Revision as of 10:17, 19 February 2014

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about AnyWave. If you don't have an answer to your question reading the Documentation, you may find useful information here.

Donwloading AnyWave

Click on the links below to download AnyWave for your platform:

• Windows 32bit - February 2014
• Windows 64bit - February 2014
• Mac OS X - February 2014 and Qt 4.7.4 for Mac OS X
• Linux amd64 Debian

How to install AnyWave

Windows

The 32bit version of AnyWave will run on all Windows versions starting with Windows XP.
However, on 64bit Windows systems, it will run as a 32bit application. Therefore, AnyWave won't take advantage of all the memory installed on the system.
Please install the 64bit version of AnyWave on a 64bit Windows.
The 64bit version of AnyWave will run on Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8 x64.

Download the zip file, uncompress it in a temporary folder then launch the isntaller. You must have administrative's privileges in order to install the software.

Mac OS X

The Mac OS X version of AnyWave supports Mac OS 10.5 to 10.9.

Be sure to have Qt 4.7.x installed on your Mac. If not, download and install Qt before trying to install AnyWave.
Donwload the zip file, uncompress it on a temporary folder then open the package installer and follow instructions.
You might need to install additionnal software in order to get access to some features of AnyWave. See below.

AnyWave will send notifications messages during some operations. To see those messages you will need to install Growl.

Linux

AnyWave is available as a Debian package for the amd64 architecture. The package should install as well on Ubuntu Linux.

Download the package and install it on your system using dpkg -i mypackage.deb in a terminal or by double clicking on the file.

Once all the required dependencies have been installed, AnyWave will be available using the anywave command from a terminal.

Plug-ins

What is a plug-in?

AnyWave is using external modules, called plug-ins, that are loaded at startup and extend the functionalities of the application.
Depending on the platform, plug-ins are files of different types.

On Windows, for example, plug-ins are DLL files located in the Plugins folder where AnyWave is installed.
Note that it is also possible to install plug-ins the user's home directory. See How to install a plug-in.

There are several types of plug-ins used by AnyWave:
- Reader plug-ins are responsible of reading data file formats.
- Writer plug-ins are responsible of writing data to a data file format.
- Signal processing plug-ins will run some processing on data and present or not the results in AnyWave.
- Display plug-ins are responsible of displaying specific data type. Typically, the results computed by Signal processing plug-ins.

How to install a plug-in

When installing AnyWave, some plug-ins are also installed, allowing to read file formats or making some basic processings on data.
Those plug-ins are put in a folder where AnyWave is installed.
Depending on the platform, the path where AnyWave resides can change and the name of the plug-ins directory too.

On Windows, the user can choose where to install AnyWave. For example, AnyWave can be installed on C:\AnyWave.
If you look at C:\AnyWave you will notice the presence of directory called Plugins. This is the location where to put new plug-ins.
Note that the operation may require administrative privileges.

On Mac OS X, AnyWave will be installed where all applications go, the /Applications folder.
Besides the AnyWave application, there will be a directory named Anywave_Plugins. This is the place to put new plug-ins for AnyWave.
Note that the operation requires administrative privileges.

How to install user plug-ins

If the user has no administrative privileges and cannot install new plug-ins where AnyWave is installed, the solution is to put plug-ins in the user's home directory.

On Windows, AnyWave creates a folder in the user's home directory, typically the My Documents location.
Browse the My Documents location for a directory named Anywave\Plugins.
On Linux, the folder is created in /home/<username>/Anywave/Plugins
On Mac OS X the folder is created in /Users/<username>/Anywave/Plugins

Installing plug-ins on those folders will allow AnyWave to use them whithout requiring administrative privileges.
More over, it allows installation of plug-ins that will only be available to the user.

Matlab plug-ins

AnyWave offers the possibility to run signal processing plug-ins which was written in Matlab programming language.
The procedure to obtain such plug-ins involve using the Matlab Compiler. Therefore, Matlab is not needed in order to run the plug-in but the Matlab Compiler Runtime (or MCR) must be installed on the target platform.

Before installing a plug-in written with Matlab, please install the Matlab Compiler Runtime 2012b on your computer.

Do not change the default installation path proposed by the Matlab installer!

Note: The MCR need to be installed once and for all. If you already have installed it, feel free to add Matlab plug-ins to AnyWave.

Python plug-ins

AnyWave allows to run some Python code within a signal processing plug-in. In order for the plug-in to be able to run on the target computer, Python 2.7 must be installed and available.
Some specific Python packages are also required, for example numpy.
Depending on the plug-in some extra packages might be required too. Check the documentation released with the plug-in to know about which Python package is required.

Specific Windows notice: if the 64bit version of AnyWave is used, then the Python interpreted installed must also run in 64bit mode.