IMACS and LDSS Mask Making Software

Downloads

A set of software support programs is available for users of the IMACS and LDSS instruments to prepare slit masks. These programs may be run in any of these places (Click link to download distribution):

The current version of maskgen is 2.14. Read the Release notes.

• Mac OS/X:_

  • High Sierra (10.13) 64-bit Intel
  • Mojave (10.14) 64-bit Intel
  • Catalina (10.15) 64-bit Intel
  • Monterey (12.6.x) 64-bit Arm (M1)

• Linux:

  • CentOS 6 (64 bit)
  • CentOS 7 (64-bit)
  • Rocky Linux 9 (x86-64)

• Use a Virtual Machine:

  As an alternative to running maskgen natively on your machine, you can download a Virtual Machine (VM) to run. This VM not only has maskgen, but also most of the Carnegie Observatories software suite (COSMOS, CarPy, etc). Detailed instructions can be found here.

If your particular system is not supported, try the closest match. If that doesn't work, please email maskgen@obs.carnegiescience.edu with complete details of your operating system (name, version, CPU type) and we will try to make you a custom build.

The pre-built distributions may be downloaded using the links above, stored in a directory of your choice, and expanded by a command like tar xfz maskgen-CentOS-6.6_x86_64.tgz. Then follow the installation instructions which are also supplied as the file README in the distribution.

Documentation

Documentation on the use of this software is included in the distribution itself as text files. At a future time, some of this may be made into web pages; when this is done, they will be linked here.

The software consists of these executable programs:

• intgui -- interface to define the observing details.
• maskgen -- program which generates mask data from intgui output.
• maskcut -- takes mask specification and generates NC file.
• ncplot -- utility to plot NC movements to see how mask is cut.
• smdfplt -- plots mask described by a .SMF file.
• mgclean -- script to delete files generated by this software.
• obscat -- script to construct an observing catalog from .SMF files.
• cacherep -- utility to report star catalogue cache status.
• and other utility programs as needed.

Here are the data files needed for and distributed with the programs. Please right click and save these files to disk as they may not display as text.

• Optical definition file - opticdef.dat
• Mask Cutting configuration - maskcut.cfg
• Sky Window configuration - pmap.dat

Here are some links to the current distributed documentation files:

• Detailed Instructions
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Installation Instructions
• Configuration Instructions

And, here are some documentation links for file formats:

• Object catalog data
• Observation file
• Slit Mask Definition File

Here are links to supplemental documentation and data files which are subject to change in the future:

• How to download star catalogs needed for skyview feature in intgui.
• Pointers to SMDF files for long slit and special masks in general use.

Documentation on IMACS itself, and on submitting slit masks is found on the LCO web site.

For further details, read the documentation, or email Chris Burns.