First Timer: HELP ON RADIANCE INSTALLATION

radiance-general
1

Dear RADIANCE experts,

I'm Julitta. Postgraduate students. Need your help on installing RADIANCE into my laptop. I'm using MacBook Mac OS X 10.6.7.

Read and follow instruction from RAdsite lbnl website and various forum and other websites showing instruction on installing the software. Unfortunately i'm lost and totally black out.

Honestly I do not know where to start, such as... where to type a command... Have tried XAMPP command as suggested but failed to execute or unzip the mentioned files/folder.

I've done the very first part of downloading the rad4R0all.tar.gz. (is it as simple as clicking the address, then it goes to your "downloads" folder, then double click, so from rad4r0_macosx-1.tar turn to a folder of rad4R0_macosx). Then? How to unpack or to be specific where to type this unzip<rad4roall.tar.gz.......

Thank you,

Julitta Yunus

2

Hi Julitta,

I am very short on time right now, but under applications/utilities you should find an application called X11. If you start it, you get a window with a command line waiting for input. That is what folks here usually call command line or shell. And this is where you input all those commands that are usually referenced.

Hope this helps for the beginning. You do not need XAMP (which should mean OSX, Apache, MySQL and PHP) - delete it right now :slight_smile:

Cheers, Lars.

3

Welcome Julitta.

Radiance is a bit tricky to install because it used to be an old fashioned
source only distribution. To install it you had to have a C-compiler
installed (and you had to know how to use it). Things are a bit easier these
days but you still need to change a lot of system related settings on a Mac
to get it running.

Read and follow instruction from RAdsite lbnl website and various forum and
other websites showing instruction on installing the software. Unfortunately
i'm lost and totally black out.

Yes, these instructions are for the source code installation. For the most
part you can ignore these.

Honestly I do not know where to start, such as... where to type a
command... Have tried XAMPP command as suggested but failed to execute or
unzip the mentioned files/folder.

XAMPP has nothing to do with Radiance. Forget about it.

I've done the very first part of downloading the rad4R0all.tar.gz. (is it
as simple as clicking the address, then it goes to your "downloads" folder,
then double click, so from rad4r0_macosx-1.tar turn to a folder of
rad4R0_macosx).

This is the source code that needs to be compiled first. You should download
the following package:

http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/dist/rad4R0_macosx.tar.gz

It contains binaries which can be executed immediately. Unpack the archive
("double click") until you can browse the contents in Finder.

To "install" the programs pick a folder called "Radiance" in your own
"Library" folder or in the "Applications" folder. Copy the "bin" folder from
the downloaded archive into the "Radiance" folder.

Now download the "auxiliary files" archive
http://www.radiance-online.org/software/non-cvs/rad4R0supp.tar.gz and unpack
it. Copy the "lib" folder in this archive into the "Radiance" folder as
well.

Now you have to set environment variables which allow your Terminal shell to
find the binaries and supporting files. Open TextEdit.app and type (or copy
and paste) the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "
http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PATH</key>
<string>/Users/julitta/Library/Radiance/bin</string>
<key>RAYPATH</key>
        <string>/Users/julitta/Library/Radiance/lib</string>
</dict>
</plist>

If your home directory is not called "julitta" or you have chosen the
"Applications" folder adjust the paths in the file accordingly. Make sure it
is a "plain text" document (shift-cmd-T) and save it as "environment.plist"
in your home directory. There is no ".txt" after the ".plist"!

Open the Terminal.app application (in "Applications/Utilities"). You should
keep this app in the dock because it is you primary interface for Radiance.
Type the following two commands:

mkdir .MacOSX
mv environment.plist .MacOSX

Now close Terminal.app and right-click on the Dock icon and select "quit".
The white dot below the icon has to vanish. Open Terminal.app again (I told
you to keep in in the Dock ...).

Now type

echo $PATH
which rtrace

Each of these commands should show you a path that contains your Radiance
installation directory.

I hope others will jump in and explain how to use Radiance because I have to
go to work now.

Regards,
Thomas

···

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 2:38 AM, Julitta Yunus <julittayunus@live.com>wrote:

4

Wow, Thomas -- those are great directions for OSX. I learned a new trick from them, myself. I had nevr seen the plist stuff for Terminal.app.

I just wanted to add a note that Julitta may need to install the X11 and Developer Tools from the optional packages on her installation disks. The system doesn't come with them installed by default.

-Greg

···

From: Thomas Bleicher <tbleicher@googlemail.com>
Date: July 18, 2011 5:00:26 AM PDT

Welcome Julitta.

Radiance is a bit tricky to install because it used to be an old fashioned source only distribution. To install it you had to have a C-compiler installed (and you had to know how to use it). Things are a bit easier these days but you still need to change a lot of system related settings on a Mac to get it running.

...

5

Wow, Thomas -- those are great directions for OSX. I learned a new trick
from them, myself. I had nevr seen the plist stuff for Terminal.app.

Apparently it's only useful for Terminal.app. Applications that are started
via Finder (or the Dock) do not get this information. If you have a tool you
can use to verify this (a proper OS X *.app with some form of command line)
you can try and set a few environment variables and see if they are present
in the app.

I have to confess that I had to google for the the right place as well. All
my shell config files didn't contain the $PATH extension for Radiance so I
had to look somewhere else. I remembered the *.plist from way back when I
set up my first Mac. I must have done it again after I upgraded to 10.6,
though. I have my binaries in /usr/local and have no need for RAYPATH, but I
didn't want to expose Julitta to the file system innards of OS X.

I just wanted to add a note that Julitta may need to install the X11 and

Developer Tools from the optional packages on her installation disks. The
system doesn't come with them installed by default.

I think X is standard now (since 10.5 or 10.6) and the dev tools shouldn't
be required.

Regards,
Thomas

···

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Greg Ward <gregoryjward@gmail.com> wrote:

6

From: Thomas Bleicher <tbleicher@googlemail.com>
Date: July 18, 2011 11:09:03 AM PDT

Wow, Thomas -- those are great directions for OSX. I learned a new trick from them, myself. I had nevr seen the plist stuff for Terminal.app.

Apparently it's only useful for Terminal.app. Applications that are started via Finder (or the Dock) do not get this information. If you have a tool you can use to verify this (a proper OS X *.app with some form of command line) you can try and set a few environment variables and see if they are present in the app.

I have to confess that I had to google for the the right place as well. All my shell config files didn't contain the $PATH extension for Radiance so I had to look somewhere else. I remembered the *.plist from way back when I set up my first Mac. I must have done it again after I upgraded to 10.6, though. I have my binaries in /usr/local and have no need for RAYPATH, but I didn't want to expose Julitta to the file system innards of OS X.

I usually put something in my .cshrc file, or .profile for Bourne shells, and let that take care of it.

I just wanted to add a note that Julitta may need to install the X11 and Developer Tools from the optional packages on her installation disks. The system doesn't come with them installed by default.

I think X is standard now (since 10.5 or 10.6) and the dev tools shouldn't be required.

There are some example directories and so forth that require "make", which is part of the developer tools. That's usually the first thing new users run up against.

-Greg

···

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Greg Ward <gregoryjward@gmail.com> wrote:

7

Dear Mr Lars, Mr Greg, others,

Thank you very much.

Dear Mr Thomas,
Thank you very much for your huge help. At least I am now 'somewhere' that moving forward. I followed every steps then here:

Now type> > echo $PATH> which rtrace>

I got this on my Terminal

Last login: Tue Jul 19 17:40:19 on ttys000Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ echo $PATH/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/binMacintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ which rtraceMacintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$

Each of these commands should show you a path that contains your Radiance
installation directory.

Am I missing something? What should happen after "which rtrace" ? which folder should I looking for? or any signs that should appear?

TQ
RegardsJulitta

8

Hi Julitta!

Last login: Tue Jul 19 17:40:19 on ttys000
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ which rtrace
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$

> Each of these commands should show you a path that contains your Radiance
> installation directory.

Am I missing something? What should happen after "which rtrace" ? which
folder should I looking for? or any signs that should appear?

The last command, "which rtrace". should tell you where the binary file rtrace is located that gets executed when you simply type "rtrace". That assumes that it is actually in one of the directories in your path variable. In your case, that seams not to be the case, as the which-command did not give any output.

Can you verify that your Radiance-binaries (the bin-subdirectory of the Radiance installation) is included in your Path variable?

Cheers, Lars.

9

That's not good. Perhaps you need to log off and log on again to get the
effect of the new settings. Try that first. If that doesn't help we can move
your installation to "/usr/local". That's works just as well and it's
already in your $PATH.

Regards,
Thomas

···

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 4:54 AM, Julitta Y <julittayunus@live.com> wrote:

Thank you very much for your huge help. At least I am now 'somewhere' that
moving forward. I followed every steps then here:

> Now type
>
> echo $PATH
> which rtrace
>

I got this on my Terminal

Last login: Tue Jul 19 17:40:19 on ttys000
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ which rtrace
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$

10

Hi Mr Lars,> Can you verify that your Radiance-binaries (the bin-subdirectory of the > Radiance installation) is included in your Path variable?> HELP ME how to do this. is this something to do with this link, which I copied to my newly created folder Radiance into Applications folder:http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/dist/rad4R0_macosx.tar.gz. After downloading this path, double click to unpack, then copied the whole folder into my Radiance folder created into Application folder.Am I did anything wrong?Regards,Julitta> > >Dear Mr Thomas,> That's not good. Perhaps you need to log off and log on again to get the> effect of the new settings. Try that first. If that doesn't help we can move> your installation to "/usr/local". That's works just as well and it's> already in your $PATH.Yes I already log off and log on again. Then, i repeat each commandecho $PATHwhich rtraceI got the same result as yesterday. What should I do now?TQJulitta

11

For those interested in OS X I found a nice article on stackexchange on the
various configuration options:

According to this "environment.plist" is outdated and user settings should
go in "~/.launchd.conf". The traditional profile and bashrc files still work
but with the usual confusion as to when these are used (interactive,
non-interactive, login, non-login, ...).

Regards,
Thomas

···

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 1:09 PM, Thomas Bleicher <tbleicher@googlemail.com>wrote:

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Greg Ward <gregoryjward@gmail.com>wrote:

Wow, Thomas -- those are great directions for OSX. I learned a new trick
from them, myself. I had nevr seen the plist stuff for Terminal.app.

Apparently it's only useful for Terminal.app. Applications that are started
via Finder (or the Dock) do not get this information.

12

This is a great summary of the too many options for setting these things on OSX; thanks Thomas!

- Rob

···

On Jul 19, 2011, at 8:57 PM, Thomas Bleicher wrote:

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 1:09 PM, Thomas Bleicher <tbleicher@googlemail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Greg Ward <gregoryjward@gmail.com> wrote:
Wow, Thomas -- those are great directions for OSX. I learned a new trick from them, myself. I had nevr seen the plist stuff for Terminal.app.

Apparently it's only useful for Terminal.app. Applications that are started via Finder (or the Dock) do not get this information.

For those interested in OS X I found a nice article on stackexchange on the various configuration options:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/603785/environment-variables-in-mac-os-x

According to this "environment.plist" is outdated and user settings should go in "~/.launchd.conf". The traditional profile and bashrc files still work but with the usual confusion as to when these are used (interactive, non-interactive, login, non-login, ...).

Regards,
Thomas
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13

Mr Thomas,

Now download the "rad3R9supp.tar.gz" and
extract it. It creates a "ray" directory and within it a "lib" directory
(and some others). Create the folder "/usr/local/lib/ray" - yes, this is the
other way around than in the archive. The files in the archive's "ray/lib"
directory need to be moved to "/usr/local/lib/ray". With this setup you
should not need to fiddle with the RAYPATH environment variable because this
is the built-in default.

I've done with downloading "rad4R0supp.tar.gz" instead. then i copied "ray/lib" directory pasted into "/usr/local/lib.Using Terminal I repeat command
which trace
then I got
Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ which rtrace/usr/local/bin/rtrace
Is this the right path that I should get?
TQ
Julitta

14

I've done with downloading *"rad4R0supp.tar.gz*" instead. then i copied
"ray/lib" directory pasted into "/usr/local/lib.

Yes, sorry. I just had the release 3.9 archive on my disk and copied that
file name instead of the current one.

Using Terminal I repeat command

which trace

then I got

Macintosh-HDs-MacBook-Pro:~ macintoshhd$ which rtrace
/usr/local/bin/rtrace

Success! To be clear: This message means that you can now use the Radiance
commands/applications without using their full path and name. So instead of
typing

/usr/local/bin/oconv somefile.rad > somescene.oct

you can just use

oconv somefile.rad > somescene.oct

This is essential for some tools that use the short path internally. You
downloaded the rad4R0supp.tar.gz archive because it contains a few files
that are essential for the more advanced calculations in Radiance. You moved
these to /usr/local/lib/ray because that's where Radiance will look for them
by default.

Now you are all set to use Radiance on your Mac. Radiance is all about
writing text files and typing commands in Terminal. You should get used to a
good text editor on the Mac (TextEdit will do but others like TextMate have
more features). Also search the net for tutorials on using the Bash. This is
the environment you are in when you type a command in Terminal. There are
many features of Bash which make your live easier (example: the up-arrow key
recalls the last command you typed, press it again and you go further back
in your command history).

To actually learn Radiance start with the excellent tutorials by Axel
Jacobs:

http://www.jaloxa.eu/resources/radiance/documentation/index.shtml

Regards,
Thomas

···

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:40 AM, Julitta Y <julittayunus@live.com> wrote:

15

Dear Mr Thomas,

Thank You very much! Yes I do have Axel's Radiance Tutorial in front of me right now.

Hope to have conversation with you in another phase of Radiance rendering works.

Regards,
Julitta