Interchange for Silicon Graphics IRIX is supplied on an ISO-9660 Rock Ridge format CDROM. On it, Interchange is supplied in two forms. The first is a standard Software Manager 'swmgr' image for automated installation. The second is several 'tar' files that you can use for a manual installation.

Installation with Software Manager
Bugs in IRIX 5.3 prevent us from making a standard CD-R that works with Software Manager. If you prefer the automated Software Manager method of installation and the other features provided by IRIX's Software Manager, you must copy the 'Irix_dist' directory from the CDROM to a temporary directory on your hard disk, then install from the package on your hard disk. This requires approximately 8 megabytes of extra hard disk space. Fortunately, this is only temporary storage, and you can remove it immediately after installation. To copy the files from the CDROM to a temporary directory and begin the installation, you might enter a sequence of commands such as:

cp -r /CDROM/Irix_dist icinst
swmgr -f icinst

Depending on whether you need the Inventor and Alias DSO libraries, Interchange itself needs between eight and 24 megabytes of hard disk space.

If you plan to convert Inventor, VRML or Alias "wire" files, please read the 'tar' file section below. You may need to install these Converters by hand. Software Manager wasn't flexible enough to provide the options needed for installation.

Installation from 'tar' file
Interchange is also present on the CDROM stored in several 'tar' files, made with IRIX '/sbin/tar'. Installation is quite simple. First, choose an installation directory. This could be a central shared directory such as '/usr' or one user's home directory, such as '/usr/people/myname'. Change to this directory with a command like 'cd /usr'.

Mount the CDROM or insert the tape. The process of extracting the files from the 'tar' file will create a directory called 'Interchange' in the current directory. If extracting from CDROM, enter:

tar -xvf /CDROM/ic.tar

If extracting from tape, enter:

tar -xv

If your tape device name is unusual, you may need to specify it explicitly in the 'tar' command line. You can find the tape device name under System Manager utility. Specify the name in place of '/dev/tape' below:

tar -xvf /dev/tape

As the extraction proceeds, you should see a list of the Interchange files. If an error occurs, please contact technical support. The distribution media may have an error. Change directory into the newly created 'Interchange' directory with the command 'cd Interchange'.

Inventor Converter options
Both the Software Manager and 'ic.tar' distributions will install the Inventor converter. With the Software Manager distribution, the Inventor libraries will also be installed into the Interchange directory. The 'ic.tar' file does not. If you plan to use the Inventor Converter to convert Inventor or VRML files to other formats, you will need the Inventor libraries. If you already installed Inventor or many other SGI applications, you have probably already installed these libraries, and there is no need to install them again.

If you need the libraries, the 'Inventor.tar' contains the files /usr/lib/libInventor.so.3 and /usr/lib/ libInventorXt.so.3 . If you extract these files from this 'tar' file, they will supercede any other libraries previously installed on your system. You may wish to back up the libraries on your system in case these Inventor libraries are not compatible with your previously installed applications. However, we do not anticipate any conflict. If you run 'icx' or 'iccli', they will use the Inventor libraries in the Interchange directory if they are present. If they are not present, they will use the system Inventor libraries, if present. If you use the command-line version of the Inventor Converter named 'icinvents', then you should add your Interchange directory to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable so 'icinvents' can find the libraries in the Interchange directory.

Alias "wire" Converter options
The 'Alias.tar' contains two versions of the Alias "wire" Converter, the DSO and static versions. Both are named 'icwire'. Choose one of the following situations.

If you have Alias PowerAnimator installed on your system, then you have already installed a copy of the Alias DSO libraries. These are the files libalias_api.so, libapi_memory.so and libapi_image.so in the /usr/aw/COM2.0/lib directory. In this case, you can use the DSO version of the Alias "wire" Converter stored in this 'tar' file in the 'Alias_Wire/DSO_version' directory. This version is approximately 400K in size, considerably smaller than the static version.

If you do not have Alias PowerAnimator installed on your system, then you probably do not have a copy of the Alias DSO libraries. You can use the static version of the Alias "wire" Converter stored in this 'tar' file in the 'Alias_Wire/static_version' directory. This version is approximately 17 megabytes in size. Yes, this is quite large, but if you had installed the Alias DSO libraries, they too would have consumed about 16 megabytes.

For example, to extract this version from the 'tar' file, enter:

tar -xvf /CDROM/Alias.tar Alias_Wire/static_version/*

Of course, if you do not plan to convert Alias "wire" files, there is no need to install either Converter. You are free to install it again in the future if you need it.

Licensing
Interchange requires a software license key. The license key locks the use of Interchange to one computer. If you purchased this software directly from Viewpoint DataLabs, you have already been sent the license application. Your Interchange shipment should include a colorful card containing your license key. To add the key, proceed to the section below titled "Adding a license key."

If you purchased this software by other means, such as through a dealer, you will need to contact Viewpoint to obtain a license key. You can request the key by e-mail at support@viewpoint.com.

Note that the Interchange license key is completely different than any unlock code you were given if you purchased Interchange from the Viewpoint DataShop CD-ROM.

The next step describes an automatic method of displaying your system ID and the other information that Viewpoint needs to create your license key. Proceed to the next step.

Adding a license key
To run the Viewpoint License Manager program, enter 'license'. This starts the text-based program that manages the license keys for any of Interchange-related products. The first menu choice is "1) Add License." Press the number '1' to begin.

On this screen, your system's unique ID is shown. The system ID is the same decimal value as generated by the IRIX command 'sysinfo -s'.
If you received your license key in your Interchange shipment, please enter it now. The key is sixteen characters in length, made of numbers '0' through '9' and the letters 'A' through 'F'.

If you do not yet have your license key, you must obtain it from Viewpoint from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mountain Time, GMT -7. You can obtain it over the phone, by fax, or by e-mail to support@viewpoint.com.
Once you have entered the license key, you can exit the licensing program. Your license key is stored in a file called 'LICENSE' in the Interchange directory. Do not delete this file.