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Comprehensive Identification

from

FrEquency ResponsesAn interactive facility for

system identification and verification

CIFER WINTEL

INSTALLATION GUIDE AND

RELEASE NOTES(Version 4.1.00)

Comprehensive Identification

from

FrEquency ResponsesAn interactive facility for

system identification and verification

CIFER WINTEL

INSTALLATION GUIDE AND

RELEASE NOTES(Version 4.1.00)

October, 2004 CasalCorp, USA

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Authors: Paul W. Salchak (CasalCorp) with major contributions and revisions by Dexter L. Hermstad

(University of California) and Revision: 01 November, 2004. Original document by Gary Villere.with

revisions by Lawrence E. Pierce (Raytheon ITSS).

ii

CASALCORP SOFTWARE LICENSING AGREEMENT

Comprehensive Identification from FrEquency Responses (CIFER)

RECITAL: CasalCorp HAS ACQUIRED FOR DISTRIBUTION, SUPPORT, AND REUSE UNIQUE ANALYSISSOFTWARE FOR MODELING COMPLEX SYSTEM BEHAVIOR BASED UPON LIVE OR RECORDED DATA USING

A TECHNIQUE CALLED SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION (SOFTWARE).

IMPORTANT READ CAREFULLY: This End-User License Agreement (EULA) is a legal agreement between you(either an individual or a single entity) and CasalCorp for the above identified software and associated documentation(Software). By installing, copying, or otherwise using Software, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If youdo not agree to the terms of this EULA, do not install or use Software. CasalCorp. (LICENSOR) IS WILLING TO

LICENSE SOFTWARE TO YOU (LICENSEE) ONLY IF YOU ACCEPT ALL OF THE TERMS IN THE LICENSEAGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, LICENSOR WILL NOT LICENSE THIS SOFTWARE TOYOU, AND IN THAT CASE YOU SHOULD RETURN THIS PRODUCT PROMPTLY TO THE PLACE OF PURCHASEFOR A FULL REFUND.

OWNERSHIP OF THE SOFTWARE: The Licensor software program identified above and the accompanying

documentation are owned by Licensor and are protected by United States copyright laws, by laws of other nations, and byinternational treaties. Licensor owns rights to all copyright, trade secret, patent, and other proprietary rights in the Software.This License gives you no rights to such content. In addition, under no circumstances is reverse engineering of the softwareprogram, algorithms, or features/functions in whole or in part allowed.

LICENSE: The Licensee is hereby granted a non-exclusive license to use the Software for up to and including the number of

seats specified in the accompanying ordering agreement.

Licensee may not: (a) permit other individuals to use the Software except under the terms listed herein; (b) use or permit others

to use the Software for any commercial purpose; (c) modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble (except to theextent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction), or create derivative work based on the Software; (d) copy theSoftware (except) for back-up purposes); (e) rent, lease, transfer or otherwise transfer rights to the Software; or (f) remove anycopyright, trademark or other proprietary notices or labels on the Software.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The software is licensed on an AS IS basis, without warranty of any kind, including

without limitation the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The entire risk asto the quality and performance of the Software is borne by Licensee. Should the Software prove defective, Licensee and notCasalCorp assumes the entire cost of any service and repair. In addition, the security mechanism implemented by the Softwarehas inherent limitations, and Licensee must determine that the Software sufficiently meets Licensees requirements. This

disclaimer of warranty constitutes an essential part of the agreement. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSIONS OFAN IMPLIED WARRANTY, SO THIS DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO LICENSEE. YOU MAY HAVE OTHERLEGAL RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE OR BY JURISDICTION.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, TORT,CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL CASALCORP OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE TO LICENSEE OR ANYOTHER PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANYCHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE,COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OR ANY AND ALL OTHER COMMERICAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES. INNO EVENT WILL CASALCORP BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, EVEN IF CASALCORP SHALL HAVE BEENINFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. THE

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL NOT APPLY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY TO THE EXTENTAPPLICABLE LAW PROHIBITS SUCH LIMITATION. FURTHERMORE, SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE

EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THIS LIMITATION ANDEXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO LICENSEE.

TERMINATION: This License will terminate automatically if Licensee fails to comply with the limitations described above.

On termination, Licensee must return all copies of the Software.

EXPORT CONTROLS: None of the Software or underlying information or technology may be shipped, transferred, or

exported into any country prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act or used for any purpose prohibited by theAct.

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS: Use, duplication or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictionsset forth in subparagraphs (a) through (d) of the Commercial Computer-Restricted Rights clause at FAR 52.227-19 when

applicable, or in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013.

MISCELLANEOUS: This Agreement represents the complete agreement concerning this license between the parties and

supersedes all prior agreements and representations between them. It may be amended only by a writing executed by bothparties. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be reformed only to

the extent necessary to make it enforceable.

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Authors: Paul W. Salchak (CasalCorp) with major contributions and revisions by Dexter L. Hermstad

(University of California) and Revision: 01 November, 2004. Original document by Gary Villere.with

revisions by Lawrence E. Pierce (Raytheon ITSS).

iii

CIFER/WINTEL INSTALLATION GUIDE AND RELEASE NOTES

1. Introduction 1

2. System Requirements 5

3. Installation 5

4. Uninstalling CIFER 8

5. The CIFER Environment and Directory Structure 10

6. Running CIFER 24

7. Using CIFER: Setting Up Databases and SIFDEF files 30

8. Multiple-User CIFER Systems 35

Appendix A: Manually Uninstalling CIFER 38 Appendix B: Installing CIFER Patches 40 Appendix C: Installing CIFER Training Database 40 Appendix D: Validating the CIFER Installation 41 Appendix E: Installing CIFER Extras for WINTEL Versions 46 Appendix F: CIFER Run-Time Licensing on a WINTEL Platform 50 Appendix G: Implementing a CIFER READMIS Library 51

Appendix H: Working with CIFER Graphics Output 56

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CI FE R - Th e Power to M odel Your Worl d

CasalCorp October 2004 IGRN-1

CIFER / WINTEL Installation Guide and Release Notes

Document Terms and Conditions

This material is restricted to your Company or Agency use only under the terms of

purchase, and is for use only at your site. It may be installed for execution on one systemat a time for individual or group presentation. Discs and supporting documents may becopied only upon prior approval. This restriction includes prohibition from use by

contractors or outside agents unless their sole use will be at your site.

1. Introduction

This document describes the procedures necessary to install/uninstall CIFER on a WindowsWINTEL (NT, W2K, XP) platform and to create an end-user database. It also contains

information on minimum system requirements, directory structures, and procedures which youmay use to verify that your CIFER package has been correctly installed.

CIFER is the worlds premier System Identification solution. The CIFER system, shown

in Figure 1-1, is a high-performance interactive and complete software facility used for a widerange of systems synthesis, optimization, and validation. While the software suite can beexecuted as a stand-alone tool, interface provisions are made for common external data sets oninput (e.g., Data Acquisition standards, MATLAB) and plotting/reporting tools on output. Thecapability also exists for individual users to integrate to their custom or proprietary data setsthrough a published intermediate format and templatecalled READMIS. This supports ASCII,

telemetry-encoded, or even binary level data samples.

FRESPID - Frequency Response

Identification

MISOSA - Multi-Input

Conditioning

COMPOSITE - Multi-Window

Averaging

Time HistoryData

Frequency Response Identification

(FRESPID)

Multi-Input Conditioning

(MISOSA)

Window Combination

(COMPOSITE)

Derivative Identification

(DERIVID)

State Space Verification

(VERIFY)

Frequency Response Fitting

(NAVFIT)

Frequency Response

Plot and Report Utilities

Model Matrices


DERIVID- Generalized StabilityDerivative

Identification (from frequency responses)

VERIFY-State Space Model Verification

NAVFIT - Calculates Low-Order Transfer

Function (from hi-order transfer function or

frequency response data)

Screen Subsystem - User Interface

Utilities Suite - Special functions, plotting,

conditioning, etc.

DBSubsystem - Raw, Intermediate,

Processed data and indexing

FRESPID - Frequency Response

Identification

MISOSA - Multi-Input

Conditioning

COMPOSITE - Multi-Window

Averaging

Time HistoryData


(FRESPID)


(MISOSA)

Window Combination

(COMPOSITE)


(DERIVID)


(VERIFY)


(NAVFIT)

Frequency Response


Model Matrices


Time HistoryData


(FRESPID)


(MISOSA)

Window Combination

(COMPOSITE)


(DERIVID)


(VERIFY)


(NAVFIT)

Frequency Response


Model Matrices


DERIVID- Generalized StabilityDerivative

Identification (from frequency responses)

VERIFY-State Space Model Verification

NAVFIT - Calculates Low-Order Transfer

Function (from hi-order transfer function or

frequency response data)

Screen Subsystem - User Interface

Utilities Suite - Special functions, plotting,

conditioning, etc.

DBSubsystem - Raw, Intermediate,

Processed data and indexing

Figure1-1:

The Top-Level

C I F E R

Product

Organization

In the past, CIFERs primary use has been for high-performance aerodynamic

systems/controls modeling, analysis, test, and optimization. It has also been uniquely proven forhandling qualities and related analyses; particularly for frequency-domain intensive ADS-33referenced specification and testing. Vibration analysis; flutter analysis; wind tunnel and flight

test characterizations; and simulator development, validation, and optimization are just a few ofits other past and continuing uses. Other high value CIFER adaptations are not based on how it

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has been used, though. Rather it is based on what CIFER does. For any measurable system

excitation/response set (time or fr equency domain), CI F ER

assesses th e f r equency content

and produces an accurate mathematical description of that systems complex dynamic

behaviors. With its strong basis in proven signal processing and analysis techniques, CIFERuses extend well beyond the flight/vehicle development and test regime.

Figure 1-2 depicts the overall CIFER process. This is an empirically based technique,operating on measured excitation data (continuous or pulse) and system responses. For ourpurposes the system/subsystem/component can be of any size or domain, so long as it can be

instrumented to collect the needed signal data.

Fi gure 1-2: CIFER

is based not only on sound science, but on sound engineering

Other important aspects of our use of CIFERs processing features in our approach include:

Tools and results exercised and proven over 12 years of use; recognized as world best-

in-class for applications addressing real-world problems in real-world conditions

Significant relevant data and experience can be supplemented with minimal additional effortand cost to any future program(s)

Non-real-time and real-time analysis directly supported

Directly relevant identification algorithms are highly exercised and tuned

Flexible and interactive definition of identification model structures

Non-Parametric Modeling directly supported no a priori assumptions are needed

about the system order, structure, or composition Fully automated weighting function selection based on frequency-response accuracy

Built-in and reliable parameter accuracy metrics provides added confidence in results overspectral region of interest and importance

Integrated procedure for identification and model structure determination

Time-domain verification of models, including identification of offsets and biases

Available NOW for most current OSs, including WINTEL (NT, W2K, XP); Unix (IRIX,Solaris); and MAC (OS 9 and OS X) [MAC installation requires additional 3 rd party software]

Frequency

Inputs

(Stimulus/Events)

Raw Response

Collection

Data Compatibility

& State Estimation

Multi-variable

Spectral Analysis

Conditioned

Frequency-Responses

&

Partial Coherences

Transfer-Function

Modeling

Identification

Algorithm

Freq.-Response

IdentificationCriterion

Mathematical Model

Dynamic Behavior Derivatives

and Time Delays

Initial

Values

Dissimilar Reference

Data not used in

IdentificationVerification

Sensitivity Analysis

&

Model Structure

Determination

ANALYSIS APPLICATION (interactive, semi-automated, automated)

+

-

TheCI FERThe CI F ER

Frequency-domainFrequency-domain

system identificationsystem identification

processprocess

Frequency

Inputs

(Stimulus/Events)

Raw Response

Collection

Data Compatibility

& State Estimation

Multi-variable

Spectral Analysis

Conditioned

Frequency-Responses

&

Partial Coherences

Transfer-Function

Modeling

Identification

Algorithm

Freq.-Response

IdentificationCriterion

Mathematical Model

Dynamic Behavior Derivatives

and Time Delays

Initial

Values

Dissimilar Reference

Data not used in

IdentificationVerification

Sensitivity Analysis

&

Model Structure

Determination

ANALYSIS APPLICATION (interactive, semi-automated, automated)

+

-

TheCI FERThe CI F ER

Frequency-domainFrequency-domain

system identificationsystem identification

processprocess

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1 .1 T y p e s o f C IF E R In s t a l l at i o n s

There are two versions of CIFER available for the WINTEL platform.

The basic CIFER package contains all of the functionality needed to perform frequency

response analysis of multiple input dynamical systems, and to produce transfer function

models of those systems.

The primary CIFER components included in this installation are FRESPID, MISOSA,COMPOSITE, and NAVFIT. In addition to these modules, the package contains anextensive suite of utilities which provide various database maintenance and data input/outputcapabilities.

The full CIFER Pro installation contains all of the functionality of basic CIFER, withthe addition of state-space modeling capability as provided by the DERIVID and VERIFYmodules. The Pro package also includes an expanded suite of utilities, which provideadditional ancillary capabilities specifically required by the DERIVID and VERIFY

components.

1 .2 W h a t W i l l b e I n s t a ll e d

Regardless of which CIFER version1 you have purchased, the following components willbe installed on your system:

CIFER. The CIFER package itself is installed into a directory tree created explicitly forthe CIFER executables, scripts, databases and other miscellaneous components. Also, inaddition to the usual registry entries made by application installers, two system-wideenvironment variables will be created during the installation process. Initially, these variables(cifroot and cifhome) will both point to the root of the CIFER directory tree; usuallyCIFER_PRO. A more detailed description of the contents of these directories and purpose ofthese environment variables is provided in Section 5 of this IGRN.

Mortice Kern Systems (MKS) Toolkit COE (Client Operating Environment). CIFERwas ported to the WINTEL operating systems from the Unix platform, and many of its

modules and scripts require elements of the Unix API. For this reason CIFER relies on theMKS Toolkit COE (a.k.a. NuTCRACKER COE). Your CIFER license includes an end-userlicense for the MKS Toolkit COE, which is automatically installed on your system by theCIFER installer. (If your system already has MKS Toolkit installed, then the CIFERinstaller will only update your installation as required for CIFER support.)

If you already use NuTCRACKER, or if, for any other reason, you have files named

profile.ksh and/or environ.ksh in your logon directory (i.e.,

%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%) you should rename them. The CIFER installer mustcreate its own versions of these files in your directory. After the installation is complete, youcan merge them as necessary (see IGRN section 4.4 for information on this process). Theinstaller will warn you if it detects these files in your logon directory and you will be given achance to terminate the installation.

PLEASE NOTE THAT in addition to support for CIFER, with the MKS Toolkit COE we

provide a fully operational Unix emulation that can be accessed via the CIFER shell

shortcut, the MS-DOS command shell, or the Run command in the Start menu. In addition

1 Indeed, nothing in the remaining sections of these notes depends upon which version of CIFER is

being installed, and for that reason, the distinction between the two packages will be dropped at this

point. In the remainder of the document CIFER and CIFER_Pro will both be referred to as CIFER.

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to the Korn shell, you will have access to many of the common Unix commands and utilities(e.g., vi, grep, sed, awk, perl, etc.).

After reading and acknowledging acceptance of the license agreement, you will be asked toenter your product serial number (prior to Version_4.1.00 only). Installation cannot proceedwithout a properly entered license key. Run-Time Keys will also be required to execute

CIFER functionality following a successful installation. These are described in a latersection of this Notes manual.

You will be given the opportunity to select a destination folder for the CIFER software. Ifyou elect to change the default location, please be careful to choose a path which does notcontain embedded blanks. (Actually, you will be prohibited from doing so!)

When you are asked to enter a destination folder for the NuTCRACKER Client OperatingEnvironment (COE), this will pertain to the location of that portion of the environment whichresides on the Installation Drive as shown in Table 1. You cannot change the location ofthe System Drive component of the operating environment. Also, there is no requirement

that CIFER and the NuTCRACKER COE reside on the same disk drive (or partition).

Please note that the installation of the NuTCRACKER COE can run for several minutes and

that no progress indicator is displayed for portions of the procedure. Allow ample time for itscompletion before proceeding.

On some earlier Windows XP systems, you may get a message that reads something likeThe ordinal xyzcould not be located. Dismiss such messages by clicking OK.

1 .3 W h a t w i l l n o t b e I n s t al l e d

SCO XVision Server. CIFER relies on the X Window system for display of on-screen graphics. As a result, it is necessary for a local X Window server to be

installed on your system. The SCO XVision X Window server can be installed fromyour 2

ndNT CIFER distribution CD. If your system already has a local X server,

such as cygwin-X, you may wish to use that software instead; CasalCorp cannotguarantee the outcome in all such cases.

TeX. Some of the ancillary utilities that support DERIVID and VERIFY produceoutput which is designed to be typeset using the TeX typesetting program developedat Stanford University by Donald Knuth. MiKTeX is the WINTEL version of this

utility set, and as of Version 4.1.00 is included as a part of the CIFER software

system. Upon installation, this software will be deposited in the Extras/ subdirectoryof the CIFER Home Directory (usually CIFER_Pro). This installation must beseparately initiated, however.

1 .4 A d m i n i s t r a t i v e P r i v i le g e s R e q u i r ed f o r In s t a l l a ti o n

Because several of the CIFER support components install Windows services, it will be

necessary to have administrative privilege to perform this installation.

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2. System Requirements

2 .1 O p e ra t in g S y s t em

CIFER and its supporting components should run on any NT4, W2K, or XP WINTELworkstation or server system. CIFER was initially developed on an NT workstation running

Service Pack 3.

No attempt has been made to test CIFER on Windows 95, 98, or ME and no representationis made as to CIFERs suitability for use on such systems.

2 .2 P r o c es s o r a n d M em o r y

CIFER will execute efficiently on any current-generation processor (Pentium or later). Atleast 64 MB of random access memory (RAM) is recommended for systems running the CIFER

package. 256MB or more is recommended for optimum performance, particularly if processing

larger data sets.

2 .3 D is k S t o r ag e Disk requirements vary greatly, and are primarily driven by the size of the data sets that will

be collected and processed using the CIFER software system. It is left to the user and their

system administration to establish appropriate capacity for their particular requirements.

If all defaults and installation options are exercised, the CIFER software system storagerequirements include:

CIFER_Pro, with all documentation, datasets: 435 MB

NutCracker Operating Environment: 30 MB

XVision Server and Utilities: 20 MB

MiKTex (all possible options with full installation; not required for normal use): 640 MB

Ghostview (PostScript viewer and report conditioning): 4 MB

Browser Interactive Training Modules (Intro to SYSID, Case Studies, Labs): 760 MB

3. Installation

CIFER for the WINTEL platform is distributed on an autorun CD-ROM; installation

should be automatically initiated when the CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive. If the setupprogram does not automatically execute, you may manually initiate execution by double-clickingthe icon for the setup.exe program which is located in the root directory of the CD. Once initiated,

the setup program will guide you through a relatively standard installation sequence, most ofwhich will not be discussed in detail here. The following bullet items cover the salient points inapproximately the order in which they will be encountered during installation:

Important note: if there is already a version of CIFER installed on your computer system,

you should do the following prior to installing the newer version: make a backup copy ofyour CIFER_Pro folder (note: it isprobably best not to use CIFER if you backup to a folderon the same system), and then completely uninstall the older version of CIFER (please refer

to section 3 for detailed uninstallation instructions). NOTE that it is not necessary touninstall/reinstall XVision if the version on your system is current (compare version numberof installed XVision with version number on XVision CD that came with your new version of

CIFER). To determine the version number of your installed XVision, make sure that the

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XVision server is running (check for green XV icon in Windows status bar); if it is notrunning, start it via Start->Programs->Vision->XVisionServer. Next, right-click on the green

XV icon in the Windows status bar; in the pop-up menu, select Help->AboutXVision.Finally, observe the XVision version number that appears in the About XVision window.

The setup program cannotbe run from a network drive. If you do not have a local CD-ROM

drive on your system, you may copy (via a network connection!) all of the files from the CD-ROM to a folder on a local hard drive. The top-level Setup.exe program may then belaunched directly from the local disk by double clicking.

If you already use NuTCRACKER, or if, for any other reason, you have files named

profile.ksh and/or environ.ksh in your logon directory (i.e.,

%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%) you should rename them. The CIFER installer mustcreate its own versions of these files in your directory. After the installation is complete, you

can merge them as necessary (see section 5.4 below for information on this process). Theinstaller will warn you if it detects these files in your logon directory and you will be given achance to terminate the installation.

In some rare situations, the installer may not be able to copy the profile and environment files

to your logon directory. In these cases a warning will be issued during installation, and you

can then manually rectify this failure after the installation is complete. To correct theproblem simply copy2 the profile.ksh and environ.ksh files, which you will find in

the folder%cifroot%\scripts\, to your logon directory.

You will be given the opportunity to select a destination folder for the CIFER software. If

you elect to change the default location, please be careful to choose a path which does not

contain embedded blanks.3

(Actually, you will be prohibited from doing so!)

When you are asked to enter a destination folder for the NuTCRACKER Client Operating

Environment (COE), this will pertain to the location of that portion of the environment whichresides on the Installation Drive. You cannot change the location of the System Drivecomponent of the operating environment. Also, there is no requirement that CIFER and the

NuTCRACKER COE reside on the same disk drive (or partition).

Please note that the installation of the NuTCRACKER COE is lengthy (running for severalminutes) and that no progress indicator is displayed.

The NuTCRACKER COE is a shared resource; it may support multiple end-user applications

on a given platform. If your machine already has a NuTCRACKER COE installed, the

installer will only add and/or update those components necessary to support the CIFERpackage.

On some older Windows XP systems, you may get a message that reads something like The

ordinal xyzcould not be located. Dismiss such messages by clicking OK.

XVISION INSTALLATION and SETUP

CIFER requires a local X server for on-screen display of graphical output. The SCO

XVision server is suitable and can be installed from your 2nd

distribution CD (please read thesubsequent bullets for details). However, if your machine already has a local X server installed,you may wish not to install the SCO server. If you elect not to install the SCO server, you will be

responsible for insuring that CIFER can communicate with your server.

2 Do not move them! The originals must remain in the %cifroot%\scripts directory.3 CIFER originated from Unix-based software, which does not readily tolerate embedded blanks in

directory paths.

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To install XVision, remove the 1st CD from the drive and insert the 2nd CD (labeled

XVision). If the XVision installer does not appear after a few moments, double-click onthe My Computer desktop icon and then double-click on your CD-drive icon. If the XVision

installer still does not appear you will see a listing of files on the CD; double-click on theinstall file to invoke the XVision installer.

The XVision installer will ask what type of installation you wish to perform. A "Typical"installation is strongly recommended.

For some versions of the SCO XVision server, installation can run for several minutes.

During this time, you may not see a progress indicator and the installer may seem to

disappear after updating the registry and telling you it is checking directory structure; pleasebe patient and allow the installation to complete. When the installation is complete, you will

be notified via a small dialog box (which will also ask if you wish to restart the computer; in

order to avoid possible confusion, please choose No).

After completing the CIFER installation and XVision installation it will be necessary toreboot your machine before attempting to use the software. In order to avoid possible confusion,

please do the following before initiating a restart: close any windows (especially windows that are

exploring or browsing the CIFER CD) and then remove the CD from the drive.In order for CIFER to be able to communicate with the XVision server, the TCP-Unix

transport protocol must be enabled. You may check that this is the case by launching the VisionCommunications applet from the Control Panel (Figure 3-1a). Then select the Transports taband look for the TCP-Unix transport in the list box. If it is not enabled, select it in the list and

click on the "Properties" button. In the property sheet (Figure 3-1b), select the "Enable thistransport" radio button, then click "Apply". Finally, close the "Vision Communications" panel byclicking "OK". Note: For older WINTEL installations (e.g., Windows 2000) this procedure may causethe process dbserv.exe to crash (click OK in the error dialog window); if this occurs, you will need to

logout (or possibly even restart) to restore proper XVision operation (and enable CIFER screen plotting).

Before attempting to generate any screen plots in CIFER, please make sure that the

XVision Server is running. If you do not see a green XV icon in the status bar (near theclock), then the XVision Server is not running. It can be invoked from the Start menu (Start -

> Programs -> Vision -> XVision Server); wait until the green XV icon appears in thestatus bar before commencing with screen plots. If you would like the XVision Server tostart when Windows starts, please refer to the next bullet.

F i g u r e 3 -1 a: V i s i o n C o m m u n i c a t i o n s A p p l e t Fi g u re 3 -1 b : Tra n sp o rt Pro p e rti e s Pa n e l

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To setup the XVision Server to start when Windows starts, follow these steps: select Start ->

Settings -> Control Panel (on Windows XP select Start -> Control Panel and be sure to selectthe classic view); in the resulting window, double-click on the XVision Profiles icon; in the

resulting window, click on the Global Settings tab, and then mark Load XVision at WindowsStartup; then click Apply and OK. You will have to restart your PC and login again to verifythat the Server is properly activated (check for the green XV icon in the status bar after

restarting and logging in).

Please note that the first screen plot issued for any CIFER utility may take several secondsto appear. Subsequent screen plots (issued in the same session of the given CIFER utility)should appear more quickly.

The CIFER documentation files are available as Microsoft Word files and Adobe Portable

Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF files may be viewed and printed with the Adobe

Acrobat Reader, which is a free program, available from the Adobe web site. As aconvenience you will find a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader installer in an appropriatelylabeled folder. [For Version 4.1.00 or later, this will be found in the Extras subdirectory

under the main CIFER directory; usually CIFER_PRO/Extras. Prior to Version 4.1.00please use the separately distributed EXTRAS CD.]

4. Uninstalling CIFER

Before uninstalling CIFER, you should first BACKUP any data in the CIFER (orCIFER_Pro) folder. Specifically, you may want to backup the contents of the Data and Jobs sub-folders. To be really safe, you could backup the entire CIFER (or CIFER_Pro) folder to make

sure you capture everything (such as READMIS modules you developed, for example). If youbackup to a folder on the same system, it is probably best not to use CIFER in the name of thebackup folder.

CIFER may be uninstalled via the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel.Select Start -> Settings -> Control Panel, or on XP systems Start -> Control Panel; on Windows

XP systems be sure to select the classic view; in the Control Panel window, double click on theAdd/Remove Programs icon; in the resulting Add/Remove Programs window, click on theInstall/Uninstall tab (on XP or Windows 2000 systems click on Change or Remove Programs);select CIFER in the list of programs and then click on the Add/Remove button to initiate theuninstall (on Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems, click on the Remove button).

Please note, however, that the CIFER uninstaller will notremove the NuTCRACKER COEor the XVision server. Because these components are shared resources, they cannot be

automatically removed when CIFER is removed from your machine.

However, if you wish to remove NuTCRACKER and/or the XVision server software, youmay use the uninstallers provided for that purpose (using the aforementioned Add/Remove

procedure). But, before doing so, you should make certain that these components are not required

by other software on your system. In the case of the NuTCRACKER COE, this can beaccomplished by checking the Registered Applications list in the Information tab of the

NuTCRACKER Control Panel applets window (Figure 4-1). Unfortunately, there is nocorrespondingly simple method for determining the number of clients on your system that mayrequire the XVision server.

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Finally, to ensure proper uninstallation of the packages components, the software should beremoved in the order shown below:

CIFER

SCO XVision Eclipse (see NOTE below)

MKS Platform Components 7.x (or later)

NOTE: if you are uninstalling CIFER so that you can install a newer version of CIFER, itmay not be necessary to uninstall SCO XVision Eclipse (please refer to section 2 for details).

If you are uninstalling an older version of CIFER (e.g., 3.60r3 dated May 2000) then theseare the components you must remove (in the order shown):

CIFER

XVision

NuTCRACKER Unix Utilities Plug-in, Deluxe

NuTCRACKER Operating Environment Plug-in

Note: to ensure that the list of software components displayed by the Add/Remove applet isupdated, you may close and reopen the Add/Remove applet after uninstalling each component.

Note: after uninstalling XVision, you should check to make sure it is really gone (see the

previous note). If it is not gone, it may need to be uninstalled using the installation CD (you may

or may not see a window entitled Installation Media Not Found; if you see it, just hit its Cancelbutton). To uninstall from the CD, insert the CD that was used to install XVision. If a Setup

dialog appears, hit the Cancel button (and then confirm that you want to quit by hitting the Yesbutton). Then uninstall XVision (using the Add/Remove Programs control panel). If you cometo an XVision Setup window that has a Remove All button, click that button (and then click Yes

to confirm); on Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems please consult us if you encounter thissituation before making a choice. If you are asked whether to restart Windows, check the No

button and click Next. After a few moments you may remove the CD from the drive.

Fi g u re 4 -1 : N u TC R AC KER Ap p l e t

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Note: during some uninstallations a dialog entitled Remove Shared File? may appear. Ifyou see this dialog, click the Yes To All button and then confirm by hitting the Yes button

(on Windows XP and Windows 2000, click the No To All button and confirm). At the end ofthe uninstallation you may see a message like Some elements could not be removed. The

procedure for removing such elements is described in the note (about doing a really clean

uninstall) below.

Note: during (or after) some uninstallations you may see a message The system cannot findthe file specified. Just click the OK button to dismiss such messages.

Note: after uninstalling all of the CIFER, XVision, and MKS (or NuTCRACKER)components you should restart the computer.

Note: for a really clean uninstall, you should also search for files and/or folders that did not

get uninstalled by the Add/Remove procedure and the restart. Such scouring will also increasethe odds of a successful reinstallation (or installation of a more recent CIFER product). Theseinstructions assume you did a Typical installation of CIFER to the C: disk. To initiate the

search, open the Find applet (Start -> Find -> Files or Folders). In the resulting window, select theName & Location tab. Specify C: in the Look In field. Make sure Include Subfolders is checked.Then enter a name (e.g., Vision) in the Named field and click Find Now. When the search is

completed, you may wish to expand the window and also expand the In Folder portion of the list.You can select files and folders in the leftmost column of the list, and drag-and-drop them intothe Recycle Bin. When you are done disposing of items, be sure to empty the Recycle Bin (right-mouse on it and select Empty Recycle Bin from the resulting pull-down menu). You should

search on the following strings: Vision, SCO, Nut, and CIFER (on XP or 2000, just search onCIFER). You should remove the following files/folders if you uninstalled Xvision (skip this stepon XP and 2000 do not remove any Vision or SCO files/folders): Vision (in C:\), Vision (inC:\Common Files), and Sco (in C:\WINNT\Profiles\administrator\Application Data). If youuninstalled MKS Toolkit then you should remove Nutcroot (generally in C:\) but do not remove

Nutcroot on XP or 2000 systems. You may remove CIFER or CIFER_Pro (in C:\) but BACKUP

the data therein before doing so (your CIFER databases, plots, job outputs, and other items maybe there); if you backup to a folder on the same system, it is probably best not to use CIFER inthe name of the backup folder.

Note: It is possible, in rare circumstances, for the CIFER setup program to be unable touninstall the CIFER package. In these situations the uninstaller may seem to run whenactivated from the Add/Remove panel, but later inspection will reveal that none of the files or

shortcuts have been removed. Furthermore, it will then be impossible to reinstallCIFER usingthe original CD. To correct this problem, it is necessary to manually uninstall CIFER asdescribed in Appendix A.

5. The CIFER Environment and Directory Structure

This section describes the organization of the CIFER file system that has been installed on

your computer. In order to effectively utilize CIFER, you will have to have some familiaritywith the structure of these directories, as well as the scripts, and environment settings upon whichCIFER depends for execution.

Much of the information contained in this section is detailed in nature, and need not be fullyassimilated on a first reading. However, it is advisable for the new CIFER user to at least

browse these pages in order to glean an overview of the topics contained therein.

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5 .1 T h e P r i m a r y CI FE R E n v i r o n m e n t Va r i ab l e s

During installation, two system-level environment variables are defined on your computer:

c i f r o ot and c i f h o me . Initially, these variables are defined with the same value, the path to

the root of the CIFER directory tree, i.e., the path to the CIFER destination folder, that you

provided during installation. (For information on situations in which these variables will have

distinct values, see the next section.)These environment variables control every aspect of CIFERs operation. They are used to

establish the path to the target scripts executed by the CIFER shell shortcut (see the section onrunning CIFER, below), and in the definitions of many secondary CIFER environmentvariables which identify specific subfolders and objects within the CIFER directory tree.

You may examine the primary CIFER environment variables by selecting theEnvironment tab of the System applet in the Control Panel (Figure 5-1). Note: on XP and2000 systems, select the Advanced tab of the System applet and then click on theEnvironment button; the resulting window will look similar to (but not the same as) Figure 3.

Note that you will generally not see the definitions of the secondary CIFER environmentvariables in the System applet window. This is because those variables are only defined in the

MKS Korn shell within which CIFER executes.

5 .2 S i n g l e an d M u l t i p l e U s e r C IF E R S y s t e m s

Before discussing the structure of the CIFER directory tree, it is necessary to distinguishbetween two types of CIFER installations: single and multiple user.

A single user CIFER installation is one in which only one person of the (perhaps) many

people with accounts on the system, actually uses CIFER. On such a system, it is unnecessaryto create separate user configurations and directory structures in order to segregate the operational

F i g u r e 5 -1 : E n v i r o n m e n t T a b o f t h e S y s t e m A p p l e t

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environments of multiple users. In this case, the CIFER user can create databases andcustomized data input routines directly within the primary CIFER directory tree without fear of

impacting others.

However, on systems which support multiple CIFER users, it is necessary to duplicate, on aper user basis, certain portions of the primary CIFER directory structure in order to provide

segregated areas for the storage of user data. In these installations, thec i f r o ot

environmentvariable will point to the primary CIFER directory (as created during installation), while the

c i f h o me environment variable will point to the root of each individual users CIFER directory

tree. These per user directory trees are not subtrees of the primary CIFER (CIFER_Pro)directory, but rather, are usually located in the users own directory. (For specific instructions on

creating these user directories, see section 8 below.)

5 .3 T h e C IF E R R o o t Di r e c t o r y T re e

This is the primary CIFER directory tree, as created by the installer. The path to the root of

this tree is contained in the c i f r o ot environment variable. Figure 5-2 illustrates the

organization of this tree while Table 2 summarizes its content.

A discussion of the format and directory

structure ofType One time history filesmay be found in the document

Implementing READMIS (also included

in this IGRN as an Appendix G)





Folder must be copied in whole when

creating individual user accounts

Folder must be copied in part when


< CIFROOT >





























< CIFROOT >

Figure 5-2: CIFER Directory Structure

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Table 2: The CIFER Root Directory Tree

\... The root of the primary CIFER directory tree.

bin Contains the CIFER executables and dynami-

cally linkable libraries (DLLs).

data The data directory is the default location forSIFDEF files and the SIFDEF template file. Italso contains various subdirectories which may,

depending upon installation parameters, containuser created databases and sample datacorresponding to the exercises in the CIFERclass notes.

data\th The default location for CIFER time historydata. If you elect a typical installation, sample

type one time history data files will be placed inthe subtree beneath this directory. You will find a

detailed explanation of this directory structure andfile naming conventions for type one timehistory data files in the Implementing Readmis

document.

data\der_dat Contains sample simulation data files.

data\db This directory is the default target for newlycreated CIFER database files. A sampledatabase, containing some of the classroom

exercises for aircraft 703 (the XV-15), is placed inthis directory during installation if you elect thetypical configuration.

extras This directory provides specialized utilities, post-release patches/updates, and 3

rdparty software that

augment the performance of the baseline CIFERsoftware system as installed.

scripts Contains shell and PERL scripts which are usedduring the execution of some CIFER utilities.Many of the scripts in this directory are useful in ageneral context; see in particular 'mkbackup',

'purgefiles', and 'vdiff'. The end-user scripts in thisdirectory have man-page style documentationembedded in the file. For the PERL scripts, thisdocumentation can be accessed by typing a

command of the form ' !' atthe command prompt in the CIFER shell.

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Table 2: (continued . . . )

source This is the root of the source subtree (althoughsource code per se is not distributed withWINTEL CIFER!). The directories in this treecontain items such as CIFER screen definition

files, NASADIG font files, and templates forconstructing customized READMIS libraries.

source\cifincludes Contains a header file which is used by someCIFER scripts when accessing user databases.

source\readmis This folder contains sample READMIS projects(for Visual C/C++ and DEC Visual Fortran) which

can be used to construct customized time historydata input libraries. For a detailed discussion ofuser data input libraries see the document

Implementing READMIS.

source\cifscreen Contains a folder of CIFER screen definitionfiles. These files are utilized by the screensubsystem to generate the CIFER user interface.

source\nasadig This subtree contains font and map resources forCIFERs customized NASADIG plottingsoftware.

documentation Contains CIFER documentation, primarily inPDF format. (These files require the AdobeAcrobat Viewer, which is distributed withCIFER.)

jobs The (initial) default location for storing the end-user output from the various CIFER utilities.

jobs\plots The (initial) default location for storing end-userplot output.

ui Contains CIFER User Interface (CIFUI) files.These files are present for compatibility with Unix

versions of CIFER. In general, end-useradjustment of these files is not required on NT

systems.

ui\terminfo Contains keymap files. These files are present forcompatibility with Unix versions of CIFER.

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5 .4 T h e C IF E R Profile and Environ Files

In addition to the files contained in the primary CIFER directory tree described in the

previous section, two critically important files will be copied to your disk during installation. Theinstaller will place these files in your logon directory

4during setup. (Or, if you are a secondary

user, i.e., someone other than the user who installed CIFER, they will be copied to your logon

directory the first time you run the program). The files, collectively known as shell environment

files, are named profile.ksh and environ.ksh; they are required in order for theCIFER shell to launch properly.

The CIFER shell is really an MKS Korn shell within which the CIFER script executes.

As with all Korn and Bourne shells, the CIFER shell will read the users profile.ksh file atstartup, if one can be found in the logon directory.

Among other things, the CIFER profile.ksh defines several aliases and functionswhich may be of general use when working within the shell after a CIFER session. (You maywish to peruse the file to become familiar with these shortcuts if you intend to make use of theshell environment.) However, the most important segment of the profile file will be found near

the end, in the sections labeled CIFER Environment and CIFER Autolaunch. The first ofthese segments defines various CIFER environment variables by source-ing the ancillary

cifrc.ksh file; the second segment actually launches CIFER.

In a shell environment, the profile file is read only once, when the login shell is initiated. Ifthere are initializations which must be performed every time a shell is launched (e.g., whenever a

non-login shell is spawned), then those initializations must be placed in the environ.ksh file,

since it is processed each time a shell launches. In the case of CIFER, the environ.ksh file isprimarily used to provide (redundant) definitions of two important CIFER environment variables

in order to ensure their availability in all child processes.

Merging Shell Environment Files. If you are one of the class of users who, for whatever

reason, has a pre-existing set of environment files (i.e., a profile.ksh and/or environ.kshfile) in your logon directory, you will be warned, prior to installation, to save these files in orderto preclude their being overwritten during the installation process. In general, you will then want

to merge these files once the installation has completed, per the guidelines in this section.

If your environment files originated from the installation of MKS NuTCRACKER withanother software product, or as part of a software development environment, andif you have not

customized these files in any way, then you may be able to safely discard them. You shouldexamine the original files, looking for remarks to the effect that the file is a sample. Usuallythe files installed by NuTCRACKER are for illustrative purposes and do not perform anycritically necessary operations (or, at least, any operations that are not also performed in thedefault CIFER-installed files).

On the other hand, if you have customized your existing files or, if they were part of another

software installation, then you will probably want to merge them with CIFER s files. Veryprobably this can be accomplished without conflicts arising, but it will be necessary to examine

the files in some detail. The only items which are critical for CIFERs operation are thefollowing:

The profile.ksh file must source cifrc.ksh, which is located in the

${cifhome}/scripts directory.

4 Your logon directory is defined by a concatenation of the system environment variables

%HOMEDRIVE% and %HOMEPATH%. You may determine your logon directory by typing the

command echo %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%in a DOS shell.

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The HASHBANG environment variable (exported from environ.ksh) must not be unset.

(This variable is initially defined in the cifrc.cmd script; see the next section.)

The TK_PERL_USE_COMSPEC environment variable must be unset. (This is done in the

CIFER environ.ksh file). (This variable is unset in the cifrc.cmd script; see thenext section.)

Note that it is not actually necessary for the profile.ksh file to launch CIFER. Removingthis segment from the merged profile file (or equivalently, unsetting the CIFAUTO-LAUNCH

variable) would mean only that CIFER shell users would have to manually enter a cifercommand after shell startup. Such a compromise might be necessary if the resultant

profile.ksh file will be required to support more than one software environment.

Finally, a word about so-called secondary users (see the definition at the beginning of thissection) who have pre-existing environment files in their logon directories. Normally, when asecondary user first starts a CIFER shell, the CIFER environment files will be copied to hislogon directory. However, if that user has pre-existing environment files in his directory, theCIFER shell will not overwrite them. Then, because the user does not have the proper

environment files, the shell will fail to launch CIFER; furthermore, the user will not be able to

manually launch CIFER from within the shell, because the cifer command (alias) will nothave been defined. The solution to this problem is, of course, to merge the environment files5 in

the manner described above.

5 .5 C IF ER s Secondary Environment Variables

During the CIFER shell startup process, a large number of secondary CIFERenvironment variables are defined. In this section we will catalog the most important of them,

indicating which ones might be modified by the user and to what purpose.

The CIFER Startup Process. The CIFER startup process is illustrated in Figure 5-3.It will be noted that a large number of script files (six) are involved in the sequence, some ofwhich have already been described in this document. Shell startup begins when the user double-

clicks the CIFER shell shortcut on the desk top, or selects the shortcut from theSTART>Programs> CIFER>CIFER Shell menu item6.

Examining the Target field of the Shortcut tab in the properties panel of the shortcut will

reveal the command used to initiate this sequence:

%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c%cifhome%\scripts\cifrc.cmd && %NUTCROOT%\mksnt\sh.exe L

The cifrc.cmdfile, located in the scripts directory beneath %cifhome% is executed

before the MKS Korn shell (sh.exe) is launched. This file defines the most important CIFERsecondary environment variables and makes them available within the WINTEL command shellenvironment7. These variables are then automatically imported into the MKS Korn shell

environment when it launches.

5 Original versions of CIFERs environment files will be found in the scripts directory beneath

%cifroot%.6 This section is designed to provide technical information on the mechanics of CIFERs operation. For

a general introduction to running CIFER and customizing its shell interface, see section 5.7 For secondary CIFER users, the cifrc.cmd script has another important function. If a user does

not have copies of the CIFER profile.ksh and environ.ksh files in his logon directory,

cifrc.cmd will copy these files to the logon directory, thereby allowing the subsequent launch of the

Korn shell to proceed without failing.

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Fi gure 5-3: The CIF ER Shell Startup Process

Since the MKS Korn shell launches as a login shell (note the -L switch), it will attempt to

read the profile.ksh file located in the users logon directory. As described in the previoussection, the special CIFER profile file further prepares the Korn shell by defining certain

functions and aliases. It does this, in part, by source-ing the cifrc.ksh file, a Korn shellcounterpart to the cifrc.cmd file.

Among other things, the cifrc.ksh file makes certain adjustments to the shells PATHvariable and defines the cifer command which allows users to (re)launch CIFER from theshells command prompt.

Once the cifrc.ksh file has been executed, the profile.ksh script actually launches8

CIFER by executing the cifer script located in the %cifroot%\ scripts directory. (Thecareful reader will have noted that some scripts in this sequence are launched from the

%cifroot% directory, while others are launched from the %cifhome% directory. The reasonsfor these differences are more clear when multiple user systems are discussed in section seven.)

The cifer script, in turn, immediately sources the SIFDEF and CIFUI scripts. Thesescripts define additional environment variables which pertain to the particular dataset in useduring the CIFER session and to the terminal characteristics of the users system9. These two

script files are maintained by various components of the CIFER utility package, and, with theseutilities, can be changed by the user during the course of a session.

8 CIFER will be launched automatically from the profile.ksh file only if the CIFAUTOLAUNCH

variable (defined in cifrc.cmd) is set to a non-zero length string.9 This latter group of variables, involving terminal characteristics, is retained for compatibility with the

Unix versions of CIFER. When working with the MKS NuTCRACKER console interface, it is

unnecessary to adjust terminal characteristics.

CIFER

Shell Shortcut

WINTEL

Command Shell

(DOS Shell)MKSKorn Shell

cifrc.cmd profile.ksh cifrc.ksh

cifer

SIFDEF CIFUI

(Most of the secondary CIFER

environment variables are defined

in the cifrc.cmd script)

Process Boundary(The CIFER shell does not operate in a

separate process space but many of it s

components do)

Script File(Digit indicates processing order)

Shell

Shortcut

10

2

3

45

6

7 8

CIFER

Shell Shortcut

WINTEL

Command Shell

(DOS Shell)MKSKorn Shell

cifrc.cmd profile.ksh cifrc.ksh

cifer

SIFDEF CIFUI

(Most of the secondary CIFER

environment variables are defined

in the cifrc.cmd script)



components do)

Script File(Digit indicates processing order)

Shell

Shortcut



components do)

Shortcut (prog. Launch)(Digit indicates processing order)

Shell

Script File

10

2

3

45

6

7 8

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In all cases, the script files described in this section are heavily commented and may beviewed using any simple text editor (e.g., WordPad). However, the user is advised not to modify

these files without careful consideration, and under no circumstances should the end user ever

modify the SIFDEF and CIFUI files directly, since these files are maintained by CIFERutilities.

The Secondary Environment Variables. The bulk of CIFERs secondary environmentvariables are defined in three of the startup script files: cifrc.cmd, SIFDEF, and CIFUI.Table 3, below, describes these environment variables; it is segmented by file. Table 3a

describes the environment variables declared in cifrc.cmd, Table 3b describes those declared

in the SIFDEF file, and Table 3c describes the variables defined in the CIFUI file. Figure 5-4gives a schematic overview of the interrelationships among these files and variables.

As has been noted, SIFDEF and CIFUI files are never edited directly by the end user.

Instead, they are maintained by various CIFER utilities, and, in order to better understand some ofthe terminology used in discussing these files and the variables which they define, it will beuseful to give an overview of this maintenance process. For brevity, we will discuss only the

SIFDEF files in what follows; the CIFUI files are handled in a similar manner10.

In order to launch, CIFER requires that there be a file named SIFDEF in the directorypointed to by the %DEFLOC% environment variable ($DEFLOC within the Korn shell). This file

is called the active SIFDEF file. The active SIFDEF file must have a parent SIFDEF file,

which is named SIFDEF... Here and

represent file name extensions formed from the definitions of the ARCRFT and ANALYSIS

environment variables. These variables are defined in the SIFDEF file itself.

Whenever the Change CIFER Defaults utility under CIFER menu item 10 is used to editthe SIFDEF file, it is the active SIFDEF file which is being modified. Then, when the default

ANALYSIS value is accepted, the active SIFDEF file is copied over its parent SIFDEF file,thereby preserving the modifications. The user may enter a new ANALYSIS value instead,thereby creating a new parent SIFDEF file. Whenever the user selects a SIFDEF file by

specifying the . string of a (parent) SIFDEF file other than those ofthe currently active SIFDEF, the contents of that parent file will be copied over the currentlyactive SIFDEF file, making that ARCRFT/ ANALYSIS active.

10 On the WINTEL platform, the utility (item 91) for modifying the CIFUI file is simpler than in the Unix

version. Three standard CIFUI files for three screen plotting modes are accessible via a prompt.

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Table 3a: CIFERSecondary Environment Variables

$ c i f h o m e / s c r i p t s / c i f r c . c m d

DEFLOC Default: %cifhome%\data

DEFLOC points to the directory which contains the usersSIFDEF files. This directory will contain a SIFDEF file for each

of the users CIFER databases. SIFDEF files, in turn, tell CIFER

where to find the databases themselves, together with otherassociated files and directories (see Table 3b and Figure 6).

UILOC Default: %cifroot%\ui

UILOC points to the directory containing the users CIFER User

Interface (CIFUI) files. There is one CIFUI file for each of thethree screen plotting options. Unlike for the Unix version, the

keyboard information is unchangeable.

SIFLOC Default: %cifroot%\bin

SIFLOC points to the directory containing the CIFER executables.In some situations, when creating a secondary user account, it may

be desirable to replace %cifroot% with %cifhome%, therebyallowing the secondary user to run from a customized copy of the

CIFER executables located in the bin directory beneath his

private CIFER root, %cifhome%.

cifsrc Default: %cifroot%\source

cifsrc points to the CIFER source directory. This variable isincluded for internal use and should not be modified.

cifbin Default: %cifroot%\bin

cifbin points to the CIFER binaries directory. This variable isincluded for internal use and should not be modified.

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Table 3a: CIFERSecondary Environment Variables(continued ...)

$ c i f h o m e / s c r i p t s / c i f r c . c m d

cifinc Default: %cifroot%\source\includescifinc points to the CIFER include files directory. This variable isincluded for internal use and should not be modified.

cifscripts Default: %cifroot%\scripts

cifscripts points to the CIFER script files directory. Thisvariable is included for internal use and should not be modified.

(NOTE: those scripts which are duplicated during the process ofcreating multiple user systems, are always referenced via the path

%cifhome%\ scripts. Hence, modifying %cifhome% issufficient to ensure that the user-specific versions will be found.)

LOGSCR Default: %cifroot%\source\cifscreen\def

LOGSCR points to the CIFER screen definition files directory. Thisvariable is included for internal use and should not be modified.

NASAFONT Default: %cifroot%\source\nasadig62b\font\NASAFNTS

NASAFONT points to the NASADIG font file. This variable isincluded for internal use and should not be modified.

NASAMAPL Default: %cifroot%\source\nasadig62b\map\WORLDCIL

NASAMAPL points to the NASADIG map file. This variable isincluded for internal use and should not be modified.

PERL Default: %NUTCROOT%\mksnt\perl.exe

PERL points to the MKS PERL executable. This variable is includedfor internal use and should not be modified.

HASHBANG Default: 1

HASHBANG enables recognition of shabang lines in MKS shell

scripts. CIFERwill failifHASHBANG is not set.

TK_PERL_USE_CO

MSPEC

Default: unset

If set, TK_PERL_USE_COMSPEC instructs the MKS Toolkit PERLto run sub-processes in the NT command shell rather than in an MKS

shell. This variable must always be unset, otherwise CIFERwill fail.

CIFAUTOLAUNCH Default: 1

When set, CIFAUTOLAUNCH causes the CIFERprofile.ksh fileto auto-launch CIFER at shell startup.

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Table 3b: CIFERSecondary Environment Variables

$ D E F L O C / S I F D E F

ARCRFT Default: default

ARCRFT specifies the name of the aircraft that will be used during thisCIFER session. This is also the filenameportion of the CIFER databasefile name. It is restricted to a maximum of eight characters

and can be

modified when a new aircraft database is created or when a new SIFDEFfile is selected. (See CIFER menu item number 10, and the section onSetting up Databases and SIFDEF Files in this guide.)

ANALYSIS Default: default

ANALYSIS is used by CIFER to distinguish among different analyses ofthe same aircraft. It will be initialized to 'default' when a new aircraftdatabase is created and can be modified after CIFER utility number 11,

Change CIFER Defaults, is used. A maximum of eight characters is

allowed. (See the section on Setting up Databases and SIFDEF Files inthis guide.)

LOGDEF Default: $cifhome/data/dbThe directory path to the CIFER database for this aircraft. This variableand all of the remaining variables in Table 3b can be modified using CIFERutility number 11, Change CIFER Defaults.

THLOC Default: $cifhome/data/th

The directory path to the time history data. (NOTE: CIFER Type Onetime history files require special directory structures and file namingconventions. Please see the Implementing READMIS document for

details.)

PLTDIR Default: $cifhome/jobs/plots

The path to a catchall directory for plot output files. This directory can be

declared separately for each ARCRFT/ANALYSIS pair.

BATDIR Default: $cifhome/jobsThe path to a catchall directory for background job scripts and output files.

(CIFER utilities which deposit files in the 'tfdata' directory will attempt tocreate that directory as a sub-directory of this batch directory.) Thisdirectory can be declared separately for each ARCRFT/ANALYSIS pair.

FREQ_UNITS Default: RADSpecifies the user's choice of frequency units. (CIFER performs all internalcalculations in radians per second; however, the user may select screendisplays in Hz by setting this variable accordingly.)

Valid characters include alpha-numeric characters, dashes, and underscores; blanks are not allowed.

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Table 3c: CIFERSecondary Environment Variables

$ U I L O C / C I F U I

CIFUI Default: nutc_default

The CIFUI environment variable identifies the parentCIFUI file. This

file is named CIFUI., where is an extension

formed from the definition of the %CIFUI% environment variable.

CIFERTERM Default: u n s e t

CIFERTERM is the name of the terminal which is used during CIFERexecution. This becomes the entry into the TERMINFO capabilities

database. If it is undefined, the system default terminal type is used.

TERMINAL Default: X11

The TERMINAL environment variable contains a code which tells theCIFER graphics routines what type of graphics terminal your system

supports or, more precisely, what type of graphics terminal youremulator emulates. NT platforms should always use X11 emulation.

EMULATION Default: u n s e t

The EMULATION variable provides CIFER with the name of yourgraphics emulation software. On NT platforms, this variable should beunset. (i.e., undefined).

DOFORK Default: no

The DOFORK variable indicates whether plots should bespawned in a separate process. It is used only when TERMINAL

is "X11". On NT platforms, this variable can be yes orno.

STICKY Default: no

The STICKY variable indicates whether or not plots remain on

the screen after a carriage return is depressed while focus is in

the plot window. It is used only when TERMINAL is "X11". On

NT platforms, this variable can be yes orno.

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CIF ER - The Power to M odel Your World


%cifhome%\scripts\cifrc.cmd

SIFDEF

.dat

D EF LO C p oi nt s t o t he d ir ec to ry

containing the active SIFDEF file. (This

file is always named SIFDEF, without

any extensions.) The SIFDEF file defines

two environment variables; ARCRFT and

ANALYSIS, which are used to identify the

active database files and the parent file of

the active SIFDEF file.

(active database files)SIFDEF.

(parent SIFDEF file)

.idx

CIFUI

Time History Data

NOTE: CIFER Type One time

history data requires special

directory and file naming

conventions. See Implementing

READMIS in Appendix G.

The directories identified by the

BATDIR and PLTDIR environment

variables will receive, respectively,

the output and plot files from CIFER

jobs run while this SIFDEF is a ctive.

SIFLOC points to the directory containing the

CIFER executables. Normally this is the

%cifroot%\bin directory, but in some

circumstances, such as when a user has

implemented a special READMIS.DLL, this

may be the %cifhome%\bin directory.

(SIFLOC)

(UILOC

)

(DEFOC)

(LOGDEF)

(THLOC)

(PLTDIR

)(BATDIR)

%cifhome%\scripts\cifrc.cmd

SIFDEF

.dat

D EF LO C p oi nt s t o t he d ir ec to ry

containing the active SIFDEF file. (This

file is always named SIFDEF, without

any extensions.) The SIFDEF file defines

two environment variables; ARCRFT and

ANALYSIS, which are used to identify the

active database files and the parent file of

the active SIFDEF file.

(active database files)SIFDEF.

(parent SIFDEF file)

.idx

CIFUI

Time History Data

NOTE: CIFER Type One time

history data requires special

directory and file naming

conventions. See Implementing

READMIS in Appendix G.

The directories identified by the

BATDIR and PLTDIR environment

variables will receive, respectively,

the output and plot files from CIFER

jobs run while this SIFDEF is a ctive.

SIFLOC points to the directory containing the

CIFER executables. Normally this is the

%cifroot%\bin directory, but in some

circumstances, such as when a user has

implemented a special READMIS.DLL, this

may be the %cifhome%\bin directory.

(SIFLOC)

(UILOC

)

(DEFOC)

(LOGDEF)

(THLOC)

(PLTDIR

)(BATDIR)

Fi gure 5-4: Relationships Among CIF ER Environment Variables

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6. Running CIFER

Once you have completed the installation of the CIFER package, made any necessarymanual adjustments to the XVision transport protocols (see Section 3), and rebooted yourmachine, you should be able to invoke CIFER either by double-clicking the shortcut that theinstaller placed on your desktop11, or by selecting the START>Programs> Cifer>CIFER Shell

menu item (Figure 6-1). Note that two different methods for starting CIFER may give youslightly different CIFER windows with different properties (e.g., a CIFER window started viathe desktop shortcut may be physically shorter than a CIFER window started from the Startmenu).

When you launch CIFER, you are actually starting an MKS Korn shell which thenultimately executes the main CIFER script, after first running several intermediate scripts tosetup CIFERs environment. This startup process was discussed at some length in section 5.5

in connection with CIFERs environment variables; for now, it is sufficient to note that you willsee a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 6-2 the CIFER splash screen. Depressingcarriage return will then take you to CIFERs main menu screen (Figure 6-3), from which you

may selectively execute individual CIFER utilities12.

Figure 6-2: CIFER Splash Screen Figure 6-3: CIFER Main Menu

11 If you do not wish to have the CIFER shortcut on your desktop, it may be safely deleted.12 It is not the purpose of this document to discuss in detail the operation of CIFERs various

components. For an introduction to these programs please see volumes 1 and 2 of the CIFER Class

Notes.

Figure 6-1: Starting the CIFER Shell

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When you have finished your CIFER session, you will find your cursor at the inputprompt of the CIFER main menu screen. To exit CIFER, simply enter a carriage return and

you will be returned to the Korn shell from which CIFER was initiated. This is a usefulenvironment from which to manipulate CIFER output files, re-launch CIFER, or perform anyother tasks for which you find a Unix-like command line interface well suited. You will find that

most Unix tools and editors are available, and that features such as pipes and backgroundprocessing work as you would expect. Furthermore, all CIFER environment variables aredefined and available for use, making manipulations of CIFER directories and files quite

straightforward. To restart CIFER from within the shell, type cifer (lower case) at the

command prompt. To exit the shell entirely, type any one ofexit, logout, orbye.

6 .1 C u s t o m i zi n g t h e C IF ER S h el l W i n d o w

As they are installed, the CIFER shortcuts present a somewhat vanilla interface in whichimportant features such as cut and paste and scrolling are disabled. You will almost certainlyfind your CIFER user experience more productive if you take a few moments to enable some of

these features. Note, however, that the operations described in this section will requireadministrative privilege, since you will be enabling these features for all users of these system-wide shortcuts.

Begin by launching an instance of the CIFER shell from either the desktop or START menushortcuts. Right click on the title bar of the menu and select Properties. Next select theOptions tab (Figure 6-4). Then, check the box labeled Quick Edit Mode.

With this mode enabled you will be able to capture screen text into the paste buffer by

depressing the left mouse button and dragging across the desired text to highlight it, and thenreleasing the left mouse button to select the highlighted text. Next you can capture the selectedtext by right-clicking. Captured text may be subsequently inserted at the cursor position by right-

clicking a second time. This maneuver is very useful for duplicating complicated CIFERfrequency response names!

Fi gure 6-4: Enabling Quick Edit Mode

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To enable scrolling, select the Layout tab of the Properties panel (Figure 6-5). In theScreen Buffer Size pane, enter a suitably large value (e.g., 1000 lines) for the Height;

however, leave the Width set to 80 columns. Next, in the Window Size pane, enter a numberof lines sufficient to give the shell window the screen coverage you would like; again, do not alterthe width of the window.

There is one remaining customization which you may wish to consider when setting up yourCIFER shortcuts. As it is installed, the CIFER shell will always launch with white (actuallygrayish) lettering displayed on a black background. This arrangement can be modified to any

desired combination (e.g., black lettering on a white background) by making suitable adjustmentsin the Colors tab of the property panel (Figure 6-6).

Figure 6-5: Enabling Scrolling in the CIFER Shell

F igure 6-6: Setting CI F E R Shell Background and F oreground Colors

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Finally, click OK to close the property panel. When you do so, a dialog will appear askingif you wish to apply the changes only to the current window, or to the shortcut that launched the

window. You should select the latter in order to have the changes take effect for all subsequentlaunches of CIFER from thatshortcut. (You should then launch CIFER from the other of thetwo shortcuts installed by the setup, and repeat these steps to establish the proper defaults for it as

well.)

6 .2 T h e C IF E R K e y b o a r d In t e r f ac e

Many CIFER utilities interact with the user via a series of data entry screens that make useof cursor addressing. Each screen contains a number of data input fields interspersed with

descriptive text. The user can navigate from field to field within a screen using combinations ofthe arrow, tab and return keys. Once the data content of a screens fields is satisfactory, theuser can proceed to the next screen by depressing the F1 key. CIFER does not make use of thecomputers pointing device (mouse).

Table 4a summarizes the functions13

(on a typical keyboard) of the various navigational keysused by CIFER;

Data Entry. Once the user has navigated to a field, the procedure for data entry isstraightforward. In general, all printable characters will appear in the field as they are typed.Please note that CIFER data entry is case sensitive, and many CIFER inputs must be entered

in upper case. In addition to the standard numeric keys, on most keyboards the numerical keypadcan also be used for data entry provided the Num Lock has been set.

The double-width Backspace key located above the return key (see Figure 6-7) is thecharacter rubout key; it will delete the character immediately to the left of the cursor. The smallDelete key, located in the six-key cluster above the arrow keys, can be used to delete the entirecontents of a field.

NOTE: A very important change was implemented for CIFER Version NT12. Except in

the extended editing features described immediately below, the first keystroke in a field will wipe

out that field. This is the behavior of the Unix version, and some users who were familiar with itrequested that it be implemented in the Windows version also.

Extended Editing Features. One CIFER utility, the QPLOT program (utility 19), has anoptional data entry protocol which is designed to provide additional editing features in order tofacilitate the entry of long frequency response names. These features are only available in screen

one of QPLOT. In this situation, all of the descriptions given in Table 4a remain valid, but theadditional capabilities described in Table 4b also apply.

13 Users familiar with the Unix version of CIFER will recall that keyboard mappings could be adjusted

in order to compensate for the vagaries of the many keyboard types encountered on those platforms.

This type of customization is not required on Windows platforms, since the mappings provided by

NuTCRACKER are consistent across all systems.

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Table 4a: CIFER Keyboard Navigation and Data Entry

tab, right arrow Move data entry focus right by one field. If currently in right-most fieldof a screen row, then wrap to left-most field in the next screen row.

left arrow Move data entry focus left by one field. If currently in left-most field of a

screen row, then wrap to right-most field in the previous screen row.

return, enter,

down arrow

Move data entry focus down to the most closely (vertically) aligned fieldin the next row. When issued from the last line of the screen, the focuswill wrap to the top of the screen.

up arrow Move data entry focus up to the most closely (vertically) aligned field in

the previous row. When issued from the top line of the screen, the focuswill wrap to the bottom of the screen.

any printing

character

Appears in the data field as typed (case sensitive).

backspace Deletes the character to the left of the cursor.

del Deletes the entire content of the current data entry field.

F1 Accepts the data on the current screen as entered and proceeds to the nextscreen.

F2 Presents a secondary navigation menu on the last line of the terminal

screen. The menus options are

Continue Backup Main Exit Update

Selection of items on this menu may be made via the right or left arrowkeys, or by typing the first letter of the desired entry. Once an entry hasbeen selected, depress F1 to accept. Update is an exception. Type T

or F to enable or disable a database update, respectively, to be doneafter selection of an entry. It is not possible to select this item via thearrow keys, nor does typing U have any effect.

F3 This key is only used in specialized situations; see for example,

Class Notes Vol 2, DERIVID operations, screen 4.

F4 Presents a secondary navigation menu of the form:

Go to:

to which the user may respond with a screen number followed by

the F1 key or the RETURN key. Screen numbers entered at thisprompt may be outside of the range of actual screen numbers for

the program; e.g., 99 will take you to the end of the data entry

segment for most of the CIFER utilities.

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Table 4b: QPLOT Augmented Data Entry Features

CTRL-A Moves cursor to the left end of the current field.

CTRL-D Moves cursor to the right end of the current field.

CTRL-G Moves cursor left by one character.

CTRL-L Moves cursor right by one character.

CTRL-O Enters character insert mode. Any printable character typed will beinserteddirectly above the cursor.

Exits character insert mode.

any printingcharacter

In normal mode, overwrites the character directly above the cursor. Incharacter insert mode, the character is inserted directly above the cursor,moving the right portion of the line one character to the right.

backspace Deletes the character immediately to the left of the cursor, and drags theright portion of the line one character to the left.

del Deletes the entire line, even if the cursor is positioned in the interior ofthe line.

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7. Using CIFER: Setting Up Databases and SIFDEF files

This section will provide an overview of CIFER databases and the procedures for creatingthem. SIFDEF files will be described, and the relationship between databases and SIFDEF files

will discussed. Finally, a detailed example of the creation of a user database and its associatedSIFDEF file

Documents

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