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Instructions for using DsTool

The files are written for use in the Tcl/Tk version of DsTool. In fact, animations and other purposes using Geomview can only be done with this version of DsTool.

Setting up dstool_tk

Dstool_tk is installed at CDS in the directory /home/software/group1/dstool_tk. To use it you should do the following:

1. Set environment variables:
   • setenv DSTOOL /home/software/group1/dstool_tk
     
   • setenv MY_DSTOOL $HOME/my_dstool
     
   • setenv ARCH sun4
     
   Here, $HOME is your home directory, and my_dstool is the name of a directory you created in your home directory which will contain your models for dstool_tk.
   
2. Copy the files from /home/software/group1/dstool_tk/my_dstool to $MY_DSTOOL. Also copy the directory tcl and the files in there.
   
3. Model files should be put in the directory $MY_DSTOOL and their names should be added to the files user.c and Makefile. This is described in section V of the README file in $MY_DSTOOL.
   
4. Compile your personal copy by typing make all in $MY_DSTOOL. (You can compile before adding any files.) Start up dstool_tk by typing dstool_tk. Explore your options in the Crash course.
   
   
5. If you prefer a white background for the state space view window, add the line set COLOR(views) white to the file $MY_DSTOOL/tcl/my_app_init.tcl just before the window(open) cmd line. You need to recompile dstool_tk again by typing make all in $MY_DSTOOL.

Adding files with animations to dstool_tk

For the examples that can be animated, you should not change the names of the files. For other examples, this is not important. Download the files and put the model files in your directory $MY_DSTOOL and the .oogl files in a directory called $MY_DSTOOL/oogl (again, it is important not to change the names of these files, and also not to change the name of this directory).

Proceed as you normally would when adding a new model to DsTool by editing the file user.c and the Makefile. Compile and start up dstool_tk.

Setting up the animation

First make sure that you have the correct model loaded. Apart from the standard window that shows a two-dimensional projection of the phase space, you can now start Geomview and see what this means for the oscillations of the pendulum. For this you choose Animation(Geomview)... from the Panels menu. A little window pops up and you can start Geomview by clicking on the button that says Start geomview.

The pendulum will appear in the Geomview camera window if you click on Send file. You get the position of the initial condition in the Selected point window (choose Selected... from the Panels menu) by clicking on Apply selected point. When you change the initial condition and hit return, this happens automatically.

The animation starts automatically as soon as you compute an orbit in DsTool. Enjoy!

Written by Hinke Osinga
Last modified: Tue Mar 30 18:44:07 1999