Installing ACE client

Check your Java version

ACE requires Java (1.4+) installed on your machine. For linux running Red Hat you need the linux RPM SDK version, j2sdk-1_4_1_01-linux-i586-rpm, I am told - amsr.

The java version can be checked like this:

    java -version

Download the application

Aladin plugin/AVO Demo

• Install Page: Install page for the demo jar file

Standalone

• ace.jar: ACE Class Jar file
• acelib.jar: 3rd party libraries required for running ACE

Configuration & Preparation

When creating an area to run ACE in, bear in mind that in Windows, there can be problems with paths with spaces in them. A possible workaround is to create an \ace\ root directory and run in that.

Configuration files should be placed in this 'working directory':

• default.ace: default extraction criteria, based on the default.sex and default.param files that come with SExtractor.
• serverlist.cfg: the list of currently known ACE servers. This is not strictly required at v0.3 as Cambridge (the only ACE server) is softwired in if this file is missing...

Other files:

• options.ini will be created as the user moves and sizes the box, and is used to store the user's last selected criteria.
• *.ace files - user-saved extraction criteria files.

Executing

To run ACE on Linux enter:

     java -cp ace.jar:acelib.jar org.astrogrid.ace.client.AceDialog

     <path to Java 1.4.x>/bin/java -cp ace.jar:acelib.jar org.astrogrid.ace.client.AceDialog

On Windows the path delimiter is a semicolon ; instead of a colon : so that the command line is

     java -cp ace.jar;acelib.jar org.astrogrid.ace.client.AceDialog

__Note that when running it for the first time, you must enter a sensible set of extraction criteria on all pages, or the call to the server may fail. An easy way of doing this is to "Open" the default.ace file given below.

Running with a local copy of SExtractor

If you have a copy of SExtractor installed locally, you can use it also to process images. If you don't but you want to install it, see below.

To allow ACE to use your local SExtractor, you can either directly edit a configuration file, or use the GUI.

Using the dialog box

Start ACE as above; at the bottom you will see two buttons, one that can be used for editing the list of ACE servers available, the other for editing the installed SExtractor configuration. Select "Installed" from the drop down box, and press the edit button. At the moment this just gives you a text edit box where you can edit the configuration file

Editing the configuration file

The file "server.cfg" can be found in the default directory where you run the ACE client. If it is not there, create it; it should look like this:

#ACE server settings
#Thu Dec 19 21:18:08 GMT 2002
Application=/fannich/mch/sextractor2.2.2/sex
CommonDirectory=/fannich/mch/sex/
WorkingParent=/fannich/mch/sex/

The lines starting with # are comments, and you can ignore them.

The Application path specifies the SExtractor executable. WorkingParent and CommonDirectory will usually be the same, and will refer to some directory where you would like configuration files, etc can be kept.

Installing SExtractor

See the home page, or the binary sex (for Red Hat linux) is attached.

There are also versions available for windows; see the last part of http://www.tass-survey.org/tass/software/software.html#sextract, or you can get the zip of v2.0.0 directly.

Known bugs and 'missing features':

• Some unterminated thread means that closing the results box won't return the user to the command prompt. Press Ctrl-C once you've closed it.
• Distributing in jar files loses the icons
• If the extraction fails it may be necessary to edit the configuration (see above) and to remove all backslashes from the given URLs.

-- MartinHill - 04 Dec 2002