McIDAS-X for Win7 Fastrack Version 2011.1
Software and Instructions

This is the first release of the new McIDAS-X package for Windows 7 workstations, called McIDAS-X for Win7. This page contains the software and instructions for installing this release (version 2011.1). Like the Unix and XP versions, this is a fully supported Fastrack release.

Since it's likely that many users of this new package are current users of the Unix and XP packages, the significant modifications made since the previous release of McIDAS-X for XP (version 2010.2) are provided for your information in the bullets below. The instructions for obtaining and installing McIDAS-X for Win7 2011.1 appear after the bullet list.

• Updated support of McIDAS-X on Microsoft, Apple and Red Hat systems as follows:
  • Added support for Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise with Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA). This is a brand new McIDAS-X package with separate installation files and instructions. See the McIDAS User's Guide's Chapter 1 section titled Installing McIDAS-X on Windows 7 Workstations for details.
  • On Mac OS X systems, changed support from 10.5.8 Intel to 10.6.8. With this change in OS, gfortran was updated to 4.6.0, gcc was updated to 4.2.1, and XQuartz was updated to 2.6.3. Please note that due to a Tcl/Tk incompatibility with OS X 10.6, the McIDAS-X GUI, Configuration GUI and ASK1 command are not available/supported on OS X systems.
  • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, changed support from 4.0 Intel, 5.2 PPC and 5.5 Intel to 5.2 PPC, 5.7 Intel and 6.1 Intel.
• Added new keywords to the EU, IMGRGB and TXT2MD commands. In EU the new keyword FORM=ALL formats the TABLE option output to list each brightness level and its coresponding enhancement values on a separate line. This new option makes it easier to import enhancement values into another environment. In IMGRGB the new keyword BASETHRESHOLD= specifies a threshold for which the grayscale value is considered to be part of the map outline. In TXT2MD the new keyword CONTINUE=YES continues writing data to the MD file even if it encounters a line in the input text file that contains an invalid time format.
• Updated the station database (file STNDB.CORE) to match the current NWS version. The updates include the addition of 11 new TAF stations (UACK, UHHH, UNOO, USCC, USCM, USSS, UWOR, UWUU, UAUU, UAKK, UACC) and RAOB station 35671, plus correction of erroneous information in entries for stations 74646, KCSM, KF30, KMIU, KS32, KSTZ.
• Updated the GVAR calibration module with correct coefficients for GOES-14 and -15.
• Added enhancements to a subset of MODIS ADDE image servers to correct the "bowtie distortion" of select MODIS imagery by specifying the NAVTYPE=RECT keyword in the IMGCOPY, IMGDISP, IMGFILT or IMGOPER command. The bowtie correction is done by remapping the data on the fly using the MRTSwath package from USGS, and is available only on the subset of MODIS servers listed in the McIDAS User's Guide's Appendix I section titled Configuring MODIS Servers to use MRTSwath for Bowtie Correction.
• Updated the McIDAS-XRD package (which is included in the McIDAS-X installation files) to include three new commands (AWSLOC, CATOMTP and TAFLIST), one new data file (AWSLOC.TXT) and thirteen new servers (ashxadir, ashxaget, awipadir, awipaget, awipaput, catgadir, catgaget, modcadir, modcaget, modvadir, modvaget, nssxadir, nssxaget).
• Modified mcidas.mcenv (the installation file that contains environment variables used in McIDAS-X for XP and McIDAS-X for Win7) to include the new environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH and to update the version number from 8.4 to 8.5 in the directory paths for the TCL_LIBRARY and TK_LIBRARY environment variables.
  Required Action:
  All users of McIDAS-X on Windows systems (both Windows XP and Windows 7) will need to include those modifications in their $HOME/.mcenv file. Newly-created accounts will automatically include them and all other environment variables defined in mcidas.mcenv by following the standard instructions in the Setting the SFU Environment (for WinXP) or Setting the SUA Environment (for Win7) section in Chapter 1 of the McIDAS User's Guide. In those instructions, when a new user account is created the supplied mcidas.mcenv file is copied to $HOME/.mcenv in the account, and is sourced (run) by $HOME/.profile each time the user logs on.
  
  Existing user accounts in both McIDAS-X for XP and McIDAS-X for Win7 should already have a $HOME/.mcenv file. If it has personal modifications, copying the supplied mcidas.mcenv file to $HOME/.mcenv would overwrite those modifications. In order to add the required changes but not overwrite the personal modifications, we recommend that if you already have a $HOME/.mcenv file you should manually add the changes by editing the file and making the three changes below:
  
  
  1. change all occurrences of  ~mcidas/tcl/lib/tcl8.4  to  ~mcidas/tcl/lib/tcl8.5
  2. change all occurrences of  ~mcidas/tcl/lib/tk8.4  to  ~mcidas/tcl/lib/tk8.5
  3. add these two lines to the end of the file:

        LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/lib/X11
        export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Before installing Fastrack version 2011.1, make sure you view the complete list of Fastrack 2011.1 Software Changes, and, if you do any programming or local code development/modification also view and complete the appropriate actions described in the Fastrack 2011.1 Programmer Notes (pdf). You might want to print or download these two documents for future reference.

McIDAS-X 2011.1 is a fully supported Fastrack release. This means that the software is fully supported by SSEC, and that each change to the software has been tested on all of the supported workstation configurations. Full system testing will occur at least once on each platform during each calendar year. If you elect to install 2011.1, we ask that you notify the McIDAS Help Desk if you encounter any bugs. Please be sure to mention that you are running version 2011.1.

Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2011.1 from a version earlier than 2010.1, you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for each of the versions you skipped so you know about their major changes and any required actions in the interim. For example, if you are upgrading from version 2008 to 2011.1, you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for versions 2009.1, 2009.2, 2010.1 and 2010.2. See the past versions page for links to those and other materials from past versions.

 

To obtain and install McIDAS-X and/or McIDAS-XRD 2011.1, complete the following steps.

1. Download (e.g., right-click and select Save option) the following files to the ~mcidas directory on your McIDAS-X for Win7 workstation.
   Note: The installation will fail if the names of the downloaded files do not exactly match those listed below. If your web browser changes the names of the files during download (e.g., mcidas2011.1_win7.tar.gz becomes mcidas2011.1_win7_tar.gz), you must rename the files to those below before installing.

   File name	Size	Description
   mcidas2011.1_win7.sh	20 KB	install/uninstall script
   mcidas2011.1_win7.tar.gz	155 MB	compressed tar file containing binaries, source and data files; compiled version of -X & -XRD is about 646 MB (updated 09 December 2011 at 20:58 UTC; if you downloaded and installed McIDAS-X 2011.1 before then, go to the IMGFILT Correction page to determine if you should install the correction)
   mcidas.mcenv	8 KB	environment variables used by McIDAS-X
   mcidas.profile	4 KB	template for creating a .profile file in user accounts that don't have a pre-existing .profile

2. To install McIDAS-X and/or -XRD 2011.1 on your workstation, complete the instructions in the section titled "Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X" in Chapter 1 of the McIDAS User's Guide.