Download StradviewInstallx64.zip, unzip this file and run the installation '.msi' file on your system. This will install Stradview on your computer. A 32-bit version is also available if you do not have a 64-bit system, although this will be limited to loading data sets of only 2Gb or so.
We provide a compressed tar file stradview_for_linux_64bit.tar.gz containing a 64-bit executable and several configuration files. Stradview uses wxWidgets for its user interface and OpenGL for graphics. Most of the necessary packages are installed by default on recent Linux distributions, though you might need to add some by hand (e.g. libwxgtk3.0).
The executable is tested on the latest stable Ubuntu distributions. It might also work with other Linux distributions.
Stradview expects to find various configuration files in the same directory as the executable. These include the help data, any shape models, graphics shaders (in a shaders sub-directory) the default volume rendering settings (in a volumes sub-directory) and the default material settings (in a materials sub-directory). These are handled in Windows by the installation process. In Linux, you should specify the full path of the executable when you run Stradview (i.e. do not rely on symbolic links, or your shell's search path). Otherwise Stradview will still run, but might not be able to find the help or configuration data or run many of the 3D visualisations.
Stradview keeps certain information in a file called stradview.ini, which is written out when the program finishes and read in when it starts up. By default, this file will be put in the user application data folder, e.g. C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Stradview on windows and ~/.Stradview on linux). It will thus save information on a per-user basis. Any user-defined volume rendering settings or materials will also be placed in volumes and materials sub-directories of this folder. It is possible for you to explicitly specify the place in which these files should be stored by giving the name of another folder on the command line as Stradview is started up, for instance: stradview dir=C:\myfolder
It is possible to start up Stradview with a specific data file, by specifying the name of the file on the command line. This also means that you can drag-and-drop any '.sw' file (or other loadable data file) onto the executable, or (on Windows) simply double-click a '.sw' file, and Stradview will start with that data file loaded.
Stradview can also be run with a script file. Providing the script file ends with the '.txt' extension, dragging and dropping this file onto the executable (or running from the command line with the script file as an argument) will start up Stradview, run the script, then automatically close Stradview at the end. This provides a simple way to run Stradview commands as a part of an external process.