====================================================================== SPLAT!: A Terrestrial RF Path and Terrain Analysis Tool for Unix/Linux (and Windows too) ====================================================================== This package contains the newest version of SPLAT 1.3.1. It retains all the revised Windows porting of the previous versions based on John Magliacane's efforts. All the functionality of the new version is included, and tested. The only exception is the support for BZ2 compressed terrain files, which I removed. I've added options in the source to compile SPLAT in either normal or HD mode, with various MAXPAGES setting. This version contains many bugfixes. One of the most important is a correction to the Longley-Rice routines in the new itm.cpp file, as advised in the Spring 2009 issue of the IEEE Broadcast Society Newsletter. There was also a problem with the way SPLAT! was reading the .ez antenna azimuth files. This resulted in all the radials being offset by one, and the dropped zero degree radial was interpolated using faulty numbers. This caused an abnormal ray on that radial, which would point in the direction of any pattern offset. Also, the interpolation routine did not like any zeros in the .ez file, and it overrode those with faulty data that also produced unwanted rays. Both these problems have been corrected with a new file reading routine. SPLAT! has used colour files with a .scf extention to allow custom colours on maps. Unfortunately, Windows hides these, making them hard to find, edit, and customize. I have changed the extension to .scm to solve this. SPLAT! will automatically look for an existing colour map .scf file. If one is found, it is converted to the new file name, but only if one doesn't exist already. It won't overwrite an existing file. If nothing is found, SPLAT! saves a default file for future customization, and you can actually find it in your folder. I also added additional console feedback with respect to various actions, including the names of files that are read, and also converted colour profiles. All the changes were commented in the source code. Each executable file in this zip was compiled with different settings. The file name makes it obvious what the MAXPAGES setting is. Make sure you read the new documentation before trying any HD mode projects - you must have the proper HD Terrain files installed, and LOTS of memory. For example, in HD mode with MAXPAGES = 25, the program needs 1305 Megabytes of RAM. Standard Resolution Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx04.exe MAXPAGES=4 Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx09.exe MAXPAGES=9 Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx16.exe MAXPAGES=16 Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx25.exe MAXPAGES=25 Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx36.exe MAXPAGES=36 Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx49.exe MAXPAGES=49 Splat-1-3-1-SD-mx64.exe MAXPAGES=64 High Definition Splat-1-3-1-HD-mx01.exe MAXPAGES=1 Splat-1-3-1-HD-mx04.exe MAXPAGES=4 Splat-1-3-1-HD-mx09.exe MAXPAGES=9 Splat-1-3-1-HD-mx16.exe MAXPAGES=16 Splat-1-3-1-HD-mx25.exe MAXPAGES=25 (Nothing higher would compile - "Size of variable 'dem' is too large") The srtm2sdf.zip file contains a new Windows port of that utility which permits conversion of 1-arc second data as used by the HD version of SPLAT. There is a companion Windows GUI for SPLAT that provide easy (and saveable) input for the most common features of the SPLAT program. Check www.ve3ncq.ca for the release and/or updates. Austin Wright, November 14, 2010 Last version July 8, 2009 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This version was first ported to Windows by John Magliacane (KD2BD). I modified his code to improve the user interface. Background – The original source code was downloaded from http://ksmuonline.missouristate.edu/splat-1.2.3-win32.zip. John McMellen ported this version from the original Linux source. Working in the free Dev-C++ I modified and recompiled the code. Caveat – I am fairly new to C++ and this is my first porting effort, and my first Dev-C++ use. (It's rather nice BTW.) This code and executable are provided AS-IS. Every single function hasn't been tested, but it seems ok so far. I don't think I broke it. Any feedback positive or negative would be very much appreciated. This is definitely an amateur effort. As with the original, this software is distributed in the hope it will be useful. There is no installer. Place SPLAT-win32.exe in your working SPLAT directory and run it using the command prompt. See splat.pdf documentation. Changes - The coding changes are well documented in the splat-win32.cpp file. I removed Windows support for .gz2 terrain files. Just use the srtm2sdf.exe program in the utils folder. (Windows probably would be happier using uncompressed files anyway.) A win32 workaround coded by John McMellen was removed by changing headers to use a native Windows function, and having SPLAT call that instead. Each switch used on the command line is now confirmed in the console. Windows hides files with the .scf extension used by SPLAT to use customize contour colours. Beware when looking for/editing them. By listing the files read by the command line on startup, the user is able confirm the desired parameters are being used, thus avoiding surprises after an hour or two of calculations. If something appears wrong, hit CTRL+C to abort. This was compiled with MAXPAGES set to 16, enabling larger maps to be plotted. For those wishing to try the MAXPAGES=25 option, contact me and I'll try compiling it if it's not posted elsewhere. None of the calculations were altered from the original. When running the original executable, I noticed that the average terrain output was faulty for the 0 and 180 degree radials. This didn't happen in the Linux version, and it is NOT happening in my port. The original port used MinGW, so that may be a compiler quirk not present in Dev-C++ environment. To Do – I am working on a Windows GUI that allows the user to configure and select the desired parameters, and even save it for later recall. It will create a command line to call SPLAT. I am also preparing data files for Canada. The SPLAT documentation lists sources for American data, and it works quite well. For users in Canada, data of the proper format is harder to obtain. I've only found data in ARC/INFO .E00 format, which is not compatible with SPLAT. (This is linked from my website at www.ve3ncq.ca.) By looking at the .E00 format, I think that I figured it out enough to convert it to SPLAT-friendly files. So far, it's not perfect but it works. Watch my website for useful Ontario files, and the converter program once the code is cleaned up. The Ontario ARC/INFO is not being plotted perfectly yet. It tends to miss beginning or ending segments. This doesn't render useless output though. I don't know whether this is a quirk in the way SPLAT processes these files, or if I've overlooked something in the conversion process. Maybe the original data is that way. Work continues on this and I'll post updates when I figure things out. KNOWN BUGS – Version 1.2.3 broke the height ASL calculation for the RX site. It gives a large negative number and faulty output. The -p switch doesn't create the Terrain Profile graph. (All verified to work in Linux for version 1.2.3.) My port didn't break this, but I'm checking the source for a solution. Contact – Austin Wright, VE3NCQ www.ve3ncq.ca austin@ve3ncq.ca I hope you enjoy using SPLAT and provide feedback for my port. Inquiries about the main SPLAT program should be directed to John Magliacane since I probably wouldn't be able to help. ORIGINAL WIN32 README notes: And now, for Windows! Splat! was originally developed by John Magliacane (KD2BD) and is available at http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/splat.html. This distribution of Splat! (ver 1.2.1) has been compiled for Windows (Win32) using the open-source MinGW compiler. It has been tested under Windows XP SP2 only. It and its associated utilities are command line programs. --Differences from Linux version-- You can use the included usgs2sdf utility to convert the USGS DEM's to Splat! data files, though I have not implemented the "postdownload" script that is included in the Linux distribution. This script seemed to be less useful in the Windows environment and would not be trivial to duplicate. I have also used the srtm2sdf utility to generate Splat! data files from both the BIL format finished SRTM 3-arc sec data at seamless.usgs.gov and the HGT files linked on the Splat! home page. The citydecoder utility seems to work fine as well. Any other stuff you don't see in this package was probably specific to Linux. I made a few minor changes to the source code for splat, srtm2sdf, and usgs2sdf to get them to compile in Windows and will provide the source upon request under the terms of the GPL. --Other programs you may need in Windows-- Splat! generates maps in PPM format which is not native to Windows. There are many free software utilities that will open and convert PPM files to other image formats. The open-source GIMP image editor is a good option if you really like to tinker with the image, I also like the free IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com) which will open tons of image formats, including PPM. If you want to use the plotting function of Splat!, you will need to download the Windows binary version of GnuPlot (http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/download.html) and add the "bin" folder to your path. Basically, if you can open a command prompt and run "pgnuplot" you should have no trouble using it with Splat!. John McMellen KC0FLR February 2008