39.1 Installation

The convertspec3d script is written in python and depends on several popular python packages. The dependencies include:

• Python 2.7
• PyTables
• The python NETCDF package: http://code.google.com/p/netcdf4-python/
• The setuptools package

Once these dependencies are installed, you can install the convertspec3d script. To do so, enter the tools directory of the FLASH source tree and enter:  

python setup.py install

By default, this will try to install the FLASH python tools to a system wide location. You will need root/administrator privileges for this. If you are on a system where you do not have root privileges, just enter:  

python setup.py install -user

for a user space installation. Type convertspec3d in the command line an you should see some help information - if the installation went well. For example, you should see something like:  

> convertspect3d
usage: convertspec3d [-h] -species SPECIES [-extra EXTRA]
                     file_names [file_names ...]
convertspec3d: error: too few arguments