui.exe files can be run from Windows.

The previous steps will cause the files to be unpacked. The default locations for installation are:

           gsaskit.exe         c:\gsas
           tcltk80p2+.exe      c:\expgui
           expgui.exe          c:\gsas\expgui

These files can be located on other disks and in directories with other names, but the expgui files in expgui.exe must be located in a subdirectory of the GSAS files. If these files will be located on a fileserver, the file server must be mapped to appear as a disk drive (must be assigned a name such as F:).

3. When needed, install TCLDUMP and EXPTOOL

If TCLDUMP and EXPTOOL are not already present, place the tcldump.exe and exptool.exe files in the exe directory of GSAS, (usually c:\gsas\exe\). (If you downloaded tcldump.zip & exptool.zip, expand them first.)

4. 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\wish80.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.

gsaskit.exe

tcltk80p2+.exe

expgui.exe

(tcldump.zip)

(exptool.zip)

(expgui_alpha.zip)

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

Yes -- but: you will need both Tcl/Tk and the Winexec package (see http://www.du.edu/~mschwart/tcl-tk.htm) for the GUI to work. Further, several utility routines (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 appropriately. Please note that EXPGUI seems to run very slowly in Tcl/Tk version 8.1, but OK in 8.0 and 8.2.

Only if you will use the PC-GSAS or GSAS.BAT menu programs as well. If so, do the following (from the GSAS readme file):

5. Modify the PATH statement in your autoexec.bat file to add C:\GSAS\EXE to the path (or whatever disk letter you choose for \GSAS)

6. Add the statement "SET GSAS=C:\GSAS" (again pick the appropriate drive letter) to your auto exec.bat file.

7. Add the statement "SET PGPLOT_FONT=C:\GSAS\FONTS\GRFONT.DAT"

8. Make sure you have sufficient environment space for these additions and two more that are done by gsas.bat each time you run gsas.

This package has gotten some testing under Win95 and WinNT v4.0. My limited experience with Win98 seems to show that EXPGUI runs OK. It might be possible to get some parts of the package to run under Win32s on Win3.1, but don't ask me for help.

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.

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 correctly, unless you are out of environment space (and I don't know how to fix that in Windows.)

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.

Acknowledgements

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@lanl.gov

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 written by Brian H. Toby of the NIST Center for Neutron Research, Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV with help from Jonathan Wasserman.

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.

Brian Toby (Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV)
$Revision: 203 $ $Date: 2009-12-04 23:02:07 +0000 (Fri, 04 Dec 2009) $