How to obtain the Hydra CTIO Simulator

First, download the Simulator:

Software binaries are available to run under Linux and Solaris. The latest versions will be found in hydrasimLinux for Linux and in hydrasimSolaris for Solaris. Both versions can also be found in the Tucson mirror of the CTIO ftp site (updated nightly). Current version of the software is 4.0.2.

You will probably also want to download the the documentation file hydraassign.ps. Thanks to Phil Massey for providing the documentation and software for the Hydra-CTIO version of hydraassign . 

Install the software:

First, be sure you are running the c-shell or one of its derivatives (e.g. tsch). If you are running the bash shell, you can change to the c-shell using the command chsh -s /bin/csh Put the tar file in your home directory, change to your home directory and then

Under Linux run

gunzip hydrasimLinux.tar.gz
tar -xf hydrasimLinux.tar

Under Solaris run

uncompress hydrasimSolaris.tar.Z
tar -xf hydrasimSolaris.tar

Now change to subdirectory "/Hydra/bin" and execute "~/install.org". This is a script that will create three sub-directories (fiblogs, fields & stdfields) in your home directory. Copy the file "~/Hydra/bin/sample.fiborg" to .fiborg in your home directory as well. Then include in the "set path" command of either your ".login" or ".cshrc" file the following path:

~/Hydra/bin

Also, add the folowing line to your .login or .cshrc file to source the .fiborg and set the environment:

source ~/.fiborg

Log out and back in to allow the new path to be activated or type "source ~/.login" (or source ~/.cshrc or whatever is your particular rc file). If you chose not to decompress and de-tar the downloaded file in your home directory change variable FIBHOME in file ".fiborg" to reflect the new location of the software as well as the bin path for the "set path" command.

Start the simulator with the command: hydrasim

Two windows will appear. One is a simple command line window (CLI/Script Tool window) and the other is a window showing a graphical representation of the fibers and the focal plate. It also includes various information about the current star field and status. The terminal window used to launch the program will be used as a console.

Last modified: October 17, 2001