EXPGUI home

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Windows-95/98 and -NT/-2000
Installation notes for EXPGUI

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Please note that EXPGUI is always under development and gets less testing by the author in Windows than in UNIX. Please report problems, including comments on these instructions to Brian Toby.

0. A one-step self-installer for Windows

It is possible to download a single file that installs GSAS (General Structure Analysis System) and EXPGUI, as well as the Tcl/Tk package, needed by EXPGUI. This self-installing file uncompresses itself, copies the required files to a selected directory and either modifies the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and/or creates the appropriate registry entries needed to run the programs. A separate web page details how to use this self-installer, ( ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/gsas+expgui.exe or from CCP14 mirrors). To use this program, refer to these Windows self-installer instructions, rather than the instructions below.

1. Download the following files:

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

  Mirrors for these files can be found at

  http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe
  or http://ccp14.sims.nrc.ca/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/gsaskit.exe

  and

  http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/readme.txt
  or http://ccp14.sims.nrc.ca/ccp/ccp14/ftp-mirror/gsas/public/gsas/windows/readme.txt
  

  Note that the links for these files are on non-NIST servers.

• Get a Tcl/Tk distribution
  I recommend using this (not so new) version (Tcl/Tk v8.2) (why - see note 1 below):
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/tcltk/tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.exe (2686464 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. (sometimes I update ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/expgui_alpha.exe but this may lag behind the .ZIP version or may not be present.)

• If you have a version of GSAS from September 2001, or earlier and wish to set up dummy histograms from EXPEDT, you will need to update the EXPTOOL program using one of the following files:
  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)

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. Run the programs

Use a DOS window to run, gsaskit.exe, tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.exe, and expgui.exe (the order should not matter):

        mkdir c:\gsas
	chdir c:\gsas
	c:\temp\gsaskit.exe -d
	c:\temp\tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.exe
        c:\temp\expgui.exe

These files can be run from where they are downloaded using the Run command or by clicking on their icons in a Windows Explorer or other directory view window.

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

           gsaskit.exe                     c:\gsas
           tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.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 and each directory name must be 8 characters or less, so location Z:\i\think\this\will\work\gsas should be OK, but C:\longwindows\namesarenotgood\for dos probably will not work. 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:).

If you downloaded exptool.zip, unpack it and copy it to c:\gsas\exe, or if you downloaded exptool.exe, it can be copied directly to c:\gsas\exe.

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 .exe files to save space (optional)

gsaskit.exe

tcltk82blt24qwinexec0601.exe

expgui.exe

(expgui_alpha.exe)

(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

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) 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)

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:4096 

add 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).

3. What versions of Windows can I use?

This package has gotten some testing under Win-95/98 and Win-NT 4.0 & 2000.

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).

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.

6. Can GSAS and EXPGUI be located on a shared network drive?

Yes, but. The path must be mapped to a "logical drive." (e.g. F:) since GSAS is basically a set of DOS programs. EXPGUI will warn you, if you try to do this. I am not sure if GSAS will work properly if you can access experiment and data files on a networked drive without mapping the path to a "logical drive." I have not seen anything that breaks, if you do this, but I have not done much testing.

7. Can I use Windows-ME or Windows-XP with GSAS and EXPGUI?

I do not have any direct experience with either OS. I am not aware of any problems running EXPGUI & GSAS on -ME. I have heard that there are minor problems with running EXPGUI on -XP -- after GSAS programs are run, EXPGUI may remain minimized (on the taskbar) rather than reopen itself. This problem can be avoided by unselecting the "Minimize on GSAS" checkbutton in the Options menu.

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@lanl.gov

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

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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.

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EXPGUI home

Brian Toby (Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV)
$Revision: 549 $ $Date: 2009-12-04 23:08:02 +0000 (Fri, 04 Dec 2009) $