GeoPIXE uses the IDL language and its Eclipse development environment IDLDE. This directory organization enables IDLDE to run directly using the "Workspace" directory as its workspace. The .metadata directory, which normally holds config for the IDL projects in Workspace is not included in this archive. However, documentation is provided for setup of the Eclipse environment if so desired. At least some minimal setup will be required. It assumes at least IDL 8.8 is used.
See the documentation "doc/GeoPIXE Software Organization - open.pdf" for Eclipse setup, an overview of the program, its main areas of application for X-ray spectral analysis and imaging using PIXE and synchtotron and laboratory X-ray beams, the software users guide, the organization of the core software and its extensions (plugins and device objects) and building GeoPIXE and its modules.
Running GeoPIXE requires at least IDL runtime support. With IDL installed, but not licensed, you can run GeoPIXE using IDL Virtual Machine runtime support. To program in IDL and build GeoPIXE source, you will need an IDL license.
Once IDL is installed, you can run GeoPIXE simply by double clicking on "GeoPIXE.sav" in the 'geopixe' folder within the 'workspace' tree. It will note the absence of a 'geopixe.conf' file, but will then create one for you in your [home]/.geopixe directory. For Linux, there is a bash script in the Workspace/geopixe/bin/ directory to launch GeoPIXE. Just add bin to your path.
It helps to have a working understanding of the Fundamental Parameter approach as used for quantitative analysis in the workflow through GeoPIXE, and some experience with the Demo data. See the GeoPIXE Users Guide and the GeoPIXE Worked Examples PDF for worked examples with step-by-step tips. Both provide examples of the main tasks of fitting spectra to generate the Dynamic Analysis (DA) image projection matrix; using this DA matrix to process full-spectral data to deconvolute elemental components and project separated elemental images; and exploration and processing of the images to first verify their accuracy, including extracting spectra from observed features (region shapes or element-element Associations), and make corrections and then to explore their content.
The GeoPIXE Demo data can be downloaded from this DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/mc2f-1979 (NOTE: There is a problem with this archive at present, with broken/missing soft links. A new archive will be available soon to rectify the problem.)
On Windows, the script "Example Windows IDLDE 88 Python38 GeoPIXE.bat" can be adapted to launch IDLDE using this workspace and a IDL pref file (idl88-py38.pref), and also assign a default python, which is only used in some extensions to GeoPIXE. NOTE: Edit paths in both the bat and pref files.
On Linux, the bash script "idlde2" can be adapted to launch IDLDE using this workspace and a IDL pref file (idl-linux.pref). NOTE: Edit full paths in both the script and pref files.
Launching the runtime version of IDL to run a compiled version of GeoPIXE is illustrated in the script "Example Runtime GeoPIXE.bat". It also shows how GeoPIXE can be used in a workflow to perform some work. See the documentation "doc/GeoPIXE Software Organization - open.pdf" for details.
To import all projects, use the “File->Import->General->Projects from folder or archive” menu and navigate to “Workspace” in the local downloaded GeoPIXE “Workspace” directory as the “Import source” folder. Then select all project folders and “Finish”. This will import all projects. See the section “Eclipse environment and organization” for more details of the Eclipse environment.
However, this does not import project setting for building, etc. Building can be handled using the “builder” SAV, as outlined in the documentation "doc/GeoPIXE Software Organization - open.pdf" (see section “Building GeoPIXE”). But there are some settings that must be set now. For just the “geopixe” and “Fortran” projects, right click and select “Properties” for each. For the “IDL project properties” group, uncheck the option “update IDL path when project is opened or closed”, so that these are never added to the IDL path. You can also do that for the “Default” project, if you are not using that.
IDL, the interactive data language, can be obtaned from L3Harris Geospatial. A free "Virtual Machine" provides runtime support, which can be used for most GeoPIXE functionality by executing the SAV files.
However, some advanced methods, such as parallel processing of large data-sets such as Maia blog data, make use of features not available in the VM. For these, a runtime licensed version is required.
If you desire to edit and test IDL pro files, then a full license is required to run IDLDE, the IDL Eclipse development environment.