Summary of previous episodes

In another document (HTML, reST) you saw how to install some document preparation software on our example Debian testing workstation/desktop box. Now let's install scientific and engineering applications.

Data plotting programs

Install a package for non-interactive data plotting:

# aptitude install jgraph

and one for both interactive and non-interactive data plotting:

# aptitude install grace

You can configure Grace for your regular user:

$ xmgrace

Resize its main window and order Fluxbox to remember its dimensions (right-click on Grace window title bar and check Dimensions in the Remember... submenu). Then, you can add the following lines in your ~/.bashrc:

$ grep -i grace ~/.bashrc
# set editor for Grace
export GRACE_EDITOR="uxterm -e vim"
# default to "print to file" in Grace
export GRACE_PRINT_CMD=""

Data extraction/acquisition programs

Install a package for data extraction from plot images:

# aptitude install xyscan

Data visualization tools

Install a scientific data visualization system:

# aptitude install paraview python3-paraview

Configure it for your regular user:

$ paraview

Firstoff, check "Don't show this window again" in the splash screen and click the Close button. After doing so, adjust the main window dimensions (maybe to cover your entire desktop work space). Select Settings... from the Edit menu. In the "Render View" tab, check "Use FXAA" and, after toggling advanced properties on (click on the button with the little gear icon, to do so), set "Endpoint Search Iterations" to 1. In the "Color Palette" tab, load the "White background" palette, and then set a black color for "Edges". All the other settings may be kept at their default values.

Check the following options in the View menu: Color Map Editor, Information, Pipeline Browser, Properties.

House interior design

Install a house interior design application with 3D preview:

# aptitude install sweethome3d sweethome3d-furniture_ \
  sweethome3d-furniture-editor sweethome3d-textures-editor

and configure it for your regular user:

$ sweethome3d

Click on the "Edit preferences" button and choose "English" language, select "Centimeter" unit and "Category folders" furniture catalog view; check "Visible" 3D navigation arrows, "Enabled" magnetism, "Visible" rulers, "Visible" grid; select "Top view" furniture icons in plan and "Monochrome" room rendering in plan; leave the default wall pattern in plan (a bottom-left to top-right hatch), enter "10" as new walls thickness, "250" as new walls height, and "12" as new floors thickness; finally, uncheck "Check updates at program launch" and check "Save home data for recovery every 10 minutes".

Computer algebra system

Install a CAS:

# aptitude install isympy3

Computer aided design

Install a simple 2D CAD:

# aptitude install librecad

In order to configure it for your regular user, start it for the first time:

$ librecad

and choose "Millimiter" Default Unit, "English" GUI Language, and "English" Command Language. After clicking on the OK button, expand the main window to cover a whole workspace and adjust the widths and heights of the user interface panes. Then, select Application Preferences from the Edit menu. In the "Appearance" tab, check "Show large crosshairs" and "Automatically scale grid", choose Minimal Grid Spacing (px) "10" and Number of preview entities "100", uncheck "Display Splash", choose Fontsize for Statusbar "7" and colors for Background "White", Grid "Gray", Meta Grid "#404040", Selected "#A54747", Highlighted "#739373", Start Handle "Cyan", Handle "Blue", End Handle "Blue", Layer/Block Selection "#CCFFCC"; leave "English" language. In the "Paths" tab, leave everything blank. In the "Defaults" tab, leave Unit "Millimiter", and choose Auto save time "5" minutes, check "Auto backup", uncheck "Modify layer of selected entities, at layer activation".

Conclusions

You installed some scientific/engineering tools. Next step is setting up a programming environment. More details in a separate document (HTML, reST).