Installation guide

This topic provides guiding over typical installation tasks for products of Spatial Aspect project. Main purpose for this guide is help users to begin using these products as fast as possible. The guide covered installation of all products, but users can limit it to any desired extent. Currently all programs of Spatial Aspect project can be installed only on any Windows OS.

Recommended order of tasks and installations is follows:

Download and install Spatial Aspect Explorer. Its installation has very common look as Installation Wizard dialog, including License Agreement page and Installation Directory page. Author recommends keeping the Installation Directory path with its default value, which is related to system Program Files folder for x86 machine.
Optionally download Spatial Aspect Viewer, if you need to use additional features for working with raster maps, the program provides. Also the program is useable for inspecting entire raster maps or their particular raster files. Its installation is exactly same as for Spatial Aspect Explorer.
Download and install Spatial Aspect Map Locator. Its installation is exactly same as for Spatial Aspect Explorer. The installation also will create a new empty folder “C:\Spatial Aspect”, which will be used for placing shortcuts for installed maps. Do not delete it! Sections 8, 9, 10 and 11 can follow after this section, if you sure.
Read User Manual for Spatial Aspect Map Locator, which placed inside of its installation folder, and has a shortcut in Start Menu entry for the program. The User Manual has a detailed installation guide over installation tasks of the program. Remainder of this guide will reference to such tasks in overall.
Identify which particular data collection you need by looking in catalog of top-level maps, or looking in catalog of existed data collections. Also you can look for gallery of particular examples of rendered maps, for identify data collections you interesting. If you want have all data collection on your computer, you should preserve about 27 GB of free space on it. Also you should preserve about same space for keeping packed archives of such collection, but they can be on detachable medias, such as memory sticks, DVD or network folders.
Read recommendations about organizing archives of downloadable data on your computer and prepare empty folders for them on your computers or detachable medias.
Download particular archives of data collections, you interesting, into respective folders, referenced in previous section. Author recommends download archives of vector data before archives of raster data, and small archives before big. It shorts way for beginning exploration of maps.
Create an empty folder for data repository on a hard disk, having the desired free space for all data collections. Typical name for it can be “SA Map Repository”. Avoid placing the folder inside of scope of User Account Control (UAC), which exists for system Program Files folder, for example!
Launch Spatial Aspect Map Locator and open Install Maps window.
Select path to the data repository folder from section 8 in the window. The program will provide prompt for it. After the selection the folder will be registered.
Install a default scheme for the empty repository folder. The program will provide prompt for it. The default scheme is archive file “MapsRepositoryScheme.zip”, which placed in installation folder of the program. The repository folder will be populated with non-installed project files for all maps, and with number of default related folders and narration descriptors. Sections 8, 9, 10 and this 11 can be followed after section 3, just after launching the program on finish of its installation.
Install all vector data layers for particular planet of interest from respective downloaded archive.
Install a particular raster map for selected planet of interest from respective downloaded archive. The program will check integrity the map and will add shortcut to it with prompting. You can begin exploration the map just after it, by simple double-click on its icon appeared in Launch Maps window of the program. But Spatial Aspect Viewer should be installed for it.
Install a particular top-level map, which uses the particular raster map installed in previous section, by simple selection its non-installed project file entry. The program will check integrity the map and will add shortcut to it with prompting. You can begin exploration the map just after it, by simple double-click on its icon appeared in Launch Maps window of the program. But Spatial Aspect Explorer should be installed for it.
Repeat steps from sections 12, 13, 14 for all desired planets, raster maps and top-level maps.

Each downloadable file of Spatial Aspect project has a respective MD5 value, which published on respective pages of this site. You can use the value for check the file before installation against errors on file transmission or against of tampering it, if you obtained the file by a third party way. Each executable file has its MD5 value too, which you can check after installation of respective program, considering its version in accordance. There are third party programs for such MD5 checking.