6SV - Installation Guide

Note #1: This guideline does not aim to replace the official installation steps provided by the authors of the 6SV software. We therefore not take any warranty of the correct performance of the 6SV software. For any questions about its installation, it is recommended to contact the corresponding authors of the 6SV software.

Note #2: The ALG software tool includes the 6SV v2.1 RTM, both compiled and source code in the folder path_to_ALG/third_party_sw/6SV2.1, where path_to_ALG is the path where the ALG software package has been installed. The installation and compilation process is described in the following paragraphs but users are not obliged to repeat these steps unless a new version of 6SV is released.

6SV is provided as a set of Fortran77 source-code files that can be downloaded from the 6S website (http://6s.ltdri.org/pages/downloads.html). After downloading the 6S source-code files, they have to be compiled in your specific computer system. This section provides basic instructions for downloading and compiling the 6SV v2.1 in a Windows system.

Prerequisites for installing 6SV

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In order to install the 6SV software, your computer first must have the command tools make and tar. These can be obtained through the GNUWin32 project. Notice that if you have an unzip tool such as WinRAR, it will not be necessary to download and install the tar tool from the GNUWin32 project. From its official website (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html), click on the setup link next to make and tar, and download the corresponding files. Run the two executable files you just have downloaded and work through the setup wizard for each, accepting the default options.

To compile the 6SV code, you will then need a Fortran77 compiler, which might be difficult to find as most compilers are now based on the (more modern) Fotran95 standard. However, 6SV cannot compile using the Fotran95 compilers. A Windows Fotran77 compiler can be found at www.cse.yorku.ca/~roumani/fortran/ftn.htm. From that website, download the FORT99.zip file, unzip it in your computer, and follow the next steps:

  1. Copy the G77 folder to the root of the C drive (i.e., C:\G77).
  2. Right-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop, or the Computer item on your Start Menu and select Properties.
  3. Choose the Advanced System Settings option, then click the Environment Variables button in the next dialog.
  4. In the "User variables" section, scroll down in the list box until you find a variable called PATH (or Path). Click Edit and add the following string to the end of its contents:
    ;C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin;C:\G77\bin
    Notice the semicolon (;), which should be added to separate the various variable values.

Finally, download the 6SV v2.1 source code from the official 6SV website at the Downloads section (http://6s.ltdri.org/pages/downloads.html). The source-code packages are zipped in .tar files. Download the 6SV2.1.tar file in a folder where you want to unzip and compile the source code e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\6SV.

Installing 6SV

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After downloading the 6SV2.1.tar file, open the command window by opening the Start Menu and typing cmd. In the terminal, change the working directory where the 6SV2.1.tar file has been saved and unzip the .tar file

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\6SV
tar -xvf "C:\Program Files (x86)\6SV\6SV2.1.tar ."

Alternatively, you can use instead any suitable unzip tool such as WinRAR. This will unzip the .tar file and a new folder called 6SV2.1 will be created with all the source code.

Before compiling the Fortran77 files, you first need to modify the Makefile file. On the Windows explorer, browse to the unzipped 6SV2.1 folder and look for the Makefile file. Open it with a text editor such as Notepad (not Word). Notice that, if the file is in the C:/Program Files (x86) folder, you might need writing administration permission. At the top of the file, change the Fortran Compiler (FC) to the downloaded G77 (i.e., FC = G77 $(FFLAGS)). You should comment (#) or delete the lines with default Fortran compilers.

Also remove the -lm from the lines near the end of the Makefile file.

Now on the terminal, move to the 6SV2.1 directory and compile the Fortran77 files using the make tool previously downloaded:

cd 6SV2.1
make

If no errors have been produced, a file called sixSV2.1.exe (or sixSV2.1, in this case without the extension .exe) should have been created. Test the 6SV executable by typing:

$ sixsV2.1.exe < input6S_plf.in

If 6SV is working correctly, the command window should show a set of 6SV-generated data and output messages. The 6SV execution will finish with some text similar to the following:

Note that:

  • 6SV should be run in the standard Command Prompt (cmd.exe), not Powershell (PowerCmd.exe).
  • If 6SV does not work, look for the file sixsV2.1 in the specific folder \6SV2.1 and change its name to sixsV2.1.exe.