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McIDAS-X for Win7 Fastrack Version 2016.2
Software and Instructions

This page contains the software and instructions for installing McIDAS-X version 2016.2 on a Windows 7 workstation. If you are installing it on a Linux, Mac OS X or Solaris workstation, go to the Unix instructions.

McIDAS-X for Win7 version 2016.2 is a fully supported Fastrack release. Significant modifications made since the previous release (version 2016.1) are listed in the bullet list below. The instructions for obtaining and installing McIDAS-X for Win7 2016.2 appear after the bullet list.

  • Changed support of McIDAS-X on Apple and Red Hat systems as follows:
    • On Apple Mac OS X systems, changed support from 10.9 and 10.10 to 10.10 and 10.11.
    • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, changed support from RHEL versions 5 and 6 to RHEL versions 6 and 7. Note: For users of the McIDAS-X GUI, we recommend the KDE desktop environment on RHEL 7, and the GNOME desktop environment for users on RHEL 6.
    See the McIDAS-X 2016.2 Supported System Configurations page for the list of all supported configurations.
  • Updated preliminary version of GOES-R ABI server to include bug fixes, improved performance, and support of Level 2 product files. See the DSSERVE command documentation in the McIDAS User's Guide or its online help for information about creating GOES-R datasets, and the GOES section in the Bands appendix for information about its spatial and spectral attributes. As of September 2016, the first satellite in the series is scheduled for launch on 04 November 2016. See the GOES-R Series website for schedule updates and additional information.
  • Updated Himawari servers to include temperature information in the output Area file's Infrared bands when IMGCOPY with STYPE=VISR is run using a source dataset containing HimawariCast data. The servers were also updated to report the correct start time for the Japan and Target sector images.
  • Added BLIZWATCH (for blizzard watches) as a new option in the TYPE= keyword in the WWDISP and WWLIST commands. See the TYPE= keyword in the WWDISP and WWLIST command documentation in the McIDAS User's Guide for the complete list of warnings, watches and advisories that are supported.
  • Added new (DESC) option to the FRMLABEL and ZA commands.. This new option allows you to insert the band use description from the SATBAND file in the frame label or graphics. See the FRMLABEL and ZA command documentation in the McIDAS User's Guide for more information.
  • Updated GRIB server to give an informational error message when it cannot process a large grid due to an insufficient stack size setting on the server machine. See the Increasing the Stack Size section in the McIDAS User's Guide for action to take if the error Unix system stack size on server machine insufficient for grib decoding is encountered when accessing a very large grid with commands like GRDDISP.
Before installing Fastrack version 2016.2, make sure you view the complete list of Fastrack 2016.2 Software Changes, and, if you do any programming or local code development/modification also view and complete the appropriate actions described in the Fastrack 2016.2 Programmer Notes (pdf). You might want to print or download these two documents for future reference.

McIDAS-X 2016.2 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 2016.2, we ask that you notify the McIDAS Help Desk if you encounter any bugs. Please be sure to mention that you are running version 2016.2.

Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2016.2 from a version earlier than 2016.1, 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 2014.1 to 2016.2, you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for versions 2015.1, 2015.2 and 2016.1. 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 2016.2, 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., mcidas2016.2_win7.tar.gz becomes mcidas2016.2_win7_tar.gz), you must rename the files to those below before installing.
    File name Size Description
    mcidas2016.2_win7.sh 20 KB install/uninstall script
    mcidas2016.2_win7.tar.gz 205 MB compressed tar file containing binaries, source and data files; compiled version of -X & -XRD is about 646 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 2016.2 on your workstation, complete the instructions in the section titled "Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X" in Chapter 1 of the McIDAS User's Guide.
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