McIDAS-X for Win7 Fastrack Version 2017.2
Software and Instructions

This page contains the software and instructions for installing McIDAS-X version 2017.2 on a Windows 7 workstation. If you are installing it on a Linux or macOS workstation, go to the Unix instructions.

McIDAS-X for Win7 version 2017.2 is a fully supported Fastrack release. Significant modifications made since the previous release (version 2017.1) are listed in the bullet list below. The instructions for obtaining and installing McIDAS-X for Win7 2017.2 appear after the bullet list.

• On Apple systems, changed support from OS X 10.10 and OS X 10.11 to OS X 10.11 and macOS 10.12. Whether you are installing McIDAS-X for the first time on a macOS 10.12 workstation or upgrading to 10.12 from an earlier version you must complete the Allocating Sufficient Shared Memory instructions in the macOS Workstations section of the Preparing the Workstation page in the McIDAS User's Guide.
• Implemented bit-depth changes to increase the detail shown in certain visible, water vapor and short-wave infrared imagery. This enhancement, called the Expanded Stretch Feature, results in improved appearance of many types of images when displayed with IMGDISP from an updated ADDE server or copied to a 1-byte Area file using commands like IMGCOPY with STYPE=VISR or IMGREMAP. See the Expanded Stretch Feature page for more information.
• Increased the maximum frame number in McIDAS-X sessions from 999 to 9,999. See the A Note About Memory section of the Preparing the Workstation page in the McIDAS User's Guide for more information about memory use and limitations, and system performance.
• Updated graphics commands to work on large frames. With this fix there is no longer a maximum frame size for graphics commands. For example, the MAP command can now be used to display the correct map on a 21696 x 21696 frame displaying a full disk GOES-16 or Himawari image at 0.5 km resolution.
• Updated preliminary GOES-R Series ABI server and calibration and navigation modules with bug fixes and enhancements. The enhancements include improved navigation agreement when displaying bands of different native resolutions, and updates to AXFORM, GEO and PLAX commands to work with GOES-16 data.
• Added preliminary server, configuration files and display and list commands for use with GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data from the GOES Rebroadcast (GRB). See the GLMDISP and GLMLIST documentation in the McIDAS User's Guide or their online helps for the preliminary versions of the commands. See the "GOES-R Series netCDF Dataset Remarks" section in the DSSERVE command documentation or its online help for information about creating the datasets.
• Updated the USCOUNTY.MAP, USSTATE.MAP and USZONE.MAP files with the most recent National Weather Service GIS-AWIPS Shapefile database updates. The US*.MAP files are used by the WWDISP command and the MAP command's COUNTY=, MARINE=, STATE= and ZONE= keywords.
• Updated the station database (file STNDB.CORE) to include 56 new Synoptic stations mostly in Australia and Antarctica, and one new TAF station (KAUO - Aurora State Airport). Also corrected the WMO ID number for one station (CWWQ - Muncho Lake).
• Updated the McIDAS-XRD package (which is included in the McIDAS-X installation files) to include two new servers (viiradir and viiraget) and one new command (FIXDEF). See the Files Included in McIDAS-XRD 2017.2 page for the complete list of software included in McIDAS-XRD.

Before installing Fastrack version 2017.2, make sure you view the complete list of Fastrack 2017.2 Software Changes. Programmers and those who do local code development/modifications or have scripts that parse text output need to be especially thorough in reviewing the list of updated modules and descriptions of the changes.

McIDAS-X 2017.2 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 2017.2, we ask that you notify the McIDAS Help Desk if you encounter any bugs. Please be sure to mention that you are running version 2017.2.

Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2017.2 from a version earlier than 2017.1, 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 2015.2 to 2017.2, you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for versions 2016.1, 2016.2 and 2017.1. 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 2017.2, 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., mcidas2017.2_win7.tar.gz becomes mcidas2017.2_win7_tar.gz), you must rename the files to those below before installing.

   File name	Size	Description
   mcidas2017.2_win7.sh	20 KB	install/uninstall script
   mcidas2017.2_win7.tar.gz	212 MB	compressed tar file containing binaries, source and data files; compiled version of -X & -XRD is about 745 MB
   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 2017.2 on your workstation, complete the instructions in the section titled "Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X" in Chapter 1 of the McIDAS User's Guide.