You need an account either on the NICE cluster or on the EXPG cluster. When working on the NICE cluster, make sure that your machine has got the IDL 5.0 version installed. RODGUI doesn't work with older version of IDL. The GOLD machines run IDL 5.0, so you might choose them. When working on the EXPG cluster, choose a machine that supports the IDL 5.0 version. You can select expgi or expgh for example.

Set the DISPLAY variable to the screen that you are using!

Then, start the RODGUI by typing

/users/wilms/rod/rodgui [&] (NICE cluster)

or

/users/a/wilms/rod/rodgui [&] (EXPG cluster).

Please note that when you start the RODGUI, you have to be in a directory where you have write permission. RODGUI uses the current directory for temporary files and for saving the 'rod_init.mac' file. That's why RODGUI won't work if you are in '/usr/bin' or something like that.

After some moments, the graphical user interface will appear on the screen. It looks like this:



Apart from the menubar at the top of the window, you see two areas: the 'output window' and the 'command line' where you can manually enter commands. The output window is responsible for every kind of output.

Note:
You can still work with ROD the way experienced users of the old version are used to. Just type your commands into the command line field and press ENTER. The output will be presented in the 'output window'.